As the 2024 election careens ever closer like a runaway train (if you can’t tell, this American loves election season), misinformation about presidential candidate Kamala Harris is spreading like wildfire (this American also loves a good metaphor!).
Speaking of Americans, I would hope that my fellow Americans and potential voters understand what it takes to run for president. I’m not just talking about clearly outlined policies and basic public speaking skills — though that’s up for debate — but the actual requirements one must meet to be eligible for presidential candidacy. I’ll list them here, courtesy of the Constitution: Presidential candidates must be natural-born citizens of the United States, must be at least 35 years old, and must be United States residents for at least 14 years.
Kamala Harris is actively running for president. Thus, it follows that she meets all the criteria for presidential candidacy listed by our dear Constitution. To put it even more plainly: Kamala Harris is a natural-born American citizen. Why is her nationality even part of the discussion?
Janet Jackson, the pop star behind hits like “Rhythm Nation,” decided an interview with The Guardian was a good opportunity to spread misinformation about the democratic presidential candidate. The reporter asked Jackson her thoughts on the U.S. potential voting for its first Black female president and Jackson responded, “Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.” She continued to insert foot into mouth by saying, “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.”
Who is telling you this, Ms. Jackson? Because it sounds awfully similar to the racist rhetoric Trump was spewing in a July interview where he asked for an investigation on whether Harris had decided to “turn Black.” It’s apparent that Jackson has not turned on the news for months or else she would realize Harris is both Black and Indian. Her father, Donald J. Harris, is a Jamaican-American economics professor and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biomedical scientist from India.
According to a Reuters report debunking misinformation around Harris’ racial identity, some Facebook users have been sharing pictures of Harris’ birth certificate to discredit her heritage. In the pictures, Harris’ mother’s birthplace is listed as India and her race is listed as Caucasian. These Facebook users are using Harris’ mother’s listed race to discredit Harris’s Black identity and to claim this somehow makes her a white woman. I shouldn’t have to point out that due to Harris’ father being Jamaican, Harris would still be a Black woman even if her mom were white, which she isn’t.
That same report quotes several sources clarifying that people of Indian heritage were classified as caucasian in the 1960s when Harris was born. It makes sense that Harris’ mother would use that classification at the time. Questioning Harris’ nationality, however, makes about as much sense as Trump and J.D. Vance’s debunked claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets.
