As an Indian-American, I swell with pride over Vice President Harris’s background, accomplishments, life and energy. She is super-cool to me and an icon for Indian-Americans and the children of immigrants. I am constantly deflated by the crop of Indian-American Republicans though. They’re doing too much to try to get acceptance from a party built on racism. While Nikki Haley’s stupidity ruined her national political ambitions, let’s not overlook the fact that her Indian heritage was a dealbreaker for millions of Republican voters. Same with Vivek Ramaswamy. Well, funny story? Donald Trump’s new running mate is JD Vance, a scamming white man. But Vance is married to an Indian-American woman.
J. D. Vance has the support of his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance as he becomes Donald Trump’s vice president candidate in the 2024 election. The couple first met at Yale Law School in the 2010s, during which they organized a discussion group on the subject of “social decline in white America,” per The New York Times. The two quickly bonded, with Vance referring to his then-classmate as his “Yale spirit guide.” The two tied the knot in 2014, a year after they graduated from Yale Law School.
Since then, they have welcomed three children together. Though the two are fairly private about their family life, Vance and his wife have stepped out together for a number of political events.
The couple reportedly met in 2013 when they were both students at Yale Law School. According to The New York Times, they worked together to organize a discussion group on the subject of “social decline in white America.” The publication notes that reading material for the group included scholarly papers such as “Urban Appalachian Children: An ‘Invisible’ Minority in City Schools,” and posits that the syllabus “become something like the theoretical spine” for Vance’s hit 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which documented his life growing up white working class in the postindustrial Rust Belt.
While studying at Yale, Usha was also the executive development editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology, per her bio on Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. She participated in the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic, the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic and the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project during her time at Yale.
Prior to Yale Law School, Usha received her BA in history from Yale University and her MPhil in early modern history from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar, per her LinkedIn.
Together, Vance and Usha have three children: two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter named Mirabel, per The Hill. Vance announced the birth of their third child on Instagram on Dec. 21, 2021.
Honestly, she sounds impressive, and she’s currently listed as working for an Ohio law firm as a “skilled litigator.” As in… Vance’s wife and mother to his three children works outside the home as a lawyer, all while he promotes some of the most regressive and misogynistic policies? But that’s neither here nor there. I wanted to talk about Usha Chilukuri Vance because now that JD Vance is riding with MAGA, his wife is getting a lot of hate from that very crowd. Guess why?? Yeah. They think it’s wrong that Donald Trump’s running mate is married to a brown woman.
The MAGA racism against Vance’s Indian American wife has already begun.
That’s the Republican Party for you. pic.twitter.com/7jpOKAxXjk
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) July 16, 2024
Photos courtesy of Getty, Vance’s Instagram.
Usha Chilukuri Vance For President! The men have had their time can women take over now?
What? A woman married to a man who wants to snatch woman rights from them? How about she can kick rocks with her husband.
Time for a woman president. Absolutely. BUT NOT HER. Usha Chilukuri Vance is a sell out shill representing a hateful, violent party. Never Usha.
yeah… no. she’s still a republican. I love that this is causing issues for her husband, but she clerked for Kavanaugh.
I graduated from the same law school as Usha and JD. Word on the street is that she was the harder-core conservative before him. Ignore her law-school-era work with refugees–that’s basically just a school-time extracurricular. She’s just as opportunistic as he is, if not more. They’re a great example of grifters who don’t believe in anything except for their own advancement.
She resigned from the SF law firm she works for minutes after the announcement.
A woman who supports her husband stripping the rights of all other women. A woman who supports her husband who believes no fault divorce should be illegal and women should stay in violent marriages for the children. Maybe rethink that ridiculous statement.
You must be desperate. There are plenty of qualified women who are not selling women down the river.
No pity here for all the hate she receives…she knows who she married and what she supports!
