Janet Jackson repeats false claims about Kamala Harris’ race

NEW YORK – There was swift backlash on Sept 21 after American pop star Janet Jackson challenged United States Vice-President Kamala Harris’ racial identity in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian.

On Sept 22, a man who identified himself as her manager apologised for her statements.

Then, Jackson’s representatives quickly distanced her from that man and his apology, saying he was not her manager and was not authorised to speak for her.

The unusual turn of events began when The Guardian published a wide-ranging interview with Jackson, 58, timed to promote the European leg of her concert tour.

When the reporter, Ms Nosheen Iqbal, said the US “could be on the verge of voting in its first black female president”, referring to Ms Harris, Jackson responded by saying: “Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.”

When Ms Iqbal replied that Ms Harris, the Democratic nominee, is the daughter of an Indian woman and a Jamaican father who is black, Jackson responded: “Her father’s white.”

“That’s what I was told,” she added. “I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”

Across social media, people expressed bewilderment over Jackson’s comments.

On American talk show The View on Sept 23, one of the hosts, Ms Ana Navarro, said Jackson had been “very irresponsible” and had used the Guardian interview “carelessly, to spread misinformation”.

Mr Mo Elmasri, who said he was Jackson’s manager, issued an apology on Sept 22 in which he said her statements were “based on misinformation”.

Jackson, he told news and current affairs website BuzzFeed, “respects Harris’ dual heritage as both black and Indian and apologises for any confusion caused”.

After the statement was repeated by other news media outlets, representatives for Jackson issued a statement to American magazine Variety, saying that Mr Elmasri was not her manager and was not an authorised spokesperson.

They told Variety that Randy Jackson, one of Jackson’s brothers, is her manager.

Janet Jackson’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment, and neither she nor her representatives appear to have tried to distance themselves from her statements about Ms Harris.

Jackson’s comments echoed former US president Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Ms Harris’ racial identity.

In July, Trump, the Republican nominee, told an audience of black journalists that Ms Harris only recently “became a black person”.

In September, in a debate with Ms Harris, Trump said that he had read that Ms Harris was not black.

“Then, I read that she was black,” he said. “And that’s okay. Either one was okay with me. That’s up to her.”

Ms Harris has long embraced both her black and South Asian identities. She attended Howard University, a historically black institution, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the US’ first sorority established for black college women.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sept 23.

Mr Elmasri’s profile on IMDb, the entertainment database, was mostly stripped of information by the afternoon of Sept 23. But earlier in the day, it had showed him as being connected to Janet Jackson: Family First, a forthcoming Lifetime and A&E documentary series.

Variety reported that the page identified him as an executive producer.

He has also previously been identified as her manager in statements, including one that was issued in August promoting her upcoming Las Vegas residency.

Mr Elmasri said in an e-mail on Sept 23 that he no longer worked for Jackson and that he was fired over the weekend after he issued the apology statement.

“I was fired by Janet and Randy, after attempts to improve her image in front of public opinion and her fans,” he said, “and this is something I do not deserve.” NYTIMES