"Is she seen as African-American -- is she seen as African-American?" Matthews asked.
Karen Finney @finneyk 1h1 hour agoDear @HardballChris - as someone who get asked this Question I can tell you this is what racism looks like - cut it out now! “Matthews: Is Kamala Harris 'Seen as African-American?'” https://t.co/xIJa6JFU7Z
from Mediaite:
MSNBC host Chris Matthews asked if 2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Kamala Harris is “seen as African-American,” presumably due to her mixed racial background.
Matthews asked the race question after mentioning her campaign’s aesthetic is inspired by Shirley Chisholm, the first major-party black candidate to run for president, with Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons Monday night.
“Is she seen as African-American — is she seen as African-American?” Matthews asked his guest twice-in-a-row.
“Yes,” Simmons replied. “She’s seen as African-American.”
read: https://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-matthews-on-kamala-harriss-appeal-to-black-voters-is-she-seen-as-african-american-2/
...this brings me to something I wanted to share about questions of Kamala Harris' race or racial identification.
Kamala is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha, or AKA, a sorority established by and for African-American college women.
This fact very much reminded me that my mother was also AKA. She was very light-skinned, inherited from her African-American mother born of a slave who had married her master and bore him numerous children of varying complexions. She was also born 'albino' and had skin indistinguishable from most white individuals, with hazel eyes and blond hair.
She endured questions of her racial identity all of her life, and she adhered to the reality of her family history, enmeshing herself in the black communities where she lived and embracing all of the culture associated with her heritage.
In my mother's case, there were factors in her upbringing, consequences of the time she was raised in, which really didn't give her a choice of racial identity. In her West Virginia community, and in Molena, Georgia where she was born, any black blood in your past automatically made you a Negro, period.
Her mother, Rochelle Searcy was an African American woman with very light skin. She was the tenth of 26 children born to Jacob Knight in Molena, Ga., in 1902. Knight was said to have, literally, populated an entire town that he had built up on the 200, or so, acres of land he owned. In 1917, Mrs. Searcy graduated from the Seminar English Preparatory School of the Morris Brown University of Atlanta, Ga..
Rochelle and Henry Searcy
from the Fullwood Family Collection
Charleston, in a state which was founded on its resistance to slavery and its allegiance to the Union in 1863, was adapting to the changing demographics of its refuge and opportunity for migrating blacks.
"Between 1919 and 1921 T. G. Nutter, Harry Capehart, and T. J. Coleman, three African-American legislators, were responsible for the creation of several state-funded institutions for blacks. The West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington and the West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Boys in Lakin, the West Virginia Colored Deaf and Blind School at Institute, and the West Virginia Hospital for Colored Insane at Lakin were all given state funding. The institutions were to be run by African Americans. Other publicly funded institutions for African Americans included the West Virginia Home for the Aged and (Infirmed) Colored Men and Women in Huntington, the West Virginia Colored Orphans Home in Huntington, and the West Virginia Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Denmar." Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 58-62; Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
Charleston wasn't exactly a progressive town, but it was one of those regions which contained a sufficiently large black population to facilitate and require a proportionally adequate number of institutions, facilities, and amenities to satisfy the African Americans community's needs, wants, and concerns. Those would require a workforce able and adequate to the tasks, as well.
It bears emphasizing that, although my mother was born with skin that was indistinguishable from most white Americans (and with beautiful blond hair and hazel eyes as a compliment), she was still considered and designated on her birth record as 'Negro' and was not allowed to advantage herself of any of the non-black medical facilities, for instance.
A graduate from the the all-black Garnet High School, which closed in 1955 due to integration, Mom went on to become a teacher, attending and obtaining degrees from West Virginia State College; Atlanta University; UDC; Catholic University; and Trinity College. At West Virginia State, she was secretary to the Dean of Women. After graduating Garnet High School, she became a supervisor at the West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington, W.Va..
Mom achieved a position on the membership committee of the Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (her joy). Mrs. Fullwood was also a member of the NAACP and a lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women.
In fact, after marrying and moving to Metuchen, New Jersey, Mom joined the local Auxiliary Memorial VFRW Post and took a secretarial position at the local Raritan Arsenal.
I'm intrigued by the notion that we can be driven away from our ancestry by those not willing to accept that history - or denied our own view of ourselves based on our racial heritage.
Kamala Harris rightly identifies with all aspects of her culture, but deserves to be recognized for that part of her heritage which she embraces with her heart and soul. If that's not clear to folks like Matthews, they just haven't bothered to notice or care.
Mom
from the Fullwood Family Collection
= new reply since forum marked as read
Because she might have faked being African-American to get into a Sorority, which would be the biggest scandal ever (next to the Elizabeth Warren one anyway)!!!
My family history is even more complicated (especially the West Indian side) and racially ambiguous, so this all really rings true and close to home for me.
Keep up the wonderful work!
...it's junky and profound, just the way I found it in what remained from my mother.
Thanks for looking it up! 
sister (although I doubt they are the same in height as my sister is 6-3, lolol.)
because it's great to show that we're not all tech support or gas station workers and millions of us are US citizens not H1b.
There are tons of Blindians in this world who identify as black or are known as black. A hell of a lot more than you might expect: Nikki Minaj, Chili from TLC, actress Jazsmin Lewis, rapper Bizzy Bone from Bone Thugz and Harmony, and many more. The Caribbean, especially Trinidad, is full of Blindians. Also some African countries. I have several in my own family.
It's nice of Chris Matthews to try and divide people to discourage black Americans from voting for her. Black people tend to be more welcoming to mixed race people than some others. A recent example is our last Democratically elected President was just as white as he is black, yet the black community claimed him as black and many whites decided that his birth certificate must be fake because he doesn't look like how they picture an American.
Harris will get plenty of support from black, Indian, white, and whoever else. If she's the nominee, she'll get support from the "Any rational human being 2020" crowd against Trump.
But I have absolutely no doubt that if I decide to support her in the primaries, some folks will say it's because I'm Indian. And I won't care.
In my Irish-American family, my mom's younger brother looked Jewish and my dad's uncle did also. As they were informed from time to time by others.
Go figure.
It was an honor to read this post. Such an intimate peek into such an important person in your life! This was a very special treat. Thank you, bigtree. 
You still have the power to grab my attention....even after all these years. 
… Harris is my present favorite. I had no idea what her heritage was... she's very Presidential, though. The blonde in the pictures is lovely - and so are all her classmates!
Thank you for sharing your mother's experience. 
