After Republican senator intentionally mispronounced Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s name at an event, #MyNameIs started trending on social media to support her and people revealed their unique names and their meanings in different cultures.
Senator David Perdue mispronounced Harris’s name at an election rally in support of US President Donald Trump on October 17. However, this offended many social media users, and many celebrities and Indian Americans came out to support her.
According to reports, it was Amit Jani, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Outreach Coordinator of the Biden campaign who launched the ”My name is” campaign.
Many also used the hashtag to express support and promote the Democratic party’s candidates.
Several political figures and celebrities and like Kal Penn, Lea Thompson, Amitav Ghosh, Gautam Raghavan, Meena Harris, and others also participated in the campaign.
Amid the criticisms, a spokeswoman for Perdue’s campaign defended his remarks.
“Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris’ name, and he didn’t mean anything by it,” said Casey Black. “He was making an argument against the radical socialist agenda that she and her endorsed candidate Jon Ossoff are pushing.”
However this is not the first time, Harris’s name has been wilfully mispronounced to highlight her ethnicity during this presidential campaign.
US election hot take: What could change between now and Nov 3?
US COVID-19 deaths top 220,000: Johns Hopkins University