Sen. Kamala Harris’ Jamaican father said he does not approve of his daughter’s comments perpetuating the stereotype of Jamaicans smoking a lot of marijuana.
“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,” Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University, told the Jamaica Globe Online. “Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,”
Earlier in the month, Kamala Harris, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, referenced her family in Jamaica during an interview in which she called for the legalization of marijuana across the U.S.
The senator quipped her views of recreational weed use stems from her experience around the substance. “Look, I joke about it and have joked about it,” she said on “The Breakfast Club” — a nationally syndicated morning radio program based in New York City. “Half my family is from Jamaica, are you kidding me?”
In California, her home state, the recreational use of marijuana became legal in 2018. Several states have also legalized marijuana for recreational or medicinal use, though it remains strictly prohibited at the federal level.
Politico reports that it reached out to Donald Harris for further comment, but he declined. However, the outlet reported that it reviewed an email he sent in which he said, “I have decided to stay out of all the political hullabaloo by not engaging in any interviews with the media.”
Harris is one of the dozen people who have launched a bid for the Democratic primary nomination for 2020. Her competition includes Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., among others.
