Janet Jackson echoes false claims that Kamala Harris is not Black

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During an interview with the Guardian published Saturday, September 21, ostensibly to promote the second leg of her concert tour, Janet Jackson claimed she heard Kamala Harris was not Black and that the vice president’s father was White.

“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black,” Jackson said of Harris when asked about her thoughts on the 2024 presidential race. “That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.”

“Her father’s White,” Jackson added after the reporter challenged her claims. “That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told they discovered her father was White.”

Many reporters and social media critics were quick to point out that Harris has long identified as Black and spoken about her background throughout her career. She also attended Howard University, a historically Black school. Her father, Donald Harris, is from Jamaica and was the first Black person to be tenured in Stanford’s economics department.

The Washington Post, along with other news outlets, initially reported that Jackson apologized for the comments, based on a statement from a man named Mo Elmasri, who said he represented Jackson and is listed as the singer’s manager on IMDBpro. A person close to Jackson who spoke on the condition of anonymity later told The Post that Elmasri does not represent the singer. Jackson’s representatives said Sunday she has not issued an apology. Jackson has not responded to a request for comment.

The Guardian interviewer, Nosheen Iqbal, wrote that she was “floored” by the five-time Grammy winner’s comments, and then asked the singer if she thought “America is ready for [Harris] – if we agree she’s black? Or, OK, a woman of colour?”

Jackson responded: “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t want to answer that because I really, truthfully, don’t know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem.”

Iqbal tried to clarify: Does Jackson think there will be a peaceful transition of power in the United States?

“I think there might be mayhem,” Jackson said. “Either way it goes, but we’ll have to see.”

Jackson’s inaccurate comments come amid a rise of misinformation and false claims that Harris isn’t Black. In July, Donald Trump questioned whether Harris was Black during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said at the event in July. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Trump later claimed to not care about the subject during September’s presidential debate, but then repeated false claims about Harris’s identity that night.

Harris dismissed Trump’s comments at the debate. “Honestly,” she said, “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president, who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.”