Sweetie, get a grip. Those might be women at that convention but they ain’t your sisters. My bet is Usha’s just like the rest of them, if not even harder core cuz, as the brown one, she has to try harder. If you don’t roll with that agenda, she’d be the FIRST to fire up the tiki torches to burn you at the stake. They might look sad and downtrodden or too sweet for the noise, and they might be too squeamish to literally cut your throat, but they’ll watch it done to you—and cheer.
She also clerked for Kavanaugh and I think Roberts. To go from Iraqi refugee advocate to that is quite a leap. And Vance has made a point of sh*tting on working moms and childcare.
Luckily he’s somehow more unlikeable than the Orange one. He’s not maga so they don’t trust him, Vance is Catholic I believe, so the evangelicals don’t trust him (I realize those are almost perfect circles of overlap), so the only thing he brings to the table is a promise to follow through on someone’s plan where pence didn’t.
I hope his wife is safe and happy with her life choices and fully knows who her husband is.
Vote blue.
And $ from Elon and Peter Thiel who back him. Elon just pledged $45million per month to help Trump win re-election.
Elon is almost as bad as Trump about being cheap as well as not paying his debts so it will be interesting to see if he actually ponies up the money.
She was a registered democrat until 2014 (from the bio I read on her). I don’t understand how people loose their humanity because to vote for Republicans you can’t have any and still support that party. I have read the 900+ pages of Project 2025 and it is terrifying. People need to turn off the 24/7 news propaganda masquerading as news and read it. Once you do nothing else they say matters, I’m locked in blue, voting straight democrat no matter what.
Agree 100% that people need to turn off the 24/7 news propaganda and do the research for themselves. Even the so called “liberal” networks are failing us. There are no do-overs if we get this election wrong. The consequences will be devastating.
JD Vance is why women choose the bear.
If Dems knew how to message, they would be bringing up Project 2025 incessantly because it IS that terrifying and it’s so bad that even Trump tried to distance himself from it (of course, that’s just an act).
Especially *this* Republican nominee for President. I can imagine a candidate coming along that is young and energetic who might make you look at another party, but TRUMP made you change parties? Yeah, good luck with that.
Vance is down on working mothers and childcare, unless that mother is making a lot of money, which I’m sure his wife is.
They seem to forget that most women have to work. One salary hasn’t been enough for a long time.
Yeah, her husband also believes that a woman should stay married to a man who is physically violent towards her, “for the sake of the children” of course
Sadly he will get the sizable “teabagger” vote. You know, low IQ white dudes and ladies who are poor as dirt because the world changed and left them behind, and rather than learn a trade or examine their life’s choices, they blame minorities. Basically people whose only objection with trump is that he is too rich and fancy.
Watch him talk all folksy during the debate with Harris.
Re : her “refugee work”. I have one word. Well, two. “Mission trips.” Christians allatime going on mission trips to Costa Rica or Haiti or Detroit—wherever they think they’ll find desperate brown people to “minister to”—it’s the obligatory entry on every Bible college application. But would those devout little students be caught dead helping the homeless in their own towns? Or how about the brown folks in the other side of the tracks. HELL to the naw!!! That would never happen.
He’s an opportunistic troll who obviously doesn’t believe most of the crap he vomits forth. Racism directed at his wife: such a small price to pay since he’s already sold his soul. Whatever it takes to get to the top.
@Alexc, Well said. Yes, vote blue.
His wife is in lockstep with him.
Fuck both of them.
I don’t know why they expect respect from a party that doesn’t respect or care about anyone that isn’t a white male christian.. as for her husband he sells out everyone including the grandparents who were Union workers and raised him. I hope when women like her vote they vote blue in secret. I know I had to lie about who I voted for when I was married.
Vance’s wife is a foot soldier for white supremacy. She’ll have no problem encouraging Vance to tighten up those borders and lock out the non-white immigrants.
Same as Suella Braverman.
