Trump & team intentionally mispronouncing Kamala's name is racist and dehumanizing

Former President Donald Trump and his team have taken to repeatedly and intentionally mispronouncing the first name of Vice President Kamala Harris to the point as to racially demonize, disrespect and dehumanize a fellow citizen. The video-based news and social media have been an open channel to millions of voters for Trump and his flock to perpetuate and repeat—unstopped and unchecked by most news outlets—the mispronunciation of Kamala’s name other than Kamala’s stated pronunciation. As such, I am calling on the news media and social media to help stop this inhumane and purposeful practice. Please join together in demanding Trump and representatives start saying the vice president’s name correctly or if not, immediately ending interviews, appearances, campaign videos, news segments and advertisements.

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At this point, you may think I am overreacting to our new conditioning of “Trump being Trump.” My dearly departed father, who passed away a Trump supporter, always said, “there’s not a proper way to pronounce a proper name,” which was intended to tell us kids to respect and honor one’s pronunciation of their own name no matter how it is spelled. The same holds true for a given name or the first name of an individual given to them by parents at birth or later, themselves. A given first name, along with desired pronunciation, is always offered at first meeting of anyone, immediately adopted by the new party and reinforced throughout the relationship, no matter how long. Respecting this when addressing or referencing someone is the first and ongoing sign of basic human respect that many of us don’t even think about because we are well-adjusted, loving people.

However, in the case of Donald Trump, mispronouncing the name of his opponent, Kamala Harris is his first, last, and ongoing sign of disrespect for her as vice president, American, woman of color and human. In doing so, he once again intends to divide the nation simply based on fear, hate and self-interest. In this case, he pronounces Kamala’s name with similar syllable emphasis to echo “Obama,” to further stoke the anti-Black sentiment he knows is prevalent in his base. Leveraging this type of racism to divide and conquer at any cost is a whole new level of evil. Trump full well that his words of hate increase the already concerning threats and possible physical violence against Kamala Harris and even himself. Yet, he persists.

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And while no one in Trump’s world can control Trump’s mouth and selfishness, they certainly don’t have to join him. And yet, they jump right in line with the would-be self-proclaimed dictator. Trump’s surrogates and campaign have started following his mispronunciation with every TV and news appearance. It now seems to be a strategy to mispronounce and weaponize the mispronunciation to trillions of earned, bought and shared media impressions that Kamala Harris is not worthy of any respect, at any level. Sound familiar? It is even more repulsive to see these mispronunciations of Harris’ name go unchecked on news media segments, interviews and appearances.

And, here is my plea for collective action among news organizations to stop Trump’s degrading and dangerous behavior.

The news media are the megaphone for Trump’s inhumane action against Harris, yet they are the only ones that can stop and correct it with immediate and demonstrable force. My suggestion to those journalists privileged to talk to the candidates and their surrogates is when a source mispronounces Kamala’s name, you stop and correct them. If anyone doesn’t agree, including Trump, please end the interview (as CNN’s Jim Acosta did recently), edit the segment and not have them booked again. If they can’t speak respect and truth on something as obvious, simple and correctable as name pronunciation, then they will need to be fact checked on everything single thing they say after that, especially the not so obvious points.

If checked, stopped and remediated all at once by the news media, Trump will quickly realize that repeatedly mispronouncing Harris’ name is cutting him off the very news media when he needs it most. Trust me, he will increasingly start calling her by the proper pronunciation. Or, will he? If the news media act in unison to defy Trump’s malicious and dangerous behavior, it will be the greatest October surprise – from the very news media that causes it.

Michael Dru Kelley is a media entrepreneur and a cofounder and a principal LGBTQ+ shareholder of equalpride, publisher of The Advocate, who understands the power of earned and paid media. His opinion pieces represent his own viewpoints and not necessarily those of equalpride, or its affiliates, partners, or management.