Trump attack on Harris underscores growing multiracial population

Former President Trump's attack against Vice President Kamala Harris , questioning her race, arrives at a time when the number of people in the U.S. identifying as multiracial is surging — including in Utah.

Catch up quick: In an exchange with reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention last week and in a response to a question about Republicans dismissing Harris as a "DEI hire", Trump falsely suggested that Harris "became a Black person" after identifying primarily as Indian.

• "She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage," Trump quipped. "I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black."
• "I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?" he said.

Why it matters: Trump's comments illuminate how some Americans consistently misunderstand the complexities of people from multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds and how those identities shape their lives.

By the numbers: People who identify as two races or more drove 40% of Utah's population growth between 2000 and 2020, per census estimates.

• Nearly 9% of the state's population in 2020 identified as multiracial, per census data. In 2010, only 2.7% of Utahns identified as multiracial.

Reality check: Harris regularly cites her background as the daughter of a South Asian immigrant mother and a Jamaican immigrant father.

• Harris graduated from Howard University (an HBCU), joined the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus as a U.S. senator.

What they're saying: Jasmine Mitchell , a professor of Puerto Rican and Latino studies at Brooklyn College, says Trump's comments get at the common misconception that the mixing of races is new in the U.S., though it has been common in the Americas for centuries.

Zoom out: People who identify as multiracial, or more than one race , are among the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census .

• The 2020 Census found that those who identify as multiracial grew from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million a decade later — a 276% jump.

The intrigue: Those who identify as Asian plus another race (like Harris) jumped by 56% during the same period and are the fastest-growing multiracial group.

• The number of Americans who identify as Asian American, Pacific Islander or Latino also has more than doubled over the last two decades, according to a study released in May.
• In the Salt Lake metro area, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American populations have seen the biggest growth in the past two decades , according to census data.

Between the lines: The influence of multiracial Americans is everywhere in art, sports, science, government, pop culture — even a former president, Barack Obama.

• Experts say multiracial Americans routinely have their racial identities questioned, ridiculed or dismissed, and Trump's line of false attacks opened up painful wounds.