Vice President-elect kamala Harris has come under a storm of criticism as she was accused of appropriating an anecdote first told by civil rights fighter Martin Luther King Jr. during an interview with Elle Magazine published in the run-up to the 3 November vote.
In the sitdown, Oakland-born Harris, 56, recalled an incident that happened in her childhood, when she accompanied her parents to a civil march - as a toddler in a stroller.
"Senator Kamala Harris started her life’s work young", writer Ashley C. Ford started off the Elle piece, further retelling the incoming vice president’s story:
"She laughs from her gut, the way you would with family, as she remembers being wheeled through an Oakland, California, civil rights march in a stroller with no straps with her parents and her uncle. At some point, she fell from the stroller ... and the adults, caught up in the rapture of protest, just kept on marching. By the time they noticed little Kamala was gone and doubled back, she was understandably upset".
"My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing", Harris told the magazine. "And she’s like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom’".
This part of the interview, which was published at the height of her and Joe Biden’s campaign last year, resurfaced on Monday, leading a number of Twitter users to draw parallels with the story told by Martin Luther King in a 1965 interview for Playboy, three years before his assassination in Memphis in 1968.
"I will never forget a moment in Birmingham when a White policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother", the African-American rights activist said at the time, further recounting the moment that “buoyed” him at the time of extreme hardship.
"'What do you want?' the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked at him straight in the eye and answered, 'Fee-dom'. She couldn't even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me”.
Andray Domise, editor of the Canadian publication Maclean's, instantly weighed in, accusing the vice president-elect of “lifting” her story from King, with many more agreeing with the view.
Read this too-perfect Kamala Harris story. Then click on this 1965 Alex Haley interview with MLK and search for the word "fee-dom" (h/t @andraydomise): https://t.co/x1Kj2010OR https://t.co/1S50ac9Q5L
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) January 4, 2021
"Read this too-perfect Kamala Harris story", former New York Times op-ed writer editor Bari Weiss tweeted. "Then click on this 1965 Alex Haley interview with MLK and search for the word 'fee-dom'", Weiss went on.
Washington Examiner Executive Editor Seth Mandel commented similarly, referring to the resurfaced reminiscences as “plagiarism”.
"Plagiarizing an MLK interview seems like the kind of thing you'll get caught on. Why do ppl do this to themselves", he posted, suggesting Harris is "like Hillary".
She's like Hillary but with far fewer ppl willing to vote for her.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) January 4, 2021
... while RNC Rapid Response Director Steve Guest suggested the manner is very typical of the Democratic ticket at large:
"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are two plagiarizing frauds. Biden plagiarized during law school and from RFK, Hubert Humphrey, JFK, and he stole the family history of a British politician [Neil Kinnock]", he charged, referring to 1987 accusations against Biden of plagiarising a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party, with the scandal ultimately ruining his presidential run at the time.
The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.
