Whoopi Goldberg thinks people should show Janet Jackson “a little leniency” over the false claims she recently repeated about Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity.
During a Monday segment on daytime talk show “The View,” the host defended the music icon, who essentially questioned the Democratic candidate’s blackness in an interview with The Guardian published over the weekend.
“Janet Jackson is not a politician,” Goldberg said, noting that the singer was also mourning her brother, Tito Jackson, who died last week.
“Sometimes people make mistakes and they’re wrong. They made mistakes and they were wrong. It happens a lot,” the host continued, adding, “We all do it.”
“So, OK, give the girls some slack. Give the girls some slack,” Goldberg said of the “Rhythm Nation” artist.
Jackson drew backlash on social media after he reportedly told a Guardian reporter he’d heard Ms Harris “is not black” after being asked for her opinion on the possibility of Vice President Harris becoming the first black woman president.
“What I heard is that she’s Indian,” Jackson said.
When reporter Nosheen Iqbal later pointed out that Harris is in fact both black and South Asian, Harris responded, “Her father is white. That’s what I’ve been told.”
“I haven’t watched the news in days,” she said, “I heard they found out her father was white.”
Harris is the daughter of immigrant parents: her mother was born in India and her father, who is black and born in Jamaica.
Former President Donald Trump caused controversy in July during a visit to the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference, where he falsely accused Harris of not identifying as black until several years ago.
The Republican candidate said at the time that Harris “just happened to become black” in recent years, suggesting the vice president was using his newfound black identity for political gain.
Trump’s lies about Harris’s black identity have fueled right-wing conspiracy theories about her identity.
Jackson’s representatives later said that when a man claiming to be Jackson’s manager apologized for the controversial comments he made about Harris, he was not authorized to speak on Jackson’s behalf.
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Jackson has yet to comment publicly about his comments.
Ana Navarro, another co-host on “The View,” said on Monday’s broadcast that she believes Jackson “inadvertently” used her platform to spread misinformation.
“I think it’s incredibly irresponsible to have a platform like Janet Jackson,” she said.
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