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\"The question is, to what degree did you promote your heritage before you ran for office?\" said Sharon Wright Austin, a political science professor at the University of Florida and the author of \"The Caribbeanization of Black Politics: Race, Group Consciousness, and Political Participation in America.\"

\"PHOTO:
Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff greet people during a stop at Amaize restaurant on Sept. 10, 2020, in Doral, Fla.
>

Harris' parents split when she and her sister Maya were young. Harris' niece Meena described her grandfather as \"not being around\" after the divorce.

\"Their experience and relationship with blackness is through being raised in these communities in Berkeley and Oakland, and not through the lens of being Caribbean,\" Meena Harris told The New Yorker, describing Sen. Harris and her sister Maya's California upbringing.

\"You could easily say that critics would accuse her of pandering, but as a politician, I think she's doing what she thinks she needs to do to win,\" added Wright Austin.

Others, like Hill, see her outward displays of her multifaceted heritage as a plus.

\"When you can hear an accent, even if you can't speak it, means that you have exposure or an awareness of someone's experience, and when she brings that into the room, she will be able to understand those different layers of who we are as Americans,\" said Hill. \"Being a hyphenated American hybrid is something that she is bringing into the room and she's bringing all her hyphens.\"

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