100% black women with long hair and people think shes mixed video

[divya]

Divya who are the mixed chicks?

Left and the middle. The one on the left - Jenna Marie Andre - can't remember her background but she's a mix. However, the one in the middle - Cheryl Ankrah -has a Trini Indian mother and a Ghanaian father. She was also raised Hindu and may be still...

 

[Akemi]

Tyra is just perpetuating all of the nasty things EVERYONE believes about race, skin color, phenotype, etc. She is accomplishing nothing with these shows. Maybe if she had some real experts, such as professors of race relations, sociology, anthropology, genetics, etc.. then I would give her the benefit of the doubt. But instead she choose show after show to have the MOST ignorant guests speak on these topics, which is clearly her projecting. She is manifesting her inferiority complex vicariously through her studip, a$$backwards guests.

eta: i watched maybe a minute or two of the video and shut it off. i have zero patience for that bafoonery and self-hatred.

I agree. I feel so embarrassed when I watch these shows. I feel like she's airing our dirty laundry. I guess she's trying to help, but.... not only that, I never see anything accomplished at I think the people on the show leave the same way they arrived and the people in the audience and the people who are watching leave with more knowledge of our issues, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Nothing ever seems to be resolved at the end. She needs some psychological experts on the show when she covers these types of topics. And she also has so many people on the show each time that there's never enough time to speak to one person at length and actually help/ change them.

its just so disgusting how much self hate is in our communities...its so thick you can cut it with a knife....and as much as tyra wants to be a "strong black woman" she secretly doesnt lover herself enough....

makes me believe now that relaxers equate skin bleaching creams

Mm-hmm. Sad. When are we going to get past these issues??

Am I the only one who finds calling Native Americans 'Indian' quite rude? Isn't it wrong to call them 'Indians'? why are people stil doing that? They are not Indians they are native americans.

Yeah. I find it rude, too.

 

[Akemi]

Things like this make me want to show my pride in my race even more. I'm black and I'm proud!!

 

[Solitude]

I agree. I feel so embarrassed when I watch these shows. I feel like she's airing our dirty laundry. I guess she's trying to help, but.... not only that, I never see anything accomplished at I think the people on the show leave the same way they arrived and the people in the audience and the people who are watching leave with more knowledge of our issues, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Nothing ever seems to be resolved at the end. She needs some psychological experts on the show when she covers these types of topics. And she also has so many people on the show each time that there's never enough time to speak to one person at length and actually help/ change them.

Mm-hmm. Sad. When are we going to get past these issues??

Was Cornell West airing our dirty laundry with Race Matters? No...it's simply discussing issues dealing with race, diversity, tolerance, and false perceptions. Just because we don't talk about these things doesn't meant the issues will go away. I appreciate Tyra for airing these shows.

It's also not true that nothing changes- I remember one show where this black woman hated other black women- she came back on the show after getting some help and she changed; she talked about her poor experiences and what scarred her. She may have helped someone. In fact, the show helped me.

 

[Amerie123]

How many black people don't have other genes? That's what gets me so annoyed with this mixed/non mixed/you look like this so claim this type of a thing. Most of us are MIXED here in America, and that is how we came to be black Americans. Whereas most Latinos are mixtures of African, Spanish, Indian cultures, etc and they are Latino. Most places are MIXED anyways. So this whole thing just gives me a headache. Most people in my family don't look alike, so I thought all black families were that way. My mom is light skinned with naturally red hair and was called (little white girl) but never once said she was mixed (technically her mom is Native American and her dad is half white and black), my dad is a little darker (black/cuban mix). We have relatives that could pass for white, or look mixed, or look black, or look spanish (and the back ground is varied as my background from both sides is black, native american, white, and cuban) and I can tell you that I look black!BLACK BLACK! It cracks me up to see people ashamed of who they are. But still this whole "other" gene thing is kinda perplexing. We don't all look alike as black americans because we have a varied background starting with rape in slavery, mixing in with Native Americans (some of us), and then the current mixing of other races. Unless you came straight off the boat from Africa...and even there there is some mixing going on, chances are our features are going to be varied. I cracked up when someone called Obama mixed and said he didn't represent black people. I was like his Dad is African, he is more black then you. How many times were your ancestors raped over the past century and a half? How many generations were you "mixed" down. He only has his mom in the mix. You may have your great great great great grandmom and your great great, and your great, before the mixing thing stopped. So this whole mixed thing is just a huge headache because I feel it's a way for people to not claim being black, or a minority in ways.

girl, you hit the nail on the head. i cant stand it. mmm mmm, couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[XXXtacy]

I really didn't want to watch this. It actually turned out to be better than expected.

There are a lot of people who are ignorant of color and race even in 2008 soon to be 2009. This is a shame.

