The Kamala Harris ‘coconut tree’ meme, explained
In the weeks leading up to President Joe Biden’s bombshell announcement Sunday that he would suspend his reelection campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, two words have continued to prop up on social media: coconut tree.
As the pressure mounted against Biden, attention shifted to Harris and her many viral moments, which are often punctuated by her own laughter. But one moment of Harris’ time as vice president has stood out more than others.
During a May 2023 event at the White House for the President’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, the vice president spoke about how equality also requires equity, how culture, environment and context are as important to opportunity as financial resources.
“None of us just live in a silo. Everything is in context,” she said. “My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes — and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’
As she stifled laughter, she concluded: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
The phrase “coconut tree” remained rather niche until the calls for Biden to step aside reached a fevered pitch in the last week, according to Google Trends data.
Whether ironic or not, the image of a coconut tree became a rallying cry and fully crossed over into the mainstream on Sunday as “coconut-pilled” Democrats began rallying behind Harris.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis gave his endorsement of Harris and signed his statement with emojis of a coconut, a tree and an American flag.
EMILYs LIST, the PAC focused on electing Democratic women candidates, endorsed her, too — and added coconut and tree emojis to the group’s username on X.
Brian Schatz, a U.S. Senator from Hawaii, posted a photo of himself climbing a coconut tree with the caption “Madam Vice President, we are ready to help.”
Some social media users were happy to provide context for Harris’ comments, but warned people to be careful about their use of the tropical fruit since “coconut” has in the past been used as an offensive term for people in the Black and Asian communities.
During a pro-Palestinian rally last year in London, a British Muslim woman was photographed holding a poster depicting then-prime minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who are both of Indian descent, as coconuts. Police searched for her and earlier this year charged her with a racially aggravated public order offense.
However, at the moment, the campaign’s leaning right into the meme, too. Shortly after the Biden campaign rapid response X account switched to a Harris campaign account, its bio was changed to simply “Providing context.”
Like Harris, many in the Democratic Party and on social media have newfound enthusiasm for the election and are now imagining what can be, unburdened by what has been ahead of November 5.
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