In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Janet Jackson briefly weighs in on the upcoming presidential election.
During the interview, the music icon was asked whether the US is ready for Kamala Harris, who could become the country’s first female president. The 58-year-old seemed to shy away from anwnsering but still gave her honest response. She said, “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 noted. “I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
Despite it being well known that Harris’s father is a Jamaican economist and a Stanford professor who split from her Indian mother when she was five, the interviewer tried to reset and ask another question: Does Miss Jackson think America is ready for a woman of color?
“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,” Janet responded. As for whether she thinks there will be a peaceful transition of power, Janet added, “I think there might be mayhem,” she falters. “Either way it goes, but we’ll have to see.”
Former President Donald Trump has questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity multiple times, leading others to do so despite her clarifications. It’s clear some are missing the facts or choosing to ignore them.
During the presidential debate, Trump was even asked why he felt comfortable claiming that the vice president “turned Black” after previously emphasizing her South Asian heritage during a recent appearance at a conference of Black journalists. Harris replied at the time,
“Honestly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president, who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people. I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us, and we don’t want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, and especially by race,” she added.
Speaking of debates, Harris has accepted CNN’s invitation to do another debate with Trump on October 23. So far, Trump has not yet responded.