Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

Please note, this episode contains some outdated racial language

that could cause offense.

This week on assignment in the United States.

I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. Former President Donald Trump speaking about Carmelah Harris, the first Black and Asian American

Vice President, whose parents are from India and Jamaica.

Because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person.

Just to be clear, sir, do you believe...

Predictably, these comments hit a nerve in the American psyche.

What he just said, what you just read out to me is impulsive.

The White House Press Secretary Corrine John Pierre, a black woman herself, said that only Vice President Harris can speak to her identity.

No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,

that is not one's right.

Comments like these are always cutting and antagonistic around the world and in the US.

They poke at scar tissue at the heart of this country.

Ethnicity and authenticity, power and

who are you really?

Almost a decade ago, this challenge was put to a white woman who for years said she was

black and the world eagerly

chronicled her fall from grace. You didn't say I identify as black you'd say I'm

black when did you start deceiving people? Well I do take exception to that because

it's a little more complex. Are you ashamed of being white?

...