Ever since her nomination, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ Wikipedia page has been the subject of intense debate and chaos. Wikipedia took the unusual step of locking down the Kamala Harris page to keep ahead of edits questioning her racial background.  The Wikimedia brouhaha is a microcosm of a larger controversy.  Harris’s father was from Jamaica, and her mother was from India, while Harris herself was born in Oakland, California. Echoing the “birther”  conspiracy theories surrounding Barack Obama’s citizenship, many among the far right have questioned  Harris’s bona fides as both an African American and an Asian American. Jennifer Ho is director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Eaton Professor of Humanities and the Arts and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Conversation | With Kamala Harris, Americans yet again have trouble understanding what multiracial means