SAN JUAN, P.R. – You simply cannot make this stuff up, folks. An absolutely priceless moment of pure cringeworthy awkwardness took place during Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent tone-deaf trip to Puerto Rico.
As Harris exited the La Goyco Community Center last Thursday after touring the facility and patting herself on the back for the Biden administration’s Puerto Rico hurricane relief efforts, a protester in the courtyard began serenading the veep with a little ditty. But this was no greeting song of welcoming hospitality.
No, this serenade had some serious decolonial, anti-imperialist vibes that seemingly went right over the former California senator’s head. At least at first.
Video footage shows a smarmy Harris bobbing her head and clapping along as the man sings in Spanish, clearly appreciating the “local culture” as her team no doubt advised. ¡Qué auténtico!
That is, until an aide quickly huddled over and presumably translated the scalding hot lyrics coming from the protester’s mouth. Because they went a little something like this:
“What did you come here for, Kamala? We want to know what you think of the colony…Long live free Palestine and Haiti too!”
Oops…scratch that authenticity.
You can literally see the realization wash over Harris’s face as the clapping and nodding quickly stops. The smile froze, the demeanor flipped like a switched turned off.
¡Ay Dios mÃo! So cringe, but also abso-lutely-priceless satire writing fuel.
Let’s pause for a beat to truly marinate in this absurdity: The Vice President of the United States, second in command, a heartbeat away from the presidency, got fully punked by a protester skillfully trolling her colonialist presence.
Not only that, but Kamala was essentially applauding the protester’s denouncement of America’s subjugation of Puerto Rico as well as its support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine and other oppressive regimes. You cannot make this up!
The delicious irony is dripping so thick, you could bottle and sell it to bakeries across America as an egg substitute. Lip-smacking good stuff.
While the incident itself is undoubtedly hilarious, it does reveal some rather unsettling truths about the verysimple-minded and arrogantly self-unaware politicos we have running this country.
It’s clear Harris walked into this U.S. territory, waved the proverbial imperialist banner with that $140 billion in hurricane relief funds (which many locals still say isn’t enough) and expected Puerto Ricans to perform those quaint cultural dances in gratitude.
Instead, at least one refusnik had other ideas – to openly rebuke American colonialism and call out its hypocritical policies abroad through the time-honored tradition of protest art. Cue the mocking Spanish rhymes and decolonial clobbering of U.S. foreign policy.
And Harris, in her oblivious bubble, ate it up with aSpanglish-mangled “¡Eso es amazingó!” until the meaning hit her like a cold bucket of Peru’s glacial runoff water.
The absolute unpreparedness and lack of self-awareness is both disturbing and comical at the same time. Like, how can someone so deeply clueless
