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I have first name empathy with Kamala Harris. Emil, ee-mul, Aymul. Oatmeal. Email. I’ve heard them all. Sure, I get it. Honest mistake.

Until it isn’t.

And then you are witnessing an intentional act of disrespect, and sometimes even racism, when some Republicans mispronounce Kamala Harris’ name, “Ka-MAH-la.”

It’s like a three-syllable anthem of unity for Republicans and all Harris detractors.

It’s the same way Republicans love to say “Democrat Party,” instead of “Democratic Party,” (listen to how their diction is uniform next week when the GOP talks about their rivals’ convention). Now the right has added the mispronunciation of Kamala to the list of adopted political rhetoric.

It’s one thing to misspeak about an institutional name like the Democratic Party. It’s another thing when it’s a person’s name. When that happens, the effect is just racist.

Even more so when a polite correction is gracelessly refused.

That happened Thursday night when Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) on a CNN panel intentionally mispronounced Kamala. This time, other panelists called her out, but Mace was far from gracious.

She was defiant.

“I will say Kamala’s name any way that I want to,” Mace said.

Vanderbilt professor Michael Eric Dyson called her out again. “You mispronounced her, and you also misjudged her,” Dyson said.

“I just did and I’ll do it again,” Mace said.

To the right-wing freedom lovers, this makes Mace some kind of politically incorrect hero.

But to people of color who have non-standard “John Smith” names–Asian names like my old pal Ling Chi-Wang, or African names like the Stanford basketball stars Chiney Ogwumike or Nneka Ogwumike, or Hispanic names pronounced the Filipino way like my own Emiliano Guillermo–to hear your name correctly pronounced means just one thing.

Respect.

To hear your name intentionally and repeatedly mispronounced is a show of ignorance at best, racist non-acceptance at worst.

When it happens to you in your life, at work, or around town, you may think nothing of it. But as the status and visibility of people of color rise in society, mispronunciation is far from innocent.

It is still considered an acceptable form of othering–until we all stand up to it and insist on the courtesy.

Next week, when a woman who is a person of color becomes the first Asian American, African American woman nominated as the presidential standard bearer for a major party in American history, you’ll know how important it is when you hear Republicans comment on “Ka-MAH-La“ at the “Democrat National Convention.”

Mace still misses the point and summed up her experience with Dyson writing on X, “The Left would rather talk about pronouns and pronunciation than policy.”

Mace would rather keep mispronouncing Harris’ first name, which, of course, is the willful spread of an inaccurate untruth.

Also known as a lie.

DONALD TRUMP’S WEEK OF LIES

Trump tried to stay on policy matters at a news conference on Thursday. He had it all set up with props, standing next to a box of Froot Loops and Jimmy Dean pork sausage.

But when he wasn’t lying or overstating how bad the economy is (the latest numbers put inflation at less than 3 percent), Trump was more comfortable making personal attacks on Harris.

“This is a radical left lunatic that we have running for office, and I’m trying to brand her as such,” Trump said.

When challenged by reporters, Trump did not back down.

“I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” Trump said. “I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think, she’ll be a terrible president.”

Of course, he should respect Harris for her intelligence and her political achievement, rising up the political ladder from a modest childhood in Oakland, Calif. She wasn’t born with a mouthful of silver spoons like Trump.

Then Trump said, “Some people say, why don’t you be nice? But they’re not nice to me. They want to put me in prison.”

That last line may explain why the Trump campaign seems to be falling apart. Trump, convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court, could be sentenced to prison in September and immediately sent to jail.

When you are trying to stay out of prison, you will say anything in an act of desperation.

But he seemed more unglued in that interview on X earlier in the week when Elon Musk threw the softest of softballs. It was just chummy bro-talk but full of lies, some more offensive than others. I especially took umbrage at Trump reacting to Musk, who was dismissive of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Trump seemed to be talked out of the horrors of nuclear energy when Musk said: “It’s like, you know, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, but now they’re full cities again. So it’s really not something that, you know. . .”

“That’s great,” said Trump.

“So it’s not as scary as people think basically,” Musk said.

Basically, 79 years ago, on Aug. 6th, 78,000 people are said to have been killed instantly in Hiroshima, with another 90,000 to 166,000 people dying within two to four months.Three days later in Nagasaki, 60,000 to 80,000 people were estimated killed.

That’s nearly a quarter of a million deaths, all dismissed in that chat on X by Musk and Trump.

HARRIS ECONOMIC PLAN

Meanwhile on Friday, Harris revealed the principles of her economic plans on Friday that include tax cuts for lower- and middle-income Americans; an expanded child tax credit up to $6,000 for families with newborns; a plan to increase affordable housing for builders and for first time buyers in need of down payment assistance; and a plan to limit food prices to stop greedy corporate gouging.

Trump has already called that last idea about gouging “communist.” But to put reasonable controls on corporate greed is hardly “communist.”

Further details are yet to come, but it shows Harris’ vision as seeking the balance between corporate interests and the more people-oriented, consumer-oriented middle-class.

“I will focus on one element that’s on the minds of many Americans as they pay their bills at the kitchen table or walk the aisles at a grocery store, and that is lowering the cost of living,” said Harris at her Friday speech in North Carolina.

She wasn’t like Trump, standing at the country club he owns next to a table with Froot Loops and pork sausage.

Do you think he’s ever stood in line at a supermarket in his life?

“Donald Trump fights for billionaires and large corporations,” Harris said on Friday. “I will fight to give money back to working- and middle-class Americans.”

The contrast was stark, and Trump truly has no good rebuttal, which explains why he feels more comfortable with his personal attacks on Harris.

He’s still angry that the Democrats switched out Biden for Harris, which only brings out his worst misogynistic, racist tendencies.

Biden, who appeared Thursday with Harris for the first time since he stepped down from the top of the ticket, was deferential and respectful to the woman about to be his party’s leader. Biden did make headlines announcing changes in how government negotiates with big Pharma to significantly reduce the cost of certain drugs. But some drugs will still cost up to $1,000 a month.

At least it was policy talk.

Later, off the podium, Biden told a smaller audience what he thought about the Trump campaign approach.

“They’re trying to make this into a race war,” Biden said. “They’re trying to turn this into a war about who you are, what your ethnicity is, and it’s not who we are.”

It’s an honest assessment.

And it’s why we’ll hear more lies by Trump and the Republicans next week, especially when they utter the biggest lie about Harris, whenever they call her by name.

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NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.