Janet Jackson questioned Kamala Harris' race in an interview published by The Guardian on Saturday (September 21).
The interview touched on the singer's Together Again tour, how she recorded “a lot of music that's just on the shelf” and being a parent. He also broached the subject of the upcoming US election, with the reporter noting that Americans could elect their first black, female president: Democratic candidate Harris.
“So you know what they supposedly said?” Jackson yelled inside. “She's not Black—that's what I heard, she's Indian.”
Added Jackson, “Her father is white, that's what they told me. I mean, I haven't watched the news in a few days. They told me they found out her father was white.”
He did not specify where he heard this information, which is false.
Harris is both Black and Indian. Her father, Donald J. Harris, came to the US from Jamaica. Her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan, came to the US from India. Both moved to the US to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where they met in 1962.
The Guardian broached the subject again with Jackson, asking if he thought America was ready for a black woman president.
“I don't know,” Jackson said. “Honestly, I don't want to answer because I really don't know. I think either way it goes it's going to be a mess.”
The singer's quotes about Harris trended on social media, where many fans expressed frustration at one of their idols repeating misinformation.
“You had an opportunity to stand with a black woman loud and proud and you didn't. That's hard for a lifelong fan,” reads a top comment on Jackson's most recent Instagram post, which has been taken over by backlash over what Jackson said about Harris.
On X, formerly Twitter, a post read: “Janet Jackson is one of the most influential people in music history. It was just irresponsible of her to repeat something she 'heard' about the same thing they are using against Kamala! Her own tribe. We are less than 50 days away from the elections. We need to talk smarter!”
Over the summer, Donald Trump highlighted Harris' racial identity at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago, where he claimed, “I didn't know she was black until a few years ago when she happened to be black and now she wants to be. known as Black. So, I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?'
At the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump said, “All I can say is, I read where she wasn't Black… And then I read that she was Black, and that's fine. Either was fine with me. That's up to her.”
Harris later responded, “Frankly, I think it's a tragedy that we have somebody who wants to be president, who has consistently tried, throughout his career, to use race to divide the American people.”
Jackson, according to the reporter behind the The Guardian article, he was not feeling well on the day of the interview. He had caught a cold.