Yes, and Rishi Sunak. People need to look at what is going on in Modi’s India and learn the many forms racial – and caste!- prejudice can take. Usha Vance is a Brahmin. Yes she isn’t white and that is what matters in America, but in India it’s different. I wouldn’t expect an upper caste Hindu to automatically identify with oppressed people, there’s a whole other layer of complexity there.
Countdown to him bragging that his wife came here “the right way” in 3… 2… 1…
Usha Vance was born in San Diego. She didn’t “come here” at all.
…and the GOP spinning her into a “Model Minority” example to (subtly) compare with Kamala.
Hope he is prepared for what could possibly happen now he has attached himself to Trump! A lot of Trump’s people end up in jail! At least his wife is a attorney! Maybe she can represent him when he gets in a bind!
As an Ohioan is especially loathe JD Vance.He went from being a never Trumper to kissing his a$$ in a flash.He is a sell out a liar a cheat and a bigot and my stomach turns for his beautiful accomplished wife and I worry for her and their children. I don’t wish divorce on anyone but I do hope she leaves him and takes the children.
About a year ago JD Vance made a threat to my daughters college which is a very small left leaning liberal arts college in small town Ohio-he threatened legal action if he finds they use affirmative action (he went after other schools as well) meanwhile he got into Yale more likely for being poor than for being smart but he would never want a dark person to have a chance would he ?So yeah I am sad for his wife being in this situation.Just one more reason Trump can’t win.
She chose him. It sounds like they have the same politics and same beliefs, so why feel bad for her? Nobody forced her to marry this guy or become a typical right wing shill for a party that doesn’t even like you but will use against other groups, namely Black Americans and non-white Hispanics and Latinos. Screw her.
Good point Nikkik I just am pretty sure she was a democrat until recently and worked in immigration/refugee law at one point.She is intelligent and a grown woman and if she choose this it’s on her but I worry that it’s spiraling quickly and maybe she hasn’t truly looked at what a bad situation she is in or could be in with the hated that will be directed at her and her children.
Yeah, she not only chose him but she is still with him. And he’s bloody awful, worse than mother Pence.
Sorry, I’m not American and I learned only today that both of Nikki Haley’s parents are Sikh. I’m kind of in shock. I had to do a double wikipedia check.
Good luck.. being married to a WM does not insulate or shield you from racism. I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for women who marry these men and sit back while they say the most vile misogynistic things.
Indian people, not just women, are greatly influenced by Hindutva or Hindu supremacy which they are currently implementing in India at the detriment of religious and ethnic minorities by their duly elected populist leader Modi. Hindutva also purports that Indians are part of the Aryan subset, you know, the Nazi kind. This is why Hitler wasn’t loathed to borrow much of its principles and combine it with Jim Crow. Indians who are from “proper families” with extremely selective bloodlines and belonging to the appropriate caste, consider themselves superior to everyone else. This mindset also pervades greater Indian society infecting Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians along the way. While these minorities are simultaneously discriminated against in their own country, the overall result is, a large portion of Indian immigrants, irrespective of religion, importing this mindset wherever they go and trying to ingratiate themselves with the ruling class in their adopted countries. The through line is the ruling classes have power, wealth, and status which personifies superiority for the majority of Indians and there is a deeply ingrained association of this superiority with light skin or light skin adjacency in ancient, colonial, and modern times.
Ergo the ruling classes are usually light skinned (the extraordinary exception: President Obama).
You will notice these immigrant communities will do two things.
The first group mostly segregate themselves into their own ethnic or religious enclaves. This is often further divided by caste if there is a large enough population in the area. These communities are insular and will not tolerate intermarriage or mixing and “sullying of the bloodlines”.
The second group are immigrants or children of immigrants that have a pathological desire to assimilate not to simply survive or thrive, but a desire to dominate. They have somehow convinced their parents and families the best way to do that is to go all in and align with the values, interests, desires of the ruling class. They argue this can only be fully realised by marrying the ruling class.
