Clearly, she wasn’t laughing at the crisis or the huge problem.
But when Vice President Kamala Harris let out a laugh Monday when a reporter asked if she had plans to visit the border, it was enough to raise some dander.
“Uh, um, not today,” Harris said before laughing.
That moment of levity was too much for some who felt it necessary to point out that what is happening on the border is no laughing matter. Families are fleeing violence. Children are being sent, unescorted, into a foreign land. Communities are being invaded. American taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill. This isn’t ha-ha funny. It isn’t even hee-hee funny, and it shouldn’t be minimized. Madam Vice President, remember yourself.
A couple of days later, it was announced Harris would be spearheading an effort to work with the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to stem the surge of people heading to the United States from Central America. And that might have been where the laugh came from — maybe she was just buying herself a second to figure out how to answer the question.
Of course, it’s impossible to know exactly what Harris was thinking, but it’s possible she might have said, “Oh, yes, reporter, I’ll be going to the border. But, no, not today, because the job I’ve been given is a big, big one with no easy answers. In fact, this issue goes back longer than America has even been around, yet here we are.
“By the way, we haven’t officially announced that I’ll be leading this effort, but those of us involved have been working on this for a while. One thing’s for sure, no matter what solution we carefully craft or throw together, a lot of people are going to be unhappy because, after all, the thorny immigration issue has many, many sides. All I can really tell you right now is that I’m not going today.”
Instead she stammered, said not today and laughed.
Harris smiles a lot; she has an easy smile. But she also has a pattern of laughing when laughter doesn’t necessarily apply. In October, during a “60 Minutes” interview in which Nora O’Donnell pointed out that someone had called her the most liberal U.S. senator, she responded with laughter; at the time, President Donald Trump pointed it out and went as far as to suggest something was wrong with her. And she laughed heartily when she presided over the Senate as it filled the vacancy she left after she was sworn in as vice president; specifically, she laughed after she said her name.
But for Harris to respond with laughter to these situations isn’t inappropriate, since all those instances happened when she was in a high-stress situation. It might have more to do with the fact that she is an American woman and communicates like one.
According to one study that examined the differences between how men and women process humor and laughter, women laugh more. The study found that 80 to 90 percent of statements such as “See you later,” or “I think I’m done,” drew laughter though they weren’t funny and that people laugh more when speaking than when listening. It makes sense; laughter has the power to soothe tense situations by putting people at ease because it forms a connection.
From the time they are very young, girls are told they’re prettier when they smile, but what that really means is that a smiling or happy girl is more approachable because a smile signals approval and acceptance. Years of conditioning teach women that no matter the message, a smile — even a laugh — is not only acceptable, it is preferred.
It makes sense, then, that a woman in Harris’ position might be more inclined to laugh in the glare of the global spotlight than would her male predecessors. It could be that Harris has a nervous laugh, but it may well be a gender-based quirk.
That, however, says more about America than it does about her.
mariaanglinwrites@gmail.com
March 28, 2021 at 12:08PM
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Anglin: Seriously, Harris knows border crisis is no joke - San Antonio Express-News
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