Whoopi Goldberg says Janet Jackson deserves "a little grace" for Kamala Harris race comment

Jackson has been dragged in headlines following her recent comment that Harris is "not Black"

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published September 24, 2024 3:55PM (EDT)

Janet Jackson at the Christian Siriano Spring 2024 Ready To Wear Fashion Show at the Pierre Hotel on September 8, 2023 in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)
Janet Jackson at the Christian Siriano Spring 2024 Ready To Wear Fashion Show at the Pierre Hotel on September 8, 2023 in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)

Whoopi Goldberg is standing up for Janet Jackson after the singer's baffling denial of Vice President Kamala Harris' race in a recent interview with The Guardian.

On Tuesday's episode of "The View," the host and former co-star of Jackson's in the movie "For Colored Girls" addressed the controversy surrounding the singer questioning Harris' race, asking for leniency for Jackson.

When asked about the possibility of the U.S. having its first Black female president in Harris, Jackson told The Guardian, "Well, you know what they supposedly said? She's not Black. That's what I heard. That she's Indian. Her father's white."

Goldberg defended Jackson, saying, "Sometimes people get it wrong, and they’re wrong! They made a mistake; they were wrong. It happens," adding that Jackson is not a "political animal."

"Anybody who says it doesn't happen to every one of us, multiracial or not, we all do it. So OK, a little grace for the girl. A little grace for the girl," Goldberg said.

However, co-host Ana Navarro did not agree with Goldberg. Navarro pushed back, "She's got every right to not like Kamala Harris if she doesn't want to. What she did was spread misinformation. And I think it's very irresponsible when you have a platform, the way Janet Jackson does, to use that platform carelessly to spread misinformation based on a racist allegation by Donald Trump."

Harris, who is biracial — Indian and Jamaican — has been at the center of her political opponent Donald Trump also questioning her race. Last month, Trump said at the National Association for Black Journalists convention about Harris, "I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black."


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