by Lauren Hill ‘22 

Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue has recently been facing backlash after purposely mispronouncing the name of the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, at a rally for President Donald Trump. “Kamala — Kah-ma-la, or Kah-mah-la, or Kamala-mala-mala, I don’t know, whatever.” Perdue laughed. Harris, who has made clear on several occasions to the American public that her name is pronounced “Comma-la,” has worked alongside Perdue for three years in the U.S. Senate. Considering the prolific nature of Senator Harris’ current status in the country as both a senator and the first Black woman to be a Vice Presidential candidate, it is difficult to not view this mispronunciation as a deliberate, racist microaggression.

A spokesperson for Perdue later stated that he simply mispronounced her name and meant no harm by it. However,it seems doubtful that this was just an accident after working together for several years and hearing her name in the media every day since her nomination in August. Mispronunciation of the names of people of color is a common microaggression used to undermine the power, status and identity of a person. Although his remark may seem small, many Americans with “ethnic” sounding names have experienced similar mockery and belittling. A U.S Senator purposely mispronouncing the name of a person of color, especially at such a large public event, was disrespectful. The fact that Perdue didn’t apologize makes it even worse.