Matt Barnes Asks Kamala Harris About People Questioning Her Blackness — Like Trump Did — In New Podcast Interview

Podcast host and former NBA star Matt Barnes asked Vice President Kamala Harris about people questioning her Black identity — as former President Donald Trump infamously did — and got a more detailed response than she’s previously given.

Harris was asked about Trump’s attack during a CNN interview with Dana Bash, and gave a terse response that took Bash aback.

“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris said.

But Barnes, also a mixed-race Black person, got more insight when he asked Harris about the issue during an interview taped last week for the All The Smoke podcast he hosts with fellow ex-NBA star Stephen Jackson.

In an interview that just dropped Monday, Barnes asked the question with two major differences — he related it to his own experience, and he did not mention Trump:

MATT BARNES: I grew up Italian mom, Black dad, and was always very proud of my heritage until an incident I had in high school when I was 17, protecting my little sister. And someone called her some names I did what the big brother did.

I ended up getting in trouble when the KKK came and vandalized, nearly burned down my high school. And I knew at that point, although I was very proud to be Italian and Black, that the world looked at me as a Black man.

VP KAMALA HARRIS: Yeah.

MATT BARNES: You’ve always been secure in your identity, who you are, but what do you feel and what do you think when you hear people kind of questioning just the fabric of who you are?

VP KAMALA HARRIS: Well, one, I don’t listen to it. (LAUGHS) I’m really clear about who I am. And if anybody else is not, they need to go through their level of therapy. That’s not my issue.

My mother was very clear. She was raising two Black girls to be two proud Black women. And that was never it was never a question.

You know, it’s funny because over the years, journalists– some — not most — will want to talk about it and say, “Okay, if you want to have this conversation, I’m prepared to have it. But sit down and get comfortable for a few hours.”.

If you want to start talking about race in America, you want to talk about the one eighth rule?

MATT BARNES: That drop!

VP KAMALA HARRIS: You want, right? You want to talk about what it means in terms of what who you are perceived to be and the impact that can have on the rest of your life, regardless of who you actually are in terms of your God given capacity and the rights that you have and should have?

So, you know, I don’t mess with that. I think there’s other people trying to figure some stuff out and they need, they need–.

MATT BARNES: They got some issues.

VP KAMALA HARRIS: They got to deal with it.

Watch above via the All The Smoke podcast.

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