Janet Jackson Should’ve Thought Twice About Questioning Kamala Harris’ Race

The singer repeated a false claim about the vice president’s racial identity based on a right-wing conspiracy theory. She should have known better.

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Janet Jackson showed how misinformed she is about Kamala Harris’ identity when she repeated a false claim about the Democratic nominee’s race in a recent interview with The Guardian.

“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson said in response to reporter Nosheen Iqbal’s remark about America possibly voting in its first Black female president. (For the record, Harris is both Black and Indian.)

Jackson seemingly doubled down on the mischaracterization when she repeated another falsehood she said she’d heard about the vice president: “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”

It’s unclear who exactly “told” Jackson these untrue details about Harris, and the singer has been unavailable to clarify her comments as she mourns the death of her brother Tito Jackson. A man named Mo Elmasri, claiming to be Jackson’s manager, issued an “apology” on her behalf Sunday, telling BuzzFeed the singer made remarks about Harris “based on misinformation” and that she apologized for “any confusion caused.” But Jackson’s representatives later stated that Elmasri was not, in fact, her manager, and was not authorized to speak on her behalf.