Janet Jackson made false claims about Kamala Harris’ racial identity in an interview published by The Guardian on Saturday.
“Well, you know what they said? She’s not black. That’s what I heard. She’s Indian,” the music icon told The Guardian’s Nosheen Iqbal.
In his article about Jackson, Iqbal referred to Jackson’s 1989 hit “Rhythm Nation,” in which the singer sings about uniting voices “in protest against social injustice” and working for “a world without racism,” before mentioning the election and the vice president.
Jackson continued to question Harris’ identity even after Iqbal correctly pointed out that she is both black and Indian, saying he was “told” that the vice president’s father, Donald J. Harris, is white (which he is not).
“I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I just heard they found out her father is white,” Jackson said, stunning the reporter with his statement.
Jackson’s comments come after former President Donald Trump questioned the vice president’s identity at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in July, falsely claiming that Kamala Harris “accidentally happened to be black.”
The former president is famous for promoting the “birthplace theft” conspiracy theory more than a decade ago and attacking then-President Barack Obama.
When asked about her “blackening” comments, Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that it was “the usual, hackneyed tactic” for Republican candidates.
Iqbal later told Jackson in an interview that Harris has “dual roots” and asked if America would be ready to accept her if she became president.
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“I don’t know,” said Jackson, who is gearing up for more shows on his Together Again tour.
“To be honest with you, I don’t want to answer that question because I really don’t know. I think it would be chaos either way.”
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