Ms Jackson, You Too?

By Style On The Dot on 23/09/2024

In the latest cover story of The Guardian's weekend magazine 'Saturday', Janet Jackson repeated Donald Trump's persistent doubt that Kamala Harris is Black

Janet Jackson on the cover of Saturday. Screen shot: gdnsaturday/Instagram

In a long, wide-ranging, fairly-revealing interview in Saturday magazine, The Guardian's weekend publication, Janet Jackson unambiguously expressed doubt in the US vice-president Kamala Harris's Blackness. When asked to comment on the possibility that Americans could see their first Black female president this November, Ms Jackson said, correcting the interviewer: "Well, you know what they supposedly said?" And added, "She's not black. That's what I heard. That she's Indian." She was then told by the surprised journalist that Ms Harris is both, but she doubled down: "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." Sounding like a Republican surrogate, she did not say who "they" were. What's really ironic is that, earlier, when responding to the modest view she takes of herself, she said, "I shouldn't have listened to those around me."

Ms Jackson, who now resides in the UK, is the cover subject of the latest issue of Saturday. Dressed in a deconstructed, sleeveless Thom Browne jacket and a shirt, and heel-less high-heeled boots with spiked soles, she looked uncomfortable as a model, as if she was made to pose against her will. Interestingly, on right is the blurb, "Is Donald Trump a fascist?" The interview, although conducted "a few weeks before" her older brother Tito died on 15 September, was timed to publish just four days to the second leg of her Together Again tour, named after her 1977 single that was accompanied by an excellently styled music video. And that is irony number two. The view Ms Jackson held of the VP did not sound unifying. Many of her fans are surprised that she has chosen to share the suspicion of Donald Trump, who, addressing an audience of Black journalists last July, claimed Ms Harris "became a Black person". Later, at the debate with his opponent this month, he said: "Then I read she was Black. And that's okay. Either one was okay with me. That's up to her."

Ms Jackson is the cover subject of the latest issue of Saturday. Dressed in a deconstructed, sleeveless Thom Browne jacket and a shirt, and heel-less high-heeled boots with spiked soles, she looked uncomfortable as a model, as if she was made to pose against her will

But the story did not end with the strange and incorrect claim in the interview. The day after the piece ran, a man who was identified as Ms Jackson's manager, Mo Elmasri, apologised on her behalf for what the five-time Grammy winner said. Mr Elmasri apparently contacted several US news outlets, such as Variety and Buzzfeed. They quoted him declaring that Ms Jackson had come to the realisation that what she said to The Guardian journalist was "based on misinformation". She, therefore, "apologizes for any confusion caused." Just as soon as that came out, TMZ reported that they were contacted by Ms Jackson's team and was told that Mr Elmasri was not authorised to issue that apology, even declaring that he was not her manager. Her brother Randy Jackson, they clarified, manages her professional affairs. In an email to The New York Times, Mr Elmasri revealed that he was dismissed following his contact with the media. He said, "I was fired by Janet and Randy, after attempts to improve her image in front of public opinion and her fans. And this is something I do not deserve."

It has been established for a while that Kamala Harris was born to an Indian mother and a Black Jamaican father. She has publicly accepted both her South Asian and Black ethnicities. But since the sudden announcement of her candidacy in July, Ms Harris has been a target of continual sexist and racist attacks, persistently played up by Mr Trump. Ms Jackson's false, QAnon-ish I-heard-so plainly showed a mendacious side of her that was surprising, and massively disappointing to her legion of fans. What happened to 'There are times when I look above and beyond'? It is not known who she supports among the two presidential hopefuls. But even if she could not determine Ms Harris's racial mix, she could have kept silent, rather than raise doubt with the conspiratorial tone so typical of the MAGA masses or the ever-eager-to-spread-falsehoods lackeys of Mr Trump. Not revealing who she will vote for, Janet Jackson predicted to the magazine: "It's going to be mayhem." She did not say how that would be Together Again.