Janet Jackson has claimed that Kamala Harris is not black and that the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee has a white father.
Jackson, 58, made the shocking claim in an interview with The Guardianwhen asked about his feelings about the United States having its first black female president.
—Well, you know what they supposedly said? —the singer replied. —She’s not black. That’s what I heard. She’s Indian.
“His father is white. That’s what they told me. I mean, I haven’t watched the news for a few days. They told me they found out his father was white.”
Janet Jackson, pictured during a British television interview earlier this month, claimed that Kamala Harris is not black and that the vice president’s father is white.
Harris is the son of Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian cancer researcher, and Donald Harris, a black economics professor from Jamaica (pictured together in the 1960s).
Harris, 59, was born in 1964, the son of Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian-born cancer researcher, and Donald J. Harris, a black economics professor from Jamaica.
The couple married in 1963 and separated in 1971, after welcoming Kamala and her younger sister Maya, 57.
Gopalan died of cancer in 2009 at age 70, while Donald Harris, 86, is now professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University after retiring in 1998.
Jackson’s late brother Michael also faced controversy after his skin changed color from black to white throughout his career. He attributed the occurrence to a medical condition called vitiligo and denied bleaching his skin.
And his false claim that Harris was half white has been compared to one of Donald Trump’s most notorious claims during the presidential campaign.
Donald Trump said Harris “turned black” while discussing her race with black journalists in July, and the former president has since stepped up his efforts.
Trump claimed Harris “turned black” while speaking at a National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago in July.
He said: ‘She was always of Indian descent and was just promoting Indian heritage.
‘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?
“I respect both of them, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian through and through and suddenly she turned around and became a black person. I think someone should look into that as well.”
Trump is pictured at the National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago in July, where he made the comments about Harris’ race.
Days later, Harris downplayed the comments and accused Trump of “putting on the same old show of division and disrespect.”
He added: “The American people deserve better.”
The vice president has yet to comment on Jackson’s remarks about his race.
Trump’s comments about Harris’s race outraged many conservatives; even his own supporters said they were upset with the former president for not focusing on attacks on Harris’s policies.
Earlier this month, Trump appeared to double down on his comments about Harris’s race.
“I don’t care what she is. I don’t care. Whatever she wants to be is fine with me.”
Polls show the race between Trump and Harris remains very close ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, November 5.