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https://theconversation.com/the-audacity-of-kamala-harris-laughter-and-the-racist-roots-of-trumps-derision-238189>
"Just when the summer uproar over Donald Trump calling his potential rival
“Laffin’ Kamala” and “Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris” was beginning to subside,
an apparent new round of attacks by Trump and other Republicans has emerged
after their initial U.S. presidential debate.
The target – again – was Kamala Harris’ laugh.
Three days after the debate, for instance, Bruce Zuchowski, an Ohio sheriff,
posted on his Facebook account that Harris was a “laughing hyena.” Zuchowski
was subsequently barred from providing election security during in-person
voting.
Conservative media commentators also have voiced their displeasure, calling
Harris’ laugh “contemptuous,” “exaggerated” and “inappropriate.”
This is not surprising, given that Harris’ laughter was on full display during
much of the nationally televised debate – and, worse, Trump was clearly the
object of her unrelenting derision.
Much has been written already about the sexism and racism behind Trump’s
contempt for Harris’ laugh.
But in a little-known, 1985 essay called “An Extravagance of Laughter,”
celebrated American writer Ralph Ellison provided a sharp analysis of the
subversive power of Black laughter in 1930s America.
Ellison’s essay, published in a 1986 collection “Going to the Territory,” still
offers useful historical racial context for explaining Trump’s animus toward
Harris. Among the stories Ellison tells: Black people once had to put their
heads in a barrel to laugh because their laughter unnerved white Southerners."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
