'LOOK FORWARD'

Black women rooting for Vice President Kamala Harris don't want Donald Trump's taunts to distract her

- BRIAN BENNETT AND NIK POPLI

DONALD TRUMP REPEATEDLY MISPRONOUNCES Vice President Kamala Harris' first name. He's said world leaders would treat her "like a play toy." He stunned a roomful of Black journalists in late July when he claimed Harris, who is both Black and of South Asian descent, "happened to turn Black" a few years ago. Belittling comments and demeaning monikers are tools Trump has wielded for decades in politics and business to try to denigrate his opponents.

This election is no different. And as the first woman of color running as a major party's presidential nominee, Harris will likely continue to see political attacks with racist or misogynistic undertones until Election Day.

For many Black women attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the advice they had for Harris in the final weeks of the campaign could be summed up in four words: Don't take the bait. "Some things you don't even need to dignifyact like you didn't even hear," said the Rev. Shari Nichols-Sweat, a 66-year-old retired high school music teacher from Chicago, who belongs to the same historically Black sorority as Harris, Alpha Kappa Alpha. "She is not to be played with, and nobody better ever think she is weak because she's a woman," said NicholsSweat as she left the United Center, having just watched Harris formally accept the Democratic Party's nomination for President.