Jackson, the sister of the late Michael Jackson, was promoting her European tour in an interview when she was asked about the 2024 election and the possibility of the United States electing its first female Black president. In response, Jackson said she had heard that Harris is not Black, adding, “That’s what I heard, that she’s Indian.”
The interviewer clarified that the vice president is of both Black and Indian descent. Jackson replied, “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told,” she told the Guardian. “I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”
In reality, Harris’s father is of Jamaican descent, and her mother is Indian. Harris has often spoken about embracing both identities. Before becoming vice president, she attended Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus during her tenure as the junior senator from California.
When asked if the U.S. is ready for Harris to serve as president, Jackson admitted she “truthfully” doesn’t know. “I think there might be mayhem,” she said hesitantly. “Either way it goes, but we’ll have to see.”
The debate over Harris’s ethnicity reignited in late July when former President Donald Trump questioned her racial identity, claiming that Harris had identified as Black when “she was always of Indian heritage.” Trump argued she had identified as Indian for most of her life and “then all of a sudden, she made a turn” to identify as African-American.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) defended Trump’s remarks, pointing out that the Associated Press had referred to Harris as the first Indian woman to win a Senate seat in a 2016 article.