The prospective spouse in these cases will almost always be white, at least in the UK, CAN, US, AUS, and NZ.
Their parents and families readily accept this pollution of their precious blood lines only because the interloper is part of the ruling class and white skinned. This is considered a clear improvement on their current lot.
This second group will be the most zealot like in their racism of black and brown people as it benefits them and aligns with their overall belief system. Don’t get me wrong, assimilation is necessary for survival anywhere and marrying a white man or woman if your personalities mesh is not the issue. However, if you were to analyse why most mixed marriages for Indian Americans are overwhelmingly with White people and couple that with the Indian American affinity for regressive social policies against black, brown, ethnic and religious minorities, this would be the answer.
@J, 💯. Idid not see your great comment when I posted mine below, indicating that the caste system is alive and well in the US. Also, this is an issue not just with Indian immigrants but those from other countries, for example Japan. I really hope this issue gets addressed soon, on a wider level, here.
This tracks with my experience from Iran.
@Bluesky
Its interesting, isnt it. Ive seen many white women who marry black men and become exposed to their husbands’ world in which being subject to racism is par for the course. And they express shock and outrage and fear for both themselves and their family, realizing that their mixed-race children will not have the carefree life they had when they were little white children growing up in their white world.
So women like JD Vance’s wife, who are brown, mixed-race or black who marry white men, believing that theyll be protected from racism, they delude themselves. Because very often, the racism comes from within their husband’s circle.
Seriously–I’m done with women like this and the Trump-shooting-victim’s wife (who wouldn’t take Biden’s call because hubby was a “devout” Republican.) They are the backbone of every racist patriarchal society out there–and are often worse than the husbands they support and the sons they spawn. They are used to escaping reality through their entitlement.
” they worked together to organize a discussion group on the subject of “social decline in white America.””
HMMM. 🤔
Just because she’s a Brown woman doesn’t mean she’s for Brown and Black rights.
Yeah, that’s what caught my attention too.
You know what they say, not all skin folk are kinfolk.
All minority groups have them. The ones that they can parade around to “prove” that they aren’t racist. They also appoint them to powerful positions so they can say they are diverse, yet the person has the exact same white supremacist views they have.
I’m really surprised they haven’t already picked an Anglicized nickname for her, that everyone will swear up and down she has been called from birth.
The GOP PR flacks are _so_ gonna spin this chick. Bet in Vance’s debate with Kamala, she’ll supply a lot of the “evil working woman” shots.
It’s hilarious that both Trump and this Vance dude have immigrant wives. Their base is so checked out of reality, they will scream at the top of their lungs that the borders need to be closed, while ignoring the fact that both of their picks for the top jobs are married to immigrants. And Vance and Trump are both so awful, they will say the most debasing things imaginable, and pretend like they don’t have immigrant wives.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is married to a nice, blonde, American professor.
Vance’s wife was born here, but, yes–you are dead on. It’s the old “But our POC are the good ones!” deal.
Yeah, I don’t get Indian-Americans who support Trump. They seem to delude themselves that they will be immune to the MAGA anti-immigrant agenda.
I don’t know anything in particular about this woman’s political beliefs but I won’t be shedding any tears at the blowback she receives. She seems to be willingly standing by him.
Maybe they think they will ascend up to the top of the American caste system.
A lot of the ones who originally immigrated here are from the upper castes and think they’re the descendants of Aryan invaders so basically white but with just a bit of extra melanin.
🎯, @karen. Cast discrimination is indeed a a problem in the US. Unfortunately, few communities / cities are aware of and want to change this.
I’m guessing any BIPOC who supports the GOP has been brainwashed into believing two things:
1. Other non-white races are bad. Here in Texas, white supremacy works hard at pitting Black people and Mexicans/Mexican-Americans against each other.
2. White supremacy uses the ol’ “you’re not like the other ones” to pump up egos and engender “solidarity” with white people and hatred for the “low class” people.
