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.