Tuesday’s dinner with Vice President Kamala Harris had her and others introducing themselves at the table with their names, pronouns, and descriptions of their clothing, provoking both mockery and defense from media members online.
Harris organized a roundtable discussion on the consequences of the Roe v. Wade decision for disabled people.
“Good afternoon. I want to welcome these leaders for coming in to have this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her. I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit,” a masked Harris said while introducing herself.
Other figures at the table introduced themselves with such descriptions as, “I’m a Latina with blond highlighted hair, and I’m wearing a gray blazer over a black-shade dress,” and “my pronouns are she/her, I’m a White woman with long brown hair, I’m wearing a red dress, and I’m wearing a see-through mask so you can see my red lips.”
Another said, “I am a Black woman with curly hair, and I am wearing a vintage black and floral dress.”
The video was a hit with conservatives who frequently make fun of liberals for supporting the idea of using both gender pronouns. Progressives often include their pronouns in their Twitter bios.
“When did Kamala become a biologist?” comedian Tim Young quipped.
“This is why the rest of the world laughs at us,” ex-journalist Beth Baumann added.
“And they wonder why ordinary Americans think these people have lost their grip,” National Review’s Dan McLaughlin tweeted.
“If she would repudiate woke inanities and move towards a commonsensical centrism, she would be embraced by a majority of Americans. Instead, she just digs in,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Christina Sommers wrote.
The Republican Party’s quick-response Twitter account RNC Research also picked on the video, and some journalists and activists attacked those who criticized Harris and her supporters, claiming they were accommodating people who were visually impair.
CNN’s DJ Judd, noting the GOP was criticizing Harris, wrote, “Vice President Kamala Harris introduced herself with her pronouns and a physical description in an effort to accommodate the blind and visually impaired participating in today’s roundtable with disability advocates– a move the RNC is mocking her for.”
“The what you’re wearing thing has become more and more common in the past couple years to help people who are visually impaired. Think of it like alt text on Twitter,” journalist Yashar Ali wrote.
The roundtable discussed the latest abortion ruling by the Supreme Court and how denying disabled people access to abortion might harm them.
