At a Trump rally, Senator David Perdue, a Republican locked in a re-election battle in the state of Georgia, wilfully mispronounced Kamala Harris' name.
"Commah-lah," Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris has given repeated prompts in the past to clarify the pronunciation of her name.
In blatant disregard, “KAH’-mah-lah? Kah-MAH’-lah? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know,” said Perdue, who served on the Senate with Harris for three years.
'#MyNameIs' Trends
Although neither former Vice President Biden, nor Senator Harris came out with an official statement regarding the apparent insult, it somewhere struck a chord with the immigrant population of the United States.
"Many of us who have different, or foreign sounding names have experienced this kind of mockery," Parag Mehta, long-time Democratic party leader, told The Quint.
The defence of Harris resulted in '#MyNameIs' trending on Twitter – a rebuke that extended beyond politics. It was personal and authentic, neatly formatting within the Twitter character limit stories that immigrants in the US have carried through their names.
'It's Time to Call the Bully Out'
The incident "symbolises a bankruptcy of ideas on the part of the Republicans, because when you have to resort to name-calling, it means that you don't have any good ideas of your own," said Parag Mehta referring to Senator Perdue's remarks.
"Anybody who has been bullied in a school yard knows that the bully doesn't have anything substantive or clever to say, so they resort to that".
Referring to this behaviour by adults who are vying to lead the United States, the Democratic leader referred to it as "disappointing", stating that it is "time for us to call it out".
Mehta was among the group of key grassroots supporters who launched the hashtag #MyNameIs.
Painting the Canvas of 'Us Versus Them'
“Any of us who are immigrants in this country, or are children of immigrant; this is an attempt to otherise us, particularly Asian-Americans.”Parag Mehta, long-time leader of the Democratic Party
"When people look at Asian Americans, they see perpetual foreigners. My parents generation who came from India, they were willing to accept a little bit of that. My generation understood that this is the price you pay. But, we'll be damned if we allow our children and grand-children to keep paying that price."
"At some point, enough is enough," he said, seeing a reflection of his own immigrant experience in the alleged deliberate mispronunciation of Harris' name.
'My Name is My Story, My Identity'
Extending beyond just the distortion of the name of someone on a major party's presidential ticket, the #MyNameIs movement became something bigger.
"It became cathartic for a lot of people to share their stories, not only of the meaning of their name, but the story of where their name came from," Mehta told The Quint.
This, arguably, can be characterised as the opposite of the intended consequence of 'otherising'. It generated a sense of pride in immigrant heritage and ancestry, Mehta explained.
“People finally get to stand up and say, ‘I give a lot of credit to Shyamala Gopalan in the 1960s Berkeley California, saying I’m going to name my daughters Kamala Devi and Maya Lakshmi, and they’re going to grow up in this society and they’re going to be proud of their names!’”Parag Mehta, long-time leader of the Democratic Party
According to reports, a spokeswoman for Perdue's campaign defended his remarks in a statement.
"Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris' name, and he didn't mean anything by it," she said.
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