Sen. David Perdue was playing to a crowd of Trump supporters Friday evening when he made a big show of mispronouncing Sen. Kamala Harris' name. “Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever,” Perdue said of a woman who is not only one of his coworkers in the United States Senate but serves on the Senate Budget Committee with him.
While the Trump crowd ate it up, Perdue’s naked racism reverberated in a way that will be attached to his name for years to come. His opponent, Jon Ossoff, quickly raised $1.8 million after the comment, but more significantly, Perdue moved people to speak out against this specific form of racism, the refusal to treat another person seriously enough even to say their name correctly.
Enough with this racist party. Can you give $3 to each Daily Kos-endorsed Senate candidate for the final push to November 3?
The first person to use the #MyNameIs hashtag in this context appears to have been—based on a Twitter search—lawyer Subodh Chandra late Saturday morning, but it really took off when Gautam Raghavan, a member of the Biden transition team, joined in and was subsequently quote-tweeted by Meena Harris, niece of Kamala. Thousands of people by now have tweeted about their names, in many if not most cases people from immigrant backgrounds who have faced the same sneering racism or casual disdain for their right to be called by their names.
They included famous actors like Daniel Dae Kim, politicians like Rep. Pramila Jayapal, athletes like Michelle Kwan, authors like Min Jin Lee, and many many people you’ve never heard of whose names deserve your respect nonetheless. Rep. Ayanna Pressley wrote of her name that her mother “told me I’d make history and the world would learn how to say it right.” Taking part, too, was Virginia Del. Danica Roem, describing how her name has been used against her as a transgender woman.
