Janet Jackson is talking concerning the upcoming U.S. presidential election — and repeating a false declare about Vice President Kamala Harris.
When requested about her ideas on Harris, 59, presumably turning into the primary Black girl to be elected president, the Grammy winner, 58, instructed The Guardian that she “heard” the vice chairman is “not Black.”
“Properly, you realize what they supposedly mentioned? She’s not Black. That is what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson instructed the U.Ok. outlet.
Though Guardian journalist Nosheen Iqbal pushed again in opposition to Jackson’s declare, which has been circulated by former president Donald Trump and right-wing political pundits, the singer mentioned of Harris, “Her father’s White.”
“That is what I used to be instructed. I imply, I have not watched the information in a number of days,” Jackson continued. “I used to be instructed that they found her father was White.”
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Jackson additionally mentioned she is not positive if “America is prepared” for a girl of coloration as a president, as The Guardian put it.
“I don’t know,” she mentioned. “Actually, I don’t wish to reply that as a result of I actually, honestly, don’t know. I feel both manner it goes goes to be mayhem.”
“I feel there is likely to be mayhem,” Jackson added. “Both manner it goes, however we’ll should see.”
Studies from shops together with CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters have confirmed false these claims about Harris’ race and ethnicity.
Harris’ father, Donald J. Harris, is an immigrant from Jamaica who moved to the U.S. to check economics on the College of California, Berkeley. Her mom, Shyamala Gopalan, got here to the U.S. from India and in addition studied at Berkeley, the place the couple met.
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In July, Trump, 78, made false claims about Harris’ race on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in Chicago.
“She was all the time of Indian heritage, and he or she was solely selling the Indian heritage,” Trump claimed on the time. “I did not know she was Black, till various years in the past, when she occurred to show Black, and now she needs to be often called Black. So I do not know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
“However you realize what, I respect both one, I respect both one, however she clearly does not, as a result of she was Indian all the best way, after which abruptly she made a flip, and he or she went — she turned a Black particular person,” Trump continued.
Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg by way of Getty
After Trump repeated the claims in opposition to Harris on the presidential debate on Sept. 10, the vice chairman mentioned: “Actually, I feel it’s a tragedy that we have now somebody who needs to be president, who has constantly, over the course of his profession, tried to make use of race to divide the American folks.”
Harris attended Howard College, an HBCU (Traditionally Black Schools and Universities), and in its story about Jackson, The Guardian quoted a line from Harris’ 2019 memoir The Truths We Maintain, through which she wrote: “My mom understood very nicely that she was elevating two Black daughters.”
Harris’ White House biography additionally states that she is “the primary girl, the primary Black American and the primary South Asian American” to be elected vice chairman.
