Janet Jackson apparently questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ race.
The singer-songwriter spoke with The Guardian for his Weekend podcast to discuss her ongoing Together Again tour, which concludes in Glasgow, Scotland on October 13. During the conversation, the topic of the 2024 U.S. presidential election came up. When the reporter remarked that America may be on the verge of voting for its first black female president, Jackson stopped her and shared his thoughts.
“Well, you know what they supposedly said?” Jackson asked. “She's not black, that's what I heard, that she's Indian.” He added, “Her father is white, that's what I was told. I mean, I haven't watched the news in a few days. I was told they found out her father was white.”
The presidential candidate's father, Donald J. Harris, is a Jamaican-American economist and professor at Stanford University. He separated from his Indian mother when Harris and her sister Maya were young.
Asked whether she thought America was ready for a black woman president, Jackson admitted she wasn't sure.
“I don't know,” he said. “I honestly don't want to answer that because I honestly don't know. I think it's going to be chaos either way.”
Jackson’s comments on Harris’ race follow those of Donald Trump, who questioned whether his opponent was actually a black woman at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in July.
“She's always been of Indian descent, and she was just promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said in Chicago. “I didn't know she was black until a few years ago, when she became black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?”
He continued, “I respect both of them, but she obviously doesn't, because she was Indian through and through, and then all of a sudden she made a change and became a black person. I think someone should look into that, too.”