Kamala Harris Coconut Tree Meme Explained: What Does the Coconut Emoji Mean?

Since the news of Joe Biden stepping down and Kamala Harris taking over as Democratic Party’s new nominee came out, she has received overwhelming support, with $100 million+ in donations so far being a testament to that.

There’s also been a constant stream of support for Harris on social media, with sites like X being flooded with posts encouraging the current VP’s run. A consistent theme in these messages has been the coconut tree emoji, whose links with Harris come from a May 2023 speech she gave at a White House event.

The event was conducted in a bid to promote Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunities for Hispanic Americans, and the now-famous meme originated from an excerpt that Kamala Harris delivered that day while speaking on the subject:

“My mother … 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?’ You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

Kamala Harris/May 2023 speech at the White House

The “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” part of the speech became extremely popular online at the time, and now that the meme has resurfaced, it’s being used in even more creative ways, which includes sampling the audio and remixing it with Charli XCX’s songs “Von Dutch” and “Apple.” In fact, supporters of the vice president are running a viral social media campaign of sorts, with the English singer-songwriter’s new album Brat at the forefront.

Charli XCX herself has come out in support of Harris, her declaration working in favor of both the presidential candidate and her album sales. Other notable celebrities who have endorsed Harris since Biden’s announcement include Cardi B, Barbara Streisand, Kerry Washington, Josh Gad, and Sherly Lee Ralph, among others. It’s also been reported that multiple Hollywood execs have contributed heavily towards the donation for the current VP.

Coming back to the coconut tree meme, the emoji or the connotations can be spotted in multiple democratic voices’ X posts: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Hawaii senator Brian Schatz, and democratic women-centric political action committee Emily’s List. Harris is no stranger to providing the online crowd with meme fodder, with her most notable contribution being the “We Did It, Joe” video from November 2020, when Joe Biden won the presidential election.