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Warning: This post contains offensive language
On Sunday, Joe Biden dropped out of this year’s presidential election, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. In the hours following, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) flagged a sharp spike in vile racism and misogyny directed at Harris, whose parents are Indian and Jamaican, including anti-Black and anti-South Asian racism and comments suggesting she used sex to advance her career.
Harris wasn’t alone in receiving online abuse, as J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri, who is of Indian ancestry, was also the subject of a litany of racism targeting her ethnicity. These hateful trends are unsurprising, considering the recent and rapid growth of racism targeting South Asians and violent misogyny against women in politics.
On 4chan, an online forum board rife with hateful and violent speech, and where the racist and misogynistic “DignifAI” campaign was conceived, hate speech targeting Harris rose 525 percent from July 19 to July 21, the day Biden dropped out of the race. Posts called Harris “an ugly black slut,” “an uppity n*****,” “a faux n***** woman,” “a n***** mutt,” and “pajeet,” a slur used against Indians. Users also baselessly accused Harris of “exchang[ing] sexual favors for career (sic),” following up with “which woman doesn’t?” Other commenters repeatedly called Harris a “whore” and “slut,” both pejoratives targeting women.
On the Fediverse, short for “federated universe,” which is a “collection of community owned, ad-free, decentralized, and privacy-centric social networks,” including the hate-infested Poast forums, hate speech targeting Harris rose a staggering 2,328 percent between July 19 and 21. Along with slurs against Harris for her Black and Indian ancestry, many others called Harris a “DEI” or “diversity” hire, a term used by racists to insinuate Harris was only offered the vice presidency by Biden due to her skin color and gender. Other comments targeted her femininity, claiming she “fu**** and sucked her way into politics,” and “rose through the ranks based solely on her skin color and being a whore.” Misogynistic “nicknames” like “KamelToe,” and “Kamal-toe,” which have been used against Harris since 2021, also spread quickly on the Fediverse.
On Truth Social, hate speech targeting Harris rose 33 percent from July 19 to 21. Commenters said that Harris would play the “sex card” in order to win the upcoming elections, while some even went as far to insinuate that Harris was born a man. This is reflective of a trend on the online far right called “transvestigating,” where users try and “figure out” which public figures are secretly transgender so they can be “exposed.”
On Gab, a far-right platform with a similar interface to Twitter, hateful speech targeting Harris rose 292 percent from July 19 to 21. Similar to 4chan, users called Harris a “slut” and “whore,” while also making racist comments, calling her a “n*****-pajeet hybrid married to a Jew,” “worthless Indian trash,” and “the future n*****dent,” meant to be a racist play on “president.”
On the video-streaming platform Rumble, comments targeting Harris rose 450 percent between July 19 and 21. Users frequently called Harris “Kameltoe” and “superslut,” while making offensive claims that she “slept her way to the top.”
On Telegram, a platform often used by the far right, hateful speech targeting Harris grew 50 percent from July 19 to 21. The Proud Boys, who host many of their communication channels on Telegram, were quick to throw their hat into the cesspool of bigotry and misogyny. Proud Boys Long Island said Harris “will definitely fix the border, end wars, and help us with fellatio….sorry inflation.” The Proud Boys of Columbus and the Legend Valley Proud Boys both shared a post calling Harris “Kameltoe.” The Cape Fear Proud Boys said Harris “rose through California politics by prostituting herself,” and “became Vice President solely because she was a woman of color.”
