Down quote podcast host Rachel Lindsay: “It’s been a rough week for the Jacksons.”

September 15 Tito Jackson, founding father of the Jackson 5 died on the age of 70 after a heart attack. September 21 published extensive interview with singer Janet Jackson about motherhood, growing up in such a famous family and the upcoming presidential election in 2024. The artist, who rarely took fans by the side of her legendary velvet rope, made the news after questioning the racial background of presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. This move left many wondering how such a beloved black icon may very well be so out of touch with reality and why he was not held accountable for spreading lies.

When I first heard Jackson say Harris wasn’t black, I immediately dismissed it as one other social media lie. After all, this election season has been filled with bots, misleading memes and disinformation campaigns on X, formerly often called Twitter. So, seeing tweets circulating through which one of the famous black pop stars on the earth disparaged the primary black woman nominated for the best political office within the United States didn’t immediately alarm me. But then I saw the link to the article and skim it myself.

And yes…Janet said that sh….

Asked what she thought about the potential of Harris making history, Jackson replied: “You know what they allegedly said? She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she is Indian. When a reporter told her Harris was of black and South Asian descent, Jackson replied: “Her father is 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.”

Predictably, Jackson’s comments caused a stir on social media. Both Harris supporters and opponents he gave the singer grace for being flawed or using her words to proceed attacking the vp. co-host Whoopi Goldberg felt that Jackson’s comments were simply a mistake. “Sometimes people make mistakes and are flawed! They made a mistake; they were flawed. “It happens” Goldberg said on the show.

But this will not be a easy “mistake”. Jackson didn’t misspel Harris’s name or discover her running mate. Instead, she repeated a right-wing conspiracy theory that seeks to discredit Harris by questioning her racial identity. As the mother of a biracial child (she has a son with her ex-husband, Qatari business executive Wissam Al Mana) – and aunt to several others – Jackson should know firsthand that Black people will be multiracial and multicolored. And yet, the singer seemed confused about Harris, even after being informed that the Democratic nominee was indeed Black.

Of course, Jackson could easily set the record straight by issuing a statement regarding her comments, but up to now that hasn’t happened. Someone allegedly connected to the singer shared an apology on Jackson’s behalf on Buzzfeed, but Jackson’s camp quickly quashed it by calling out “unauthorized”.

This begs the query: if Jackson’s team can respond so quickly to a false apology, why hasn’t she corrected her erroneous statements about Harris?

Some point to the death of her brother Tito as the rationale for Jackson’s lack of explanation, but while the family continues to grieve, the singer’s representatives still had time to reject the false apology. Others identified her older brother and manager Randy Jackson’s support for right-wing ideas as the rationale why Jackson repeated this plot so easily. Either way, Jackson is an adult who has been a star for most of his life. She’s not a child who doesn’t know higher. After five a long time within the industry, she knows tips on how to cope with public relations mistakes, so her decision to stay silent leads us to an uncomfortable truth: Jackson must either imagine what she said about Harris, or she is totally divorced from the fact and consequences of those statements. elections are for black people.

The Jackson siblings grew up as Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion that counsels its members to not vote or engage in politics. To that end, Jackson has never been directly involved politically — although she hasn’t campaigned for any candidate she actually expressed her support former President Barack Obama just months into his first term in 2009. Still, she needs to be held accountable for spreading disinformation about Harris and refusing to correct her testimony. We have sued others for similar mistakes, reminiscent of rapper Meek Mill for repeating debunked ideas on Harris as California prosecutor, model Amber Rose for claiming the vp is “giving in to black people” or NFL player Sauce Gardner for being apolitical at a time when the stakes are just too high for Black people. So Jackson shouldn’t be excluded because she is near us. She must be called out – lovingly, after all – because telling a reporter “you heard” that Harris’ dad was white is solely unacceptable, especially in 2024.

