Janet Jackson Is Presented as Sinner and Saint in the Span of a Week

“Janet Jackson saved my life” is a far cry from some of the other digs lobbed at the singer this past week, after an interview conducted by Nosheen Iqbal for The Guardian, published on September 21st, revealed Jackson to be skeptical of presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ Blackness. It was Eve whose statements about Jackson’s saintliness somewhat counteracted the backlash/“sinner” narrative surrounding the Queen of R&B (but not Pop) for her ignorant and hurtful comments that seemed to be in line with those of a MAGA supporter. Eve’s quote comes from her new memoir, Who’s That Girl? (again trying to co-opt that title from Madonna, who will always have the monopoly on it, and is supposedly calling her forthcoming biopic as such, repurposing the name of her 1987 movie and accompanying lead single from the soundtrack).

But before the excerpt from Eve’s book started widely circulating in time to vaguely mitigate Jackson’s unexpected comments about Harris, Jackson’s rhetoric had already resulted in a major backlash from fans and ordinary observers alike. Especially considering Jackson’s unique responsibility as a highly influential Black woman. Alas, she seems to be one of those Black women who deems certain other Black people not “Black enough” (sometimes known as: colorism). Except that Jackson continued to double down on her comments that Harris isn’t Black at all, just Indian. So vehement about her stance, apparently, that she was sure to have her “actual” team publicly decry the apology issued by a man claiming to be her manager, Mo Elmasri. In the aftermath, Jackson opted to skip issuing a “real” apology of her own, which of course speaks volumes.

Whoever he really is, Elmasri’s statement attempted to do damage control, while Jackson sought to undermine his mea culpa by speaking out against the false apology. Meanwhile, fellow famous Black entertainers like D.L. Hughley lashed out at Jackson by saying, “Janet Jackson’s interview sounded like a Trump rally! FYI!! It’s a little ironic to question whether someone is black while you’re breathing through the nose of a white woman!” This jibe at her plastic surgery also harkens back to her brother, Michael, who seemed to spend the majority of his adult life trying to turn completely white (oh the fucked-up psychology this racist society can wreak).

As for the exchange that has so many people (Black and otherwise) enraged with Janet, it went as follows:

“America could be on the verge of voting in its first black female president, Kamala Harris. ‘Well, you know what they supposedly said?’ she asks me. ‘She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.’ She looks at me expectantly, perhaps assuming that I have Indian heritage. ‘Well, she’s both,’ I offer. ‘Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days,’ she coughs. ‘I was told that they discovered her father was white.’ I’m floored at this point. It’s well known that Harris’s father is a Jamaican economist, a Stanford professor who split from her Indian mother when she was five. ‘My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,’ Harris wrote in her book, The Truths We Hold. The people who are most vocal in questioning the facts of Harris’ identity tend to be hardcore QAnon-adjacent, Trump-loving conspiracy theorists. I don’t think Jackson falls into that camp, but I do wonder what the algorithms are serving her. I start again. Harris has dual heritage, I say, and, given this moment, does Jackson think America is ready for her—if we agree she’s Black? Or, okay, a woman of color? ‘I don’t know,’ Jackson stage whispers. ‘Honestly, I don’t want to answer that because I really, truthfully, don’t know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem.’”

That last statement is the only one Jackson made that had any sense to it. For she’s not wrong that America’s political and racial divide is so intense that there will be bedlam no matter who wins. And let’s not kid ourselves that the extremist white supremacists won’t come out of the woodwork to cause a stir if Harris does win. Or kid ourselves that Trump doesn’t still have an eerily good chance of keeping her from the presidency. Despite his own racist comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention during which he indicated that he felt Harris suddenly “became Black” for more political clout and appeal. Though, if he knew anything about what it is to be Black in America, he might understand that such a characteristic isn’t usually touted for benefit in a The System setting.

Jackson’s repetition of this sentiment might be shocking to some, but, at the same time, she isn’t exactly known for being super “lucid” these days with all her mumbo-jumbo religious bullshit. To boot, many have dredged up an old comment of Harris’ circa 2004 that weighed in on Michael Jackson’s then latest child abuse trial, speculating that Jackson secretly still harbors resentment about it.

One person who holds no ill will toward from something that happened back in the 2000s is Eve, who rehashed the miraculous way in which Jackson came to her aid on the night of the 2007 VMAs (you know, the one best known for Britney Spears’ trainwreck performance of “Gimme More”). This from an excerpt from her new memoir that’s been making the rounds. In it, she recalls how she had the misfortune of drinking a drugged beverage (maybe it was Diddy who was responsible) at an afterparty and how “Missy [Elliott] came in to check on me, but I was just unable to collect myself. Then who walks in, Janet Jackson. I had never met her before, and so her first introduction to me was seeing me hysterical. None of that mattered to Janet; she actually just sprang into action and told people to get aspirin, water, hot sauce and a piece of white bread. That concoction knocked me right out of my hysteria. So basically Janet Jackson saved my life.”

A declaration that many others would probably echo…up until her Harris comments. Because there’s no doubt that the racist whites will glom onto them so that they can say, “See? Even a real Black person knows that Kamala isn’t Black, just pretending to be.” And yes, Jackson’s controversial comments with regard to this election are far more offensive than Chappell Roan’s (though, in her case, “offensive” should be put in quotes). Nonetheless, it would be nice to think of Jackson in the same “saintly,” “angel from above” way that Eve did in ’07. But it’s going to be hard to if she continues to repeat these false claims about Harris’ ethnicity.