Janet Jackson’s Kamala Harris Remarks Spark Backlash

Singer and actress Janet Jackson’s recent remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris‘ racial identity has sparked backlash online.

Harris, who became the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, is set to face off against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, in November.

However, as both candidates aim to reach voters in the Black community, Harris’ racial identity has become a consistent talking point as she, if elected, would be the first Black American woman and the first South Asian American to be president of the United States.

Harris, who has long expressed pride in her heritage being a biracial woman, was born to Indian and Jamaican immigrants. She is the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother. She has said that her mother deliberately raised her and her sister as Black because of how the world would see them.

In an interview with The Guardian on Saturday, Jackson, the younger sister of singer Michael Jackson, spoke about her career, family, and the election as she was asked by Nosheen Iqbal, host of The Guardian‘s Today in Focus podcast, about Harris being on the verge of being voted the first Black female president.

“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian. Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days,” she coughs. “I was told that they discovered her father was white,” Jackson said.

Iqbal pushed back and said, “Harris has dual heritage, I say, and, given this moment, does Jackson think America is ready for her?”

Jackson, however, distanced herself from the question, “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t want to answer that because I really, truthfully, don’t know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem. I think there might be mayhem. Either way it goes, but we’ll have to see.”

Newsweek has reached out to Harris campaign via email for comment.

Since Jackson’s…