The ladies on The View are adding their two cents following Janet Jackson bringing up a conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris’ racial identity. Ana Navarro was one of the more critical co-hosts. She said Jackson can support whichever candidate she wants but cannot be careless about misinformation.
“What she did was spread misinformation,” Navarro said on Monday’s episode of The View, Variety reported. “And 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.”
JANET JACKSON REPEATED FALSE CLAIM ABOUT VP HARRIS' RACE: #TheView co-hosts weigh in after the superstar falsely repeated a false claim that Vice Pres. Kamala Harris is "not Black." pic.twitter.com/Wwmc9bDkSY
— The View (@TheView) September 23, 2024
Although it’s widely known that Harris’ father is Jamaican and that her mother was Indian, Jackson brought up a right-wing talking about about Harris’ Black identity while recently appearing on The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast.
“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson said, as Blavity reported. “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 they discovered her father was white.”
Here’s what Whoopi Goldberg said about Janet Jackson’s Kamala Harris comments
While Navarro was critical of Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg showed the icon some grace.
“Sometimes people get it wrong and they’re wrong! They made a mistake, they were wrong. It happens,” Goldberg said. “Anybody who says it doesn’t happen to every one of us, multiracial or not, we all do it. So okay, a little grace for the girl. A little grace for the girl.”
Despite Jackson adding fuel to the right-wing conspiracy theory sparked by Donald Trump, Sunny Hostin argued that Harris is breaking barriers whether people like it or not.
Here’s what Sunny Hostin said about the discourse
“Kamala is breaking barriers just by being in the room,” Hostin said, according to Decider. “Regardless of whether Janet Jackson thinks she’s Black or white or Indian, the very fact that she is in the room deconstructs, in my view, the alleged societal norms that we’ve seen in the nearly 250 years of this country of what a presidential candidate looks like.”
Meanwhile, Navarro put up a photo of Harris with her father to drive home the fact that Harris is indeed Black.
“Let’s just go through the 101,” Navarro said. “Kamala Harris is the daughter of two immigrants. Her mother is South Asian from India. Her father is Black from Jamaica.”
