After Senator Kamala Harris admitted she smoked pot and supported marijuana legalization because "half my family's from Jamaica" during an interview last week, her father has publicly criticized her for fraudulently stereotyping Jamaicans as "pot-smoking joy seekers" and accused the 2020 presidential candidate of pursuing "identity politics."
Donald Harris, a retired Stanford professor, rebuked Harris's comments linking her Jamaican heritage to her pot use during an interview with The Breakfast Club radio show last week.
"My dear departed grandmothers...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," he said in a statement to Jamaica Global Online last week.
"Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty," Donald Harris added.
Kamala Harris stopped by the Breakfast Club, a nationally syndicated morning show, last Monday to talk about her 2020 presidential run, criminal justice reform and legalizing pot in America. During the 44-minute-long interview, the Democratic candidate was asked about rumors that she opposes the legalization of pot in America.
Hear what #KamalaHarris thinks about legalizing marijuana 💬 pic.twitter.com/YGZlCAKUZ0
— The Breakfast Club (@breakfastclubam) February 11, 2019
"That's not true," Harris said. "And look, I joke about it— half joking—half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?"
Later, host Charlamagne Tha God questioned her on whether she had smoked the drug. "I have. And I inhaled. I did inhale. It was a joint," Harris said, adding that she used pot during college.
"So if it was legalized all throughout the country, and medicinal, would you again?" Charlamagne pressed.
"Listen," Harris responded, "I think that it gives a lot of people joy, and we need more joy."
She continued: "Not all drugs are the same. We have incarcerated so many, particularly young men—and young men of color—in a way that we have not, for the same level of use, other young men. And we've got to deal with that."
Harris has emerged as a top candidate in recent weeks among a crowded and diverse field of Democrats. Her mother, who died in 2009 from cancer at age 70, was Tamil Indian, and her father is Jamaican.
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