(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Music legend Janet Jackson made Democrats clutch their pearls after affirming Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris is not Black, echoing mounting criticism over Harris’s tendency to adopt various personas depending on the situation.
“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson told Guardian reporter Nosheen Iqbal during an interview published on Saturday.
Jackson’s remarks quickly ignited outrage among the left and Democrats, who chastised Jackson for questioning Harris’s racial identity. The vice president, currently eyeing the White House, was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father.
“All Janet Jackson needs to know is Kamala Harris is blacker than Michael’s children,” one user quipped on X.
On the right, commentators mocked the legacy media for orchestrating what appeared to be a coordinated smear campaign against Jackson.
Janet Jackson questioned Kamala's race and it broke the leftist media today. 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/pkHctJw4bx
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) September 21, 2024
During the interview, Iqbal pressed Jackson on her claims, countering that Harris identifies as “both.”
In response, the music icon shot back, “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
Iqbal, seemingly doing the left’s bidding, asserted that only “hardcore QAnon-adjacent, Trump-loving conspiracy theorists” raised questions about Harris’s identity.
“Harris has dual heritage, I say, and, given this moment, does Jackson think America is ready for her – if we agree she’s black? Or, OK, a woman of colour?” the reporter pressed.
To this, she replied, “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.”
When Harris first ran for public office as San Francisco District Attorney in 2003, the media emphasized her Indian heritage. Since stepping onto the national stage, however, Harris has often been described as a black woman.
Democrats argue that questioning Harris’s identity is steeped in racism.
Harris was born in California but spent her formative years in Canada with her Indian mother. She relocated to the U.S. to attend Howard University after living in a Canadian French-speaking city from ages 12 to 18, according to the liberal New York Times.