“Well, you know what they supposedly said? She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” she told the reporter. When the profile writer clarified that she is of both Black and South Asian heritage, Jackson answered, “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 they discovered her father was white.”
Jackson, in making her comments, was parroting conspiracy theory right-wing talking points perpetuated by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. At the presidential debate held earlier this month, he said, “I don't know. I mean all I can say is I read where she was not Black. And then I read that she was Black and that's OK. Either one was OK with me. That's up to her.” (In an interview with NPR, one scholar called it birtherism 2.0, referencing the conspiracy first posited by fringe theorists, who wanted to call into question former president Barack Obama’s legitimacy as a candidate by weaponizing his African father’s immigrant status.)