Janet Jackson recently had an interview with The Guardian, in which she was asked how she felt about the prospect of Kamala Harris becoming America’s first black female president. Jackson responded by suggesting that Harris is not actually black, but Indian.

This predictably led to widespread outrage among the race-obsessed and the holy signalers of virtue. How dare Janet Jackson, a black woman, question another black woman’s “blackness,” let alone question the venerable Chosen One and possibly harm her chances of defeating “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”?

Of course, this obsession with race is not a new phenomenon. This has been an ongoing saga with Harris, specifically, as her racial identity has been called into question many times. She has spent much of her career touting her Indian heritage and only seems to claim to be black when she believes it is politically advantageous to do so, even donning an embarrassing faux “black” accent when speaking to a roomful of black people to give the impression that she is the cool black auntie who drinks wine while listening to Tupac. But regardless of the antics and the suspect motives, the question remains: is Harris truly black?

Racial Gatekeeping

I am going to start to answer this question by defending Kamala Harris a bit. I have personally been on the receiving end of racial gatekeeping more times than I can recount, and it is not a pleasant experience. I have been told that I hate black people, I hate myself, I have internalized white supremacy, I should have my “black card” revoked, I am an “Uncle Tom,” etc.

I also regularly come across posts on social media denouncing certain behaviors as somehow betraying the black identity. Even as I am writing this, I happened to come across a video on X of actor Jamie Foxx walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. The replies to the post were filled with vitriol and mockery for no other reason than the fact that the wedding guests appeared to be mostly white, as if it’s not acceptable for an authentically black person to invite so many white people to a wedding. This is an all-too-common viewpoint. The suggestion is that if you do not behave a certain way, adhere to a certain belief system, or do not have the acceptable ancestry, then you do not qualify as a black individual.

Some black people have a saying — “not all skin folk are kinfolk” — meaning that not everyone who is black should be considered part of the “black community.” Nikole Hannah-Jones, the founder of the asinine 1619 Project, proclaimed that there is a difference between being physically black and politically black (i.e. the “true” black). There is a movement in the United States to separate so-called ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) from other Americans who merely appear to be black, such as African or Caribbean immigrants.

The point is that some people in our society believe that racial identity matters so deeply that it encapsulates all of who we are on a fundamental level. There used to be a word for this kind of toxic belief system: racism. Somehow, however, this blatant form of racism has inexplicably managed to transform itself into a noble and virtuous way of viewing the world (but only for some people).

Asking the Wrong Questions

So, on a certain level, I empathize with Harris and stand against any racial gatekeeping that attacks or questions her racial authenticity. However, I cannot absolve her completely because she, herself, is clearly guilty of harnessing race as a political weapon either through racial-identity pandering or by attempting to shield herself from valid criticism by claiming to be a victim of racism. Politicians are well-known for being disingenuous to a certain degree and saying things they don’t truly mean or pandering to a certain segment of the population for votes.

But I’m not sure there is a politician who is more disingenuous and Machiavellian than Kamala Harris. It is not clear what she truly believes in. Whether or not she is black should be the least of our concerns. It is wholly immaterial. The question we need to be concerned with is not her heritage or racial identity — it is the question, “What does this woman actually believe?” Price controls do not have a race. Genital mutilation in minors does not have a color. Suppression of free speech and religious freedom, infringements on the Second Amendment, unrestricted abortion, foreign wars, taxing unrealized capital gains, government manipulation of the housing market, uncontrolled illegal immigration, rising inflation, emboldening general criminality, and continued out-of-control government spending are all issues that have nothing to do with the ethnicity of the person in question who implements them.

These are the things that should be the real concern for every American of every color.

A White Supremacist Society?

Apart from the racial gatekeeping, questions of Harris’s race are often an attempt to expose how disingenuous and fraudulent she is, rather than to attach any meaning to her skin color. It is meant to show that she, herself, does not even believe in the things she says. Regardless, even if we were to ignore these underlying motivations, it is interesting that these discussions are happening at all in the supposed white supremacist society that many progressives claim we live in. One would think that if we truly lived in a horribly oppressive society in which white supremacy is woven into the very fabric of our culture and institutions, Harris’s political enemies would be the ones attempting to convince everyone that she is, indeed, black in order to damage her prospects. In a white supremacist society, it would hardly be advantageous to tout one’s “blackness” and expect to achieve any prominent position of power, let alone become president of the entire country. One would also think that, given her apparent ancestral ambiguity, Harris’s political advantage would lie in outright rejecting the claimed handicap of a black identity and embracing some other, stronger identity that Critical Race Theory scholars would claim is “closer to whiteness” in order to benefit from the ethereal specter of white privilege. The very fact that she refuses to do this and instead embraces a largely contrived and performative “black identity” suggests that perhaps the race hustlers who insist that we are no better off than we were in the 1950s and 60s are not being entirely honest with us.

Shocking, I know. It is quite a statement to claim that the tentacles of racism are so ubiquitous and so powerful in our society that they can somehow prevent black people from succeeding in school, prevent them from building wealth, and avoiding crime, but they are simultaneously not powerful enough to keep those very same people from becoming president of the United States. Black people are at such a disadvantage in our society that a presidential candidate feels she must embrace a black identity in order to win an election.

Does that make sense? If we indeed have a white supremacist society, it is without a doubt the weakest, most ineffectual white supremacist society to ever exist.

Time to Lose This Obsession

Ultimately, our country’s race obsession sorely needs to be abandoned altogether. Every time a supposed “discussion” in defense of racial identity takes place, it is rarely productive, provides no real insight, advances no positive outcomes, and solves zero problems. It is quite literally a waste of time and resources that only further drives division.

Kamala Harris is black and Indian. Who cares? Jaime Foxx’s daughter married a white guy and had mostly white people at her wedding. Who cares? My own family is a large mix of white and black. Who cares? It makes no difference and tells us absolutely nothing about the content of those people’s character. I sincerely pray our country can find a way to eventually abandon racial thinking altogether and finally begin moving toward a post-racial society, viewing each other not as separate racialized collectives but as fellow Americans who have a shared history and a shared sense of an American identity and ideals, even though we may look different.

Furthermore, may we Christians view each other as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ no matter what superficial differences there may be among us. The Kingdom of God is not segregated by race. Race means nothing. What do we gain by being so concerned with a presidential candidate’s racial background? Policy, beliefs, integrity, leadership qualities – these are the things that we should care about – not race. Let’s not waste any more time on this. Is Kamala Harris truly black? Who cares? It doesn’t matter. She is a terrible presidential candidate because of who she is, not because of what she looks like.

Leonydus Johnson is a writer, cultural/political commentator, and host of Informed Dissent, a podcast bringing common sense, liberty-minded perspectives to a variety of hot-button topics including race, politics, economics, psychology, and religion that dare to challenge the accepted narratives. He is also the author of Raising Victims: The Pernicious Rise of Critical Race Theory (Salem Books, 2023).