(Todd A. Smith/Photo Credit: Kevin Bussey for Bussey One Photography)
Wise people say, never meet your heroes.
An even more wise person should have said, never read interviews or follow your heroes on social media because you will experience the same disappointment as if you met them.
As a lifelong Jackson family fan, Janet Jackson’s comments in a BuzzFeed article that Vice President Kamala Harris is not Black is just flat out wrong and disappointing considering how Black people, “sisters” in particular, have constantly had her back through all the trials and tribulations of her career.
When a journalist asked Jackson what she thought about the United States potentially electing the first Black woman president, the pop star responded by saying, “Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. She’s Indian…I was told that they discovered her father was White.”
Harris’ mother Shyamala Goplan was a breast cancer researcher from India.
She passed away at 70-years-old in 2009.
Harris’ father is Donald Harris, a Jamaican economic advisor who came to America to complete his doctoral degree at University California in Berkley, Calif.
While at Berkley, Harris’ father met her mother.
Jackson has every right as any American to speak on politics.
She does not have to support Harris just because she is a Black and Indian woman.
And she can support former President Donald Trump, Jill Stein or anyone else if she so chooses.
But what no one should be able to do is peddle in conspiracy theories and misinformation, especially when the person spewing lies has a massive number of followers who might believe the lies told by Harris’ adversaries.
The Jackson family has consistently preached racial inclusion.
Therefore, no one should expect the youngest sibling in the famous family to support Harris just because of the color of her skin.
Just listen to the lyrics in her brothers’ (The Jacksons) song “Can You Feel It,” when they talk about everyone being the same and having the same blood flowing in their veins.
But let’s keep it real.
When the Jackson family first started and became pop music icons, their supporters mostly looked like them.
When mainstream media outlets raked her brother Michael Jackson over the coals for alleged child molestation, Black publications like Ebony and Jet never stooped to that level.
Ebony and Jet maintained their journalistic integrity, while also giving Michael the benefit of the doubt because a criminal court never convicted of him of any wrongdoing.
When her “King of Pop” brother needed a much-needed public relations makeover, he went to Oprah Winfrey for an interview.
When the actress/singer faced public scrutiny over the wardrobe malfunction with Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl in Houston, Black women and men rushed to her defense after Timberlake escaped major backlash.
Whenever Timberlake got honored for something, many Black people started Janet Jackson Appreciation Day on social media because they did not like the double standard that existed for Black female stars as opposed to White male stars.
To this day, many Black people will not support Timberlake because after the wardrobe malfunction his solo career skyrocketed while Jackson’s star diminished.
Former CBS executive Les Moonves intentionally tried to ruin Jackson’s career after the wardrobe malfunction before he destroyed his own career during the MeToo movement.
And when Timberlake did not extend an olive branch to Jackson when he later headlined a Super Bowl in Minneapolis, her fans were even more outraged.
Because of the support that Jackson has consistently received from the Black community, throwing Harris under the bus and adding fuel to a far-right, White supremacist conspiracy theory is extremely disappointing when all Jackson had to do was a quick Google search to discover that the vice president’s father looks nothing like a White man.
And as the mother of a biracial son and aunt of many biracial nieces and nephews, Jackson should understand that Harris is both Black and Indian.
That reality should not be difficult to grasp.
Unfortunately, growing up rich and famous often shields people form reality and the Jackson family seems to have been operating in an alternative universe for years.
Jackson’s manager and brother Randy Jackson (formerly of The Jacksons) has a history of latching on to conspiracy theories such as the fake news that Robert Kennedy, Jr. spouted about the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.
That might be why she disavowed an apology that was made on her behalf because maybe the fake news came from her brother and manager.
In fact, Baller Alert reported that it was actually Randy who fired his sister’s rep after an apology attributed to Jackson was released, although RegalMag.com has not yet verified that report.
How Jackson received the misinformation is not important at the end of the day.
However, what is important is how crucial the 2024 presidential election is.
Americans will choose between democracy and autocracy on Jan. 5.
And although the stakes could not be higher, Jackson said it will be mayhem regardless of who wins.
She prefaced that statement by saying she had not watched the news for a few days.
However, it sounds more like she has not watched the news for a few years.
Because if she had, she would know that the mayhem only comes from the right as seen from the Jan. 6 insurrection.
She would know that the attempts on Trump’s life have come from a Republican and former Republican who voted for Trump in 2016.
Jackson would know that it was the right that tried to violently steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden and ultimately overthrow democracy.
If she had watched the news, over at least the last few months, she would know about Project 2025 and the threat it poses to women and Black people like herself and her relatives.
But instead of watching, listening to or reading the work of real journalists, Jackson instead listened to the mythical “they” and what “they” said.
The “they” Jackson should care about are those that will have their rights stripped away from a wannabe dictator, instead of the “they” that obviously have no idea what they are talking about.
