(Chris Cella Jr., Headline USA) Multiple-time Grammy-winning singer Janet Jackson revoked an unauthorized apology issued on her behalf to Vice President Kamala Harris concerning recent comments that called Harris’s ethnic background into question.
Jackson ignited controversy during an interview with The Guardian on Saturday, when she speculated that Harris may not be black but Indian.
“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson stated.
When pressed by the reporter, she further claimed, “I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
Harris’s presumptive father is Donald J. Harris, an economics professor emeritus at Stanford University and author of a well-known treatise on Marxist economic theory.
Harris is known to have been descended in part from an Irish slaveholder—thereby undermining his leftist daughter’s recent endorsement of reparations to black Americans and underscoring the logistical problem that such policies would create through arbitrary payouts that could potentially go to the descendants of those who were responsible.
It is unclear whether Jackson—the sister of the late, racially ambiguous pop superstar Michael Jackson—was referring to this or was calling Donald Harris’s paternity into question.
Regardless, her remarks prompted widespread outrage, with major news outlets expressing moral indignation over Jackson’s remarks.
The following day, an apology surfaced, but it was revealed that Mo Elmasri, who issued the statement, falsely claimed to be Jackson’s manager and acted without her consent.
The Jackson team clarified that Randy Jackson, her brother, is her actual manager, and Elmasri had no authority to speak on her behalf. The lack of clarity regarding Elmasri’s role has left many questions about his connection to Jackson and her team.
Legacy media quickly connected Jackson’s controversial comments to former President Donald Trump’s assertion that “Harris turned black” for political gain.
This connection sparked a wave of social media speculation regarding Harris’s true ethnic background, prompting Democrats to assert that the scrutiny over her ethnicity was rooted in racism.
Trump also raised questions during his Sept. 10 debate with Harris as to the reasons that her estranged father had been absent throughout her history-making presidential run.
The situation intensified when Harris’s birth certificate circulated online, identifying her mother as ‘Caucasian.’ However, a Reuters fact check concluded that Harris has both Jamaican and Indian heritage, despite the birth certificate listing.
Jackson’s team remains firm, as of Tuesday night, in its retraction of the unauthorized apology, emphasizing that the initial comments were made without malice.
The incident highlighted the complex interplay between celebrity statements and media interpretation, particularly in the context of race and identity.
