As The Daily Wire has reported, 2020 Democratic presidential contender and leftist firebrand Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) recently openly discussed her previous marijuana use in a radio interview. On February 11, The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo noted:
Harris told [radio] co-host “Charlemagne tha God” that she “broke loose” and smoked marijuana in college. “And I did inhale!” she enthusiastically added.
“That’s not true,” the senator told Charlemagne when he said people think she’s against marijuana legalization. “Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?” joked Harris.
“Have you ever smoked?” asked the co-host.
“I have,” she answered. “And I did inhale. I did inhale! It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke loose.”
Harris’ comments initially drew some pushback for the contradictory timing that her comments referenced, as The Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow reported:
When asked what music she listened to when she smoked, Harris said, “Oh yeah, definitely Snoop. Tupac for sure.”
Except, Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. Tupac released his first album, “2Pacalypse Now,” on November 12, 1991 — two years after Harris graduated from law school. Snoop Dogg released his first album, “Doggystyle,” on November 23, 1993 — four years after Harris graduated law school.
By the time Tupac and Snoop began releasing albums, Harris was already working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, CA. She started that job in 1990 and left in 1998.
Oops.
But now, the pushback for Harris is getting even more personal — because it is coming from her proud Jamaican father himself.
As The Washington Times reports, Mr. Donald Harris — a professor of economics at Stanford University — is none too happy with his daughter’s casual joking about her Jamaican background in invoking her previous marijuana use.
“My dear departed grandmother … as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” Mr. Harris told Jamaica Global Online. “[As a family,] we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,” he added.
As The Washington Times notes, Jamaica Global Online was itself also worried about possible repercussions from the stereotypes to which Sen. Harris alluded in her radio interview.
“For some, it is more than mere unease; one Jamaican commenting on social media expressed the concern that ‘soon my job will be singling me out to drug test me since I am from Jamaica. What a stereotype.’ Her concern is not unfounded given the experience of Jamaicans travelling to US ports having sniffer dogs around them in customs halls,” Jamaica Global wrote, according to The Washington Times.
Sen. Harris officially declared for the presidency in late January, as The Daily Wire reported at the time. A December poll from CNN showed her with 4% support, far behind then-frontrunner Joe Biden, who had 30% support. The website PredictIt, however, instead shows Harris as the Democratic frontrunner.