Following swift backlash for recent comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, Janet Jackson has issued an apology.
The 5x Grammy winner’s manager Mo Elmasri admitted the Jackson previously spoke “based on misinformation” about the Democratic presidential nominee’s family and ethnicity during a recent interview with The Guardian.
“She deeply respects Vice President Kamala Harris and her accomplishments as a Black and Indian woman. Janet apologizes for any confusion caused and acknowledges the importance of accurate representation in public discourse,” Elmasri told Buzzfeed in a statement. “We appreciate the opportunity to address this and will remain committed to promoting unity.”
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Jackson previously postulated about Harris’ family background while seemingly admitting that she did not know what she was talking about.
“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” she told The Guardian. When the reporter clarified that Harris is of both Black and South Asian heritage, Jackson responded, “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told they discovered her father was white.”
Jackson appeared to be parroting a right-wing conspiracy theory perpetuated by Harris’ presidential opponent Donald Trump. At the presidential debate held earlier this month, Trump said, “I don’t know. I mean all I can say is I read where she was not Black. And then I read that she was Black and that’s OK. Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her.”
It is well documented that the VP’s father Donald is a Jamaican-American professor of economics at Stanford University, while her late mother Shyamala Gopalan was a renowned breast cancer researcher and scientist who hailed from southern India. Both of Kamala’s parents immigrated to the United States, meeting as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley.
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