Donald Harris, the father of Kamala Harris, was called a “Marxist scholar” while working as a professor of economics at Stanford University.
The description came in a 1976 article published in the school’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily. The article noted there was some opposition to granting him tenure.
The article said: “One argument raised two years ago in the Economics Department in opposition to the permanent appointing of visiting Prof. Donald Harris a Marxist scholar, was that his excellence as a teacher attracted students to study his area of instruction.
“Harris was described as too charismatic, a pied piper leading students astray from neo-classical economics.”
The New York Times noted he became the first Black scholar to receive tenure at the school.
Kamala Harris, the Democrats' candidate for vice president, is the child of divorce. She was raised by her mother, who became a major influence in her life, the Times noted.
Her father, now 81, has remained mostly silent, although he has expressed pride in his daughter and bitterness over their estrangement, according to the Times.
Last year he took issue with her after she admitted she smoked marijuana in college and joked about her family’s Jamaican heritage.
Asked in an interview with “The Breakfast Club” if she had ever smoked marijuana, Harris replied: "Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”
Her father decried his daughter's use of a “fraudulent stereotype … in the pursuit of identity politics.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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