A.R. Shaw: Janet Jackson’s false statement on Kamala Harris’ race reveals dangers of misinformation in 2024 election

Janet Jackson has become a symbol of the dangers that can occur when misinformation and disinformation is allowed to go unchecked.& During a recent interview with& The Guardian, Jackson repeated a false statement about that continues to be perpetuated about VP Kamala Harris’ race.& “She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson said. “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days.”& Harris has always identified as a Black and Indian American. Her father, Donald Harris, an economist and former Stanford professor, is Afro Jamaican. Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical scientist, was from India.& The question surrounding Harris’ race was once just fodder for uninformed social media users. That’s until Donald Trump used his old racist playbook to question Harris’ racial identity.& & During his controversial appearance at the 2024 NABJ, Trump lied about Harris’ race while in a room full of Black journalists.& “She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she turned Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I...