What coconut trees and Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ have to do with Kamala Harris (2024)

Audio and videos of the coconut tree line, many of them paired with a Charli XCX song from her album “Brat,” are taking off.

Even if you are chronically online, the discourse right now can be hard to understand. Here’s what to know about the Harris coconut tree memes as the memes proliferate — and potentially become a rallying cry for the critical youth vote.

As one creator on TikTok described the coconut tree and Charli XCX mashup: “If Kamala runs and wins historians will have to study the significance of what this edit did for America.”

What did Kamala Harris say about coconut trees?

In May 2023, Harris gave a speech at a White House event about creating educational and economic opportunities for Hispanic Americans, stressing the need to focus on young people while also understanding the wider community around them because “none of us just live in a silo.”

She explained how her mother, the late cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan Harris, would also try to remind her children to be aware of the context that they were born into. “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?’” Harris said.

She let out a deep energetic laugh before adding: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

Searches for “Kamala” and “coconut tree” were already spiking amid pressure for Biden to step aside. But after Biden’s announcement, it seemed many Democrats got on board — including Harris herself, whose rapid response team changed its bio to “Providing context.”

What is the coconut tree meme and who is sharing it?

As the endorsem*nts started rolling in for Harris, so did the coconut emoji, memes and remixes.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted that “we are ready to help” with a photo depicting the hustle to get coconuts from a tree.

Tiara Mack, a Democratic state senator in Rhode Island, posted “Coconut Tree summer” alongside a coconut and palm tree emoji. Emily’s List, the political action committee focused on electing Democratic women, and many other supporters have added the tree and the coconut to their social media handles.

Harris’s impromptu dance moves, her unbridled laughter and her repeated use of abstract phrases — such as “What can be, unburdened by what has been” — have already fueled an army of young online supporters (sometimes called the #KHive, short for Kamala Hive).

One of these supporters, Ryan Long, a 22-year-old college student, earlier this month spent hours remixing viral clips of Harris to a Charli XCX song. “In the current society, you feel really helpless,” Long previously told The Washington Post. “It’s hard to get politically engaged. All you can do is you can make edits, you can make tweets. It’s a way people can do their best to not support [Donald] Trump with the resources we have.”

To be sure, the fruit — yes, a coconut is a fruit — can also be used as an offensive term with racial overtones, though largely this does not seem to be the case in the viral meme. Divisive terms such as “coconut” are sometimes used by those outside and within Black and Asian communities to suggest that like a coconut, an individual is Brown on the outside but perceived as White or Eurocentric on the inside.

A British Asian woman was charged for a racially aggravated public order offense in London in November after holding a sign depicting Britain’s then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts at a pro-Palestinian rally.

What do Charli XCX and the ‘Brat’ album have to do with Harris and coconut trees?

In short, the summer’s hot trends — Harris’s rise and Charli XCX’s June album release — are converging.

Many of the videos of Harris’s coconut tree speech have been paired with a song from the album, “Apple,” which also has a dance called the #AppleDance that is popular on social media. Many content creators are likening Harris’s style to the ethos of “Brat summer” — which has been used to describe when people are being unapologetically themselves.

On Sunday, Charli XCX herself appeared to endorse Harris — declaring that “kamala IS brat.”

Harris’s official rapid response team quickly changed its Twitter account to the distinctive typeface and lime green shade (known as “brat green”) that’s on the album. The account also reposted a screenshot of a conversation on X between Trump supporters, discussing how the Harris campaign is spinning her quotes “over Charli xcx songs and Gen Z loves it.”

Graphic designer Hayley Gilmore said on X on Sunday: “If Kamala Harris doesn’t come out at the convention to the Brat Coconut Tree remix is it really worth it?”

In an interview posted this month, Charli XCX broke down her own definition of what it means to be a “brat.”

“You are just that girl who is a little messy and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It is honest, blunt and a little bit volatile. That’s ‘Brat,’” she said.

Taylor Lorenz contributed to this report.