Anyway, at some point Usha is going to learn a lesson: white supremacy is happy to use her but they do not accept her.
Yep. Or there’s the third option: the person is willing to downplay the racism of the republican party because they take the conservative position on other issues (examples: they’re anti-choice, homophobic, or transphobic). I personally know some who are like that.
None of this makes the racism aimed at her ok though.
Dunno if this is the case for her, but there is a Hindu nationalist party in India called the BJP. They are very pro Trump and they see themselves as both fighting for “their” country’s identity. They did the whole Namaste Trump thing and then held a huge Howdy Modi event in Houston. (This was in 2020 I think?)
Yup, the BJP in India have the same sort of ethnic-religious nationalist agenda that Trump and the rest of the MAGAts have here in the US. Also, Trump was the opening act for Modi at the Howdy Modi event in Houston.
To Usha Chilukuri Vance: Your skin is too brown. Your background is too ethnic. Your kids are too mixed. Your legal background once included helping out Iraqi refugees. Your husband is a sell out to a cretin who probably makes fun of you and your people behind your back. You’ll never be accepted by the racist, misogynistic, hateful MAGA crowd. But go ahead and do you. I’ll spare my sentiments and empathy for your kids — there’s still time to save them.
How on Earth can you belong to a Party that hates the mere existence of your brown wife and children!!!!
Probably because he has zero respect for his wife. He clearly doesn’t view women as people, but rather as pretty objects.
For the life of me, I don’t see how intelligent POC aren’t self aware enough to realize that when shit hits the fan, they will NEVER be accepted.
I guess it’s the obstinacy of “it’ll never happen to me.” As a woman she should know better. Willful, deliberate ignorance.
Usha, it’s not different with you. It never, ever is.
Hey, when you are raised in a delusional bubble of fear and hate, it’s easy to avoid reality, no?
I know she picked her life, but I am always dumbfounded when extremely intelligent, successful women end up married to dime-a-dozen misogynists. What kind of exceptionalist mindset does it take to wake up next to a man who thinks women don’t deserve to make their own life choices, but still somehow believe he respects anything about you? I don’t understand.
Because she doesn’t care about other women and she thinks she is the right kind of a woman. Internalized misogyny is very common especially with women who grew up in a patriarchal society/family.
She probably did his homework in law school.
LOL
😂
She did a fair amount of theorizing/groundwork for Hillbilly Elegy, IIRC.
I saw a LOT of vitriol lobbed at Vance and him being married to an Indian- American woman. A lot of talk of him not reflecting ‘true’ American values and how he won’t be tough on immigration. But they will all get in line to vote for this unqualified and hateful duo.
I am just now learning from this that this guy wrote Hillbilly Elegy. Wow!
Yes. I, admittedly skimmed through the political screed that was the last half of the book, but I will say that while Vance was very appreciative of his then-girlfriend who helped school him while he was at Yale, I got no sense at any point that she might be POC — even as he seemed to drop his earlier, more diverse group of campus friends for a more openly ambitious social life.
My most burning question is: Did Trump know that Vance’s wife is not white when he chose Vance as his VP?
Trump was into building suspense about his choice, and I can imagine that his vetting process might not have included less formal dinner parties with the families before making his decision.
Does this man ever smile? He’s only two years older than me yet he has the angry, furrowed brow of a crotchety old man.
He’s also only two years older than me. I honestly think being a stuffy Republican ages people prematurely.
The closet will do that to a person.
She’s a republican who clerked for Brett Kavanaugh prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court and for Chief Justice Roberts. All the best to her, I suspect she’s in for a rude awakening just like Vivek and his wife.
If she thinks the Maga hating every person who isn’t white crowd is going to accept her and her mixed race children, she is in for a rude awakening. Her children will get the vitriol at school not to mention I can’t imagine what kind of hate she will receive. This is against the Project 2025s goals. Sadly, I have found some Indian and Asian people to so desperately want to be top of the ethnic totem pole that they can be just as racist as white people, but the fact is, the people that want whites only will never ever accept them and still want them to go back from where they came from. Good luck to her. She is in for a bumpy ride.
