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Janet Jackson said in a September 2024 interview that she had heard Kamala Harris was “not black” and that Harris’s father was white. The first claim erases Harris’s Black heritage; the second is factually wrong. Harris’s father, Donald Harris, is Jamaican and Black, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India. A later apology statement circulated in Jackson’s name, but her representatives said it was not authorized by her team.
What Janet Jackson said about Kamala Harris
In a Guardian interview published September 21, 2024, journalist Nosheen Iqbal asked Jackson about Harris. Jackson replied, “She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.” When Iqbal pointed out that Harris is both Black and Indian, Jackson said, “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told,” and added, “I was told that they discovered her father was white.” Read the interview in The Guardian.
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Those were Jackson’s reported words, not a correct account of Harris’s background.
Is Kamala Harris Black and Indian?
Yes. Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India. Her father, Donald Harris, is Jamaican and Black; The Washington Post reports he was the first Black person tenured in Stanford’s economics department. The Washington Post’s account of the family background and Jackson’s remarks and Sky News’s summary of her parents’ origins both contradict Jackson’s claim that Harris’s father was white.
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Black and Indian heritage are not mutually exclusive. The Guardian interview also quotes Harris’s book, The Truths We Hold, describing her mother as understanding that she was raising “two black daughters.” That quotation is presented by the Guardian as Harris’s words from the book.
Did Janet Jackson apologize to Kamala Harris?
An apology statement was circulated in Jackson’s name, attributed to Mo Elmasri, and said her comments had been based on misinformation while expressing respect for Harris’s dual heritage. But Jackson’s representatives told follow-up outlets that the statement was not authorized by her team and that Elmasri did not represent her. The Los Angeles Times reported that her longtime representatives said Elmasri had never been affiliated with the singer. The Los Angeles Times account and Sky News report the denial.
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The Washington Post corrected its earlier report that Jackson had apologized, noting that Elmasri did not represent her. Its correction is important: the evidence cited in this coverage does not establish that Jackson personally issued an apology. See the Post’s report and correction.
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Jackson’s interview appeared amid public claims questioning Harris’s racial identity during the presidential campaign. In its account of the September 10 debate, TIME reported that Donald Trump said, “I read that she was Black. Then I read that she was not Black.” Harris replied that it was a tragedy for a presidential candidate to have “consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.” TIME’s debate account documents that exchange.
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The campaign context does not change the underlying facts: Harris has both Black and Indian heritage, and her father is not white.
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