Last week, Janet Jackson sparked backlash for her comments on Vice President Kamala Harris's race.
During an interview with British publication the Guardian, Janet said she’d “heard” that Kamala is “not Black” and that “she’s Indian.”
Kamala is biracial: her dad, Donald J. Harris, is Black, and her mom, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, is Indian. However, amid the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, former president Donald Trump falsely claimed that Kamala has only identified as Asian American until recently, stating that she “happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black.” Sadly, right-wing conspiracy theorists have continued to run with this claim, spreading misinformation about Kamala’s racial identity.
When the interviewer informed Janet of Kamala's biracial identity, the singer falsely stated: “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.”
Janet’s comments were branded “ignorant” and “disappointing” by several internet users — and now, Whoopi Goldberg has jumped to her defense.
Whoopi and her The View cohosts discussed Janet’s remarks during a recent episode of the talk show, with commentator Ana Navarro quickly calling out the singer for spreading “misinformation” about Kamala’s racial identity.
“What she did was spread misinformation,” Ana said. "I think it’s very irresponsible, when you have a platform the way Janet Jackson does, to use that platform carelessly, to spread misinformation based on a racist allegation by Donald Trump.”
The group then went on to discuss the dangers of misinformation more broadly, with Alyssa Farah Griffin offering Janet some grace as she suggested that people live in “information silos” due to how curated our social media feeds are.
Later on, Sunny Hostin said it’s “unfortunate” that Janet echoed false claims about Kamala’s race while simultaneously admitting she hasn’t been keeping up with the news.
“[Kamala] has identified herself as a Black woman. She has also said that her mother is Asian. She didn’t just become Black. And so, it’s unfortunate that Janet Jackson, an icon, admittedly said, ‘I don’t know, I haven’t been reading the news these past few days,’” she said. “I don’t know if it comes from misinformation, I don’t know if it comes from a lack of information. All I know is, I don’t wanna give it this much air.”
Here, Whoopi quickly jumped in to passionately defend Janet.
“Yeah, she’s got a phone. Janet Jackson is not a political animal. She's a musician, her life is doing this, and she's mourning her brother,” Whoopi said.
“Sometimes I’ve said stuff, and, you know, I was wrong,” she continued, noting that it’s a “pain in the butt” to respond to people who constantly criticize you for making a mistake. “Sometimes people get it wrong and they’re wrong! They made a mistake, they were wrong. It happens.”
“Anybody who says it doesn’t happen to every one of us, multiracial or not, we all do it. So OK, a little grace for the girl,” she added.
