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Outcry as Republican senator mocks Kamala Harris’ name
“Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever,” Republican Senator David Perdue said in Macon, Georgia, in a comment that’s being seen as a racist ploy.
Republican Senator David Perdue, who is seeking re-election from Georgia, has sparked a storm after mispronouncing Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s first name during a speech at a rally for US President Donald Trump.
“Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever,” Perdue said in Macon, Georgia, in a comment that’s being seen as a racist ploy.
It is unlikely that Perdue would have made the remark out of ignorance or by accident because he has served with Harris, a senator from California, for at least three years.
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Mispronouncing Harris’s name has become standard practice for Republicans in recent times in what is seen by many as an effort to belittle her by highlighting her heritage - she’s the daughter of an Indian-origin mother and Jamaica-origin father.
After the remark, Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff tweeted, “Senator Perdue never would have done this to a male colleague. Or a white colleague. And everyone knows it.”
