Pronunciation of "Kamala Harris
When Senator Kamala Harris announced her presidential run (opens in new tab), the nation began to take notice of the Democratic senator from California.
But as many of us know, when a woman takes the lead, especially a woman of color, she tends not to respect common courtesies like learning how to pronounce a person's name. President Trump reportedly pronounced her name "Kameela" (opens in new tab) in an interview with the New York Times, a classic example of her name spoofing.
Harris, who is currently Joe Biden's nominee for vice president in the 2020 election (opens in new tab), has struggled with the public pronouncing her name over the years, even creating a video of her children pronouncing her name when she was campaigning for senator in 2016 He has had a hard time.
As the kids say, it's not "CAM-EL-UH," it's not "KUH-MAL-UH," it's not "KARMEL-UH.
It is pronounced "COMMA-LAH."
There is another video explaining the origin of Harris' name and what not to pronounce:
Harris' name is actually derived from the Sanskrit word "lotus," and the explanation sounds gorgeous and meaningful. The symbolism is that the lotus flower blooms on water but never actually gets wet," she explained at a book event at George Washington University (opens in new tab). 'Its roots are in the mud, meaning it is grounded. One must always know where one comes from.
The View host Whoopi Goldberg asks Harris how to pronounce her name at the beginning of this video. She also taught him the "comma" + "la" mnemonic, which is useful for people to remember.
Mispronunciations and questions about one's name are apparently so common that Harris wrote an entire paragraph about it in her January 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold (opens in new tab).
Now that we've established how to pronounce Harris' name correctly, let's get ready to see her front and center a lot more in the run-up to the November election. (Harris is the first black woman, the first South Asian woman, and the first person from West Texas to be on the Democratic ticket (opens in new tab).) Tomorrow, Harris and Biden will make their first official Wilmington, Delaware (opens in new tab) for the first time since news of the vice presidency broke.
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