@Andrea, Exactly!!!!!
Interesting comments today.
I hope she’s ready to get crapped on for not being a white, bottle blonde with fake tatas🤣maybe they’ll try to get her a makeover, or they’ll completely ignore her.
Another thing to realize is that Indian society, as whole, is very colorist so when Indians immigrate here to the US, where the great dividing line is between whites and blacks, they side with whites because a fair complexion is very desirable to us Indians.
💯
Well the white supremacists are mad about her and her three children. Hope it was worth it girl.
I actually knew someone who grew up with Vance. There’ve been rumors about him running for President for years and I was told he and his wife argued about it constantly. She’d just had a baby at the time and disliked how often it took him away from his family, especially with her work being so important to her. At the time, he promised he wouldn’t pursue higher office for the sake of his family, but I guess when Trump calls your wife’s wishes don’t matter?
I feel bad for his family.
Compare that to how the Obamas handled this–a fair-trade situation. And I would bet unless her work supports his, he cares less about it.
I think that the psychology of some who immigrate here from some countries is all too clear. For example, I have a friend from North Africa who married an American white man. That marriage ended (not necessarily due to race but maybe culture conflict that produced a schism). So she was single and living in the US which meant navigating her way on her own.
She subsequently married another white man from Europe and spent some time in Scotland and France. To sum things up she caught h**l in Scotland and France (sour, unfriendly and openly derisive attitudes) as well as back in the US especially after 9/11 (She is from a predominantly Muslim country).
The link in all of this – how she could be so deluded as to think she could have “buy in” to a systematic racism. Some North African countries ( as it is in many countries in the world) were previously colonies and from that some inherited a ‘colorist’ attitude. I’ve seen news about that in Tunisia for example.
I told her that she may be categorized as a Caucasian but she is a non-white Caucasian! I was using humor because this whole race construct was put in place to elevate ONE race in particular. People in the Middle-East and India were categorized as Caucasian.
Interestingly, in the early 1900’s a man from India sued a segregated hotel saying he had been categorized as Caucasian being from India. The case went against him stating he was a non-white Caucasian and therefore he could not be admitted to the segregated hotel. Another similar case was United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind with regard to becoming a naturalized citizen in 1919 due to the Naturalization Act of 1906. The court ruled he was not a “free white person” as the 1906 act required.
I think that immigrants of color who come here and choose the ‘adjacent’ route fail to understand how deep, vile and truly loathsome systemic racism is. Or they do see it and it is so horrible that they choose the coward’s route and try to cozy up to evil.
An addendum – wanted to add that being a former colony is not the only reason for colorism in a location or the adoration of light/white skin only nowadays. Media – advertisements, movies and TV series have also communicated that message and the industry has disseminated that message far and wide.
We don’t have to celebrate Usha Vance. It seems safe to assume she’s a RW racist because she’s been married to a RW racist for years. If she had a problem with JD’s politics, she wouldn’t have married or stayed with him.
We don’t need to try to imagine unseen reasons she might be admirable when there are PLENTY of Indian-Americans in politics for us to actually admire: let’s start with Kamala Harris, Pramila Jayapal, and Ro Khanna.
MAGA is losing their ish. The whole “whiite identity” and the odious “replacement theory”. Vance will support immigrants, etc. He’s already getting roasted for the texts and recordings of him trashing Dumpster Fire.
She’s extremely accomplished. You have to be a legal genius with incredible executive functioning skills to have that background. I’m not going to assume that we know what her beliefs are- Her husband is the one on the ticket. They have a mixed religion marriage– maybe they also have significant political differences.
Man, being brilliant at something does not excuse being a crappy person. I am so tired of hearing people letting folks off the hook because of “success” or “genius.”