Kamala Harris’ estranged father, Donald Harris, was noticeably absent from last week’s Democratic National Convention, according to various media reports. The 86-year-old, who has had a long-standing strained relationship with his daughter, the current Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee, was barely mentioned during her acceptance speech on August 22nd.
In her speech, Kamala made a fleeting reference to her father, saying, “At the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ But my father would say, as he smiled, ‘Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.’ From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless.” It was the only mention of Donald Harris in an otherwise fatherless narrative.
What remains unclear is whether Donald Harris wasn’t invited to the DNC or if he simply chose not to attend. Born in Jamaica, Donald Harris and Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, divorced in 1971 when Kamala was just eight years old. Since then, the elder Harris has kept a low profile as his daughter ascended to the political heights, keeping his distance from her career. His views have been described as those of a “combative Marxist economist,” a characterization that hasn’t exactly endeared him to the mainstream political discourse.
The Economist had some colorful words about Donald Harris, noting that while he is a “clear writer,” his works are still deeply rooted in Marxist ideology, filled with what they called “obscurantist theorizing.” They even pointed out the irony for Republicans who mock Kamala for her “word-salad” speeches, suggesting she might have inherited the trait from her father.
Donald Harris’ life story is an interesting one. Born in Jamaica in 1938, he pursued higher education with vigor, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of London before moving to the United States, where he completed a doctorate in economics at UC Berkeley in 1966.
The tension between Kamala and her father surfaced publicly in 2019, when then-Senator Harris joked about smoking marijuana during her college days in an interview with Charlamagne tha God. Donald Harris didn’t take kindly to the joke, seeing it as playing into a “fraudulent stereotype” about Jamaicans. He made his displeasure known in a statement to Jamaica Global, where he openly criticized her campaign for perpetuating the stereotype.
In the end, Donald Harris’ absence from the DNC, and Kamala’s minimal reference to him, only underscores the estrangement that has long defined their relationship. Despite the historical significance of his daughter’s achievements, the elder Harris remains a distant figure, both literally and ideologically.
