It started as a standard press run. Janet Jackson, the icon who’s spent decades basically dodging the press or giving the most carefully curated answers imaginable, sat down with The Guardian in September 2024. She was there to talk about her "Together Again" tour and her upcoming Vegas residency. But the conversation took a sharp, weird turn when the topic of the U.S. presidential election came up.
When asked about the possibility of Kamala Harris becoming the first Black female president, Janet didn't just hesitate. She repeated a specific, debunked conspiracy theory that had been floating around right-wing circles for months.
"She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian," Janet said.
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The interviewer, Nosheen Iqbal, was visibly floored. She tried to correct the record, pointing out that Harris is both Black and Indian. But Janet doubled down, saying, "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 that they discovered her father was white."
The "White Father" Claim and the Facts
To be clear: Donald J. Harris, Kamala’s father, is a Black man from Jamaica. He’s a Stanford professor emeritus. This isn't a secret. Kamala Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a cancer researcher from India.
Janet’s comments didn't just come out of thin air. They mirrored a "birther-lite" narrative pushed by Donald Trump during a 2024 appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention. Trump had claimed Harris "happened to turn Black" for political convenience. By repeating this during a high-profile interview, Janet effectively breathed new life into a narrative that many thought was relegated to the fringes of social media.
The Chaos of the "Unauthorized" Apology
What happened next was even stranger than the interview itself. Within 24 hours, a man named Mo Elmasri issued a formal apology to Buzzfeed on Janet's behalf. The statement claimed Janet respected Harris’s dual heritage and that her comments were based on "misinformation."
Then the real drama hit.
Janet’s actual team—specifically her brother and longtime manager, Randy Jackson—shut that down immediately. They told People and Variety that Elmasri was not authorized to speak for her and wasn't even her manager. Elmasri, for his part, claimed he was fired because he tried to fix her image. Janet’s camp basically said, "We don't know him like that."
The result? The original comments stood. No official apology was ever released by her actual team. They were reportedly too busy mourning the death of their brother, Tito Jackson, who had passed away just days prior, to deal with the PR fallout.
Why It Hit Different for Janet Fans
The backlash wasn't just coming from political junkies. It came from her core fanbase. Janet Jackson is a Black culture architect. From Control to Rhythm Nation, her music has been the soundtrack to Black liberation and social justice for decades.
Seeing her parrot a line that questioned the Blackness of a woman who attended Howard University and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha (the first Black intercollegiate Greek-lettered sorority) felt like a betrayal to some.
On the flip side, some defenders, like former NBA player Royce White, stepped up to say she was just "speaking her mind." But the consensus on social media was mostly confusion. How does one of the most famous Black women in the world get "told" that Kamala Harris’s father is white and just... believe it?
The "Mayhem" Prediction
Lost in the shuffle of the race comments was Janet’s take on the election outcome. She didn't give a preference for a candidate. Instead, she expressed a deep sense of dread.
"I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem," she said.
She wasn't the only one feeling that way in 2024, but coming from her, it felt especially bleak. It signaled a detachment from the political process that many attributed to her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness (though she has said she doesn't currently identify as one, the "no-politics" DNA often lingers).
What We Can Learn from the Janet-Kamala Moment
This whole saga is a textbook example of how fast misinformation travels, even into the "windowless rooms" of Five-Star hotels where superstars live.
- Check the Source: Janet literally said, "That's what I heard." In a world of deepfakes and echo chambers, "hearing it" isn't enough anymore, even for icons.
- The Danger of Celebrity Isolation: When you've been famous since you were seven, your "news" often comes from the people in your immediate circle. If that circle is an echo chamber, you're in trouble.
- Heritage is Complex, but Facts Aren't: You can be two things at once. Harris being Indian doesn't make her "not Black," and having a Jamaican father doesn't make her "white."
If you’re looking to avoid the same traps Janet fell into, the best thing you can do is look at primary documents. Read the biographies. Look at the family photos. Don't rely on what "they" supposedly said.
To get a better sense of how this misinformation spread, you can look into the specific timeline of the 2024 NABJ convention where these talking points first gained mainstream traction. Understanding the origin of a lie is the best way to make sure it doesn't take root in your own head.
Keep your sources varied. And maybe, unlike Janet, watch the news for more than a few days before forming a public opinion.
Next Steps: You might want to research the official ancestry records of the 2024 presidential candidates or look into the history of "race-shifting" accusations in American politics to see how these narratives are historically used to delegitimize leaders of color.