Brian Snyder/Reuters
After 2020 contender Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) jokingly tied her previous marijuana use to her Jamaican roots, her father released a statement Wednesday denouncing his daughter's remarks. “My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation, and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” Donald Harris wrote to the Kingston-based website Jamaica Global Online. “Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.” In an interview with The Breakfast Club radio show, Harris had admitted that she smoked a joint in college and “inhaled.” “Half my family’s from Jamaica, are you kidding me?” she said.