When I was 16 years old, I stumbled across my favorite word: chortle.
"A gleeful chuckle,” the word chortle perfectly captures mirth and amusement. For anyone who’d like to witness a true chortle, I’d highly recommend watching any clip of the current vice president and Democratic nominee for president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
Renowned for comedic bits like the “coconut tree,” “Venn diagrams,” “yellow school buses” and, most recently, her utilization of Charli XCX’s "Brat" album, Harris is — at the very least — an interesting personality. Full of spunk, soul and spirit, she is constantly laughing and cracking jokes in her public appearances.
Over the past few weeks, as her campaign has gained traction, internet attention has circulated around that personality, and not in a positive way. Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump has unaffectionately coined her “Laughing Kamala,” and described her laugh as “that of a crazy person.”
This is an absurd — and sexist — thing to be shamed for. The country has practically been begging for a personality change in our president. Now that we have one, we’re backpedaling. Regardless of whether or not these critics are willing to admit it, their issues aren’t actually with Harris’ humor — they’re with her identity itself.
This is further revealed in the nature of many alternate attacks on Harris and her abilities. In addition to personality criticisms, Harris’ sexual history has, of course, been called to attention. Conservative commentators have alleged that she “slept her way to the top” and found attention in politics through early-career sexual endeavors.
In conjunction with the misogyny, targeted racism has been put on full display. Most recently, in front of the National Association of Black Journalists, Donald Trump egregiously alleged that the vice president just now decided to be Black. The sheer audacity to make claims like this on a national stage, with public spectators and millions of viewers, is indicative of just how normalized slander against Kamala has become.
All of these attacks, whether against her identity or her personality, are cut from the same cloth: bigotry.
These onslaughts discredit legitimate debate about her professional qualifications. Instead of intentional conversation about her history as an aggressive attorney general, her Senate voting record, her wavering progressive policies or her immediate chokehold on the Democratic candidacy, attention on the vice president has centered around other entirely irrelevant concerns.