To be clear, Jackson doesn’t should get involved in politics. I’d relatively she didn’t try this if she was going to be so ill-informed about the fundamental facts. But while we still love Jackson – and we’ll proceed to follow her in it ongoing fan war with singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake — if she begins to publicly wade into political waters, she’s going to have to do her homework and take control of her voice and voices.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James and his son Bronny are already training with the remainder of the Los Angeles Lakers during voluntary offseason workouts. JJ Redick and his coaching staff are planning and discussing a moment early in the brand new season when father and son will share an NBA court for the primary time.

While the small print of that historic day are still unknown, Redick shares the basketball world’s anticipation of watching the perfect scorer in NBA history play next to Lakers’ recent second-round draft pickNo father and son have ever played within the NBA at the identical time, let alone on the identical team.

“We don’t have anything planned, per se, in terms of a commitment to do it that way,” Redick said. “We’ve obviously talked about it as a staff and we’ve worked out some details of what that might look like, but we haven’t committed to anything, and obviously there’s a discussion to have once we’re all together, with Bronny and LeBron as well. They should be part of that discussion as well.”

Redick and general manager Rob Pelinka expressed their excitement in regards to the partnership during Wednesday’s preseason press conference. Redick sees only positives within the duo’s on-court connection and doesn’t anticipate any friction or concerns within the family dynamic.

“I don’t see it as a challenge any different than any other challenge of coaching a player or coaching a relationship,” Redick said.

Pelinka then jokingly threw in an anecdote from a recent practice: “Maybe the challenge is Bronny, when, like in our exhibition game, he got plugged into LeBron, and LeBron took him baseline, up and under the glass. The words they exchanged afterward were probably harder than anything.”

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The Lakers haven’t announced or made a call on how long Bronny, who turns 20 during training camp, will play on the NBA roster alongside his famous father, who turns 40 in December.

Although the front office has not confirmed it, Bronny James will likely spend a lot of the upcoming season within the G League developing his skills. He played in just 25 games during his lone season on the University of Southern California after recovery after cardiac arrest during off-season training.

Pelinka and Redick remain very optimistic in regards to the 6-foot-11 Bronny’s ability to play within the NBA.

“Bronny, I feel very fortunate to coach him because he’s young and hungry and has a lot of natural ability that we can really mold into a really good NBA player,” Redick said. “And he’s a fantastic kid. He’s incredibly coachable. He’s got the right spirit and energy every day.”

LeBron James took a vacation after leading the USA to the gold medal on the Olympic Games in Paris, but he’s been back within the gym for two weeks now, Redick said.

According to Pelinka, the Lakers didn’t make any daring moves this summer, limited by the contracts of their top players and the brand new league system that made it rather more difficult to enhance their rosters.

So the Lakers roster across the James family will largely be the identical group that made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2023 but finished eighth within the West last spring before losing to Denver in the primary round. Those Lakers weren’t elite teams, even with the wonderful health of LeBron and Anthony Davis, two veterans with significant mileage who’ve dealt with significant injury issues in previous seasons.

Pelinka said he could be open to moving two tradeable first-round picks if he saw a suggestion that may lead to “sustainable excellence for the Lakers.” He would also move one pick for “a slight improvement if we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent and Jalen Hood-Schifino are healthy for training camp, but not all might be ready for practice next week.

Christian Wood might be re-evaluated in six weeks following surgery on his left knee earlier this month.

Pelinka also revealed that Jarred Vanderbilt, a defensive end who played in just 29 games last season due to a foot injury, underwent successful “procedures” on each feet at the beginning of the offseason. The forward continues to be recovering, but Pelinka said he’s optimistic that Vanderbilt might be able to play on Opening Night on Oct. 22.

We are sad to announce that Grammy Award-winning singer Victoria Monét and her former partner and father of her child, Hazel Monét Gaines, have separated.

Although the web has been speculating about their split for a while now, Victoria Monet and John Gaines have yet to substantiate the top of their relationship. In a joint statement shared on social media, the 2 confirmed that they split ten months ago and try to give attention to raising their 2-year-old daughter, Hazel, together.