Musician Janet Jackson questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s ethnicity, stating that she had heard Harris is “not black” and instead is of Indian descent.
Jackson, the sister of the late Michael Jackson, was promoting her European tour in an interview when she was asked about the 2024 election and her thoughts about the prospect of the United States electing its first female black president. This prompted Jackson to say she had heard that Harris is not black, adding, “That’s what I heard, that she’s Indian.”
The interviewer clarified that the vice president is of both black and Indian descent.
“Her father’s white. That’s what I was told,” Jackson said to the Guardian. “I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
Harris’s father is of Jamaican descent while her mother is Indian, with the vice president stating she was raised to embrace both identities. Prior to becoming vice president, Harris attended Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., and was also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus when working as the junior senator from California.
Jackson was then questioned if the U.S. is ready for Harris to serve as president, with the musician responding that she “truthfully” does not know.
“I think there might be mayhem,” she falters. “Either way it goes, but we’ll have to see.”
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The debate on Harris’s ethnicity started back in late-July when former President Donald Trump questioned her race, arguing Harris had been identifying as black when “she was always of Indian heritage.” Trump claimed she had identified as Indian for most of her life, “then all of a sudden, she made a turn” and identified as African-American.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has defended Trump’s comments, citing how the Associated Press wrote an article in 2016 referring to Harris as the first Indian woman to win a Senate seat.