 

[Casarela]

MMM...I am haitian and moroccan, I stayed in morocco for a while and I dont agree. Moroccans comes in a variety of shades just as african-americans do. There are caucasian looking moroccans to the dark skin moroccan. The majority looks like theyre mixed than black than white( which you will find mostly in the town of FES)


Now let me show you some shades of Morocco:


My cousins:

moroccan men:

other moroccan men:

North Africans are Caucasian.

 

[Solitude]

Beginning of original post DELETED. I got too deep into this topic.

wow, this is all so sad . all i can say is thank God for BARACK OBAMA, my kids will grow up in a better world than this one, this is the past, the future will be different .

as for Tyra, i'm dissapointed, . dont think the show is worth it.Thank God for Oprah.

Barack Obama only illustrates the point of this show further. He IDENTIFIES as African-American, yet he is mixed with black and white. This proves Tyra's point about perceptions.

It's funny how blacks are always trying to claim to be mixed, it's not just AAs either. But you never hear white Americans claim to be anything other than white even though 90% of them don't have 100% Caucasian blood and their so called "white" features are different from that of their white Europeans, but at the end of the day they still call themselves white because they are proud of their race. Black people all over the world have issues and feel like being mixed some how makes them better.

At the end of the day you're still black. I'm not even going to talk about the people who think you have to be mixed to have long hair.

Really? I hear white people clarifying whether they are actually Italian, Jewish, Russian, etc. We as black folks are always saying..."You never hear white people" do this and that, just to criticize each other. erplexed

 

[HairBarbie]

Last time I checked, Jewish, Italian and Russian are considered white/Caucasian in the U.S. I'm using it as an example to show how self-hatred still exists among black people.

 

[Solitude]

Last time I checked, Jewish, Italian and Russian are considered white/Caucasian in the U.S. I'm using it as an example to show how self-hatred still exists among black people.

Why is it self-hatred to clarify what your ethnicity is?

 

[*Muffin*]

Well, that just goes to show you never know, lol. But from personal experience, it sometimes offends me, too. I don't mind if you ask me what my ethnicity is, but whe people downright make assumptions (and in derrogatory ways at that) it upsets me. To me I am a black woman. That's what I see when I look in the mirror and I'm very proud. But occasionally I also get people (of all races) that tell me that I look mixed. They try to pose it as a compliment, but it's just so offensive sometimes. For instance I was sitting down with two of my friends (one was white and the other was half haitian, half spaniard) and we were laughing and joking around. Then the subject of ethnicity arose. Both my biracial friend and I spoke of ourselves as black people and then my white friend was like "You guys consider yourselves black?" and we were like "Yeah, duh" and then he busted out saying "Well, I don't consider you guys black" WTF? Is that supposed to be some kind of sick compliment? I also got flack from people at my job. They'll ask me questions like "What are you mixed with?" or "Who's mixed, your mother or your father?" A spanish guy that works with me even had the nerve to say "Your black? I thought you were a mutt." It's almost like people associate being black with being ugly. If they find you appealing and you are black they assume you must be something else. There's nothing wrong with being mixed, but there's also nothing wrong with just being you.

 

[TaurusAngel]

Point blank, people are gonna see themselves how they see themselves. I just don't see the argument as to why we can't call ourselves 100% Black. I know i keep saying his but i'm just boggled at why this is so bad. On one hand, if we say we're mixed, then we ain't claiming our black side but we can't say 100% either??? We truly have more issues going on than i thought.

 

[Evazhair]

Just because someone acknowledges all known aspects of their heritage doesn't automatically equate to them wanting to appear"less Black" or not Black. Other factors should be taken into consideration to really come to that conclusion. For some of us it is just a fact that we acknowledge. Doesn't add or take away from who we are.I have always defined mixed as biracial. Everyone doesn't go around saying they are mixed because there is "something else" a couple of generations back. The willful ignorance on this board, on these subjects is stifling. It's just as sad as Jenna's issues and the one up match between the lady in the audience and the lighter woman.

 

[MissMarie]

I knew that some people had problems when black people claim to be part NA, white, etc. but now there's a problem when people claim to be 100% black too?

Which one is it? Are we supposed to claim the 1/64 Scottish part of us or not?

We can't have it both ways.

I'm confused too.
How can we jump on the three black women in that segment for calling themselves 'all black' and 100% AA
and then jump on board members or African Americans in general for saying they are black but not purely of African descent??

It basically comes down to what Tyra, in her poor deluded anti-intellectual shallow way, was trying to get at; that you can't neatly label people by appearance and people's identities don't neatly line up according to parentage, lineage or "blood".
Cuz it sounds like people are saying light/fair people aren't allowed to have a black only identity, regardless of family and heritage and culture, and medium to dark folks can't have a mixed or multi-whatever identity (or really even speak of any ancestry that isn't African) regardless of how they see themselves.

There is no formula that dictates what person goes in which box.
This isn't like classifying plants or animal species and domesticated breeds, humans rely on culture and social constructs to bring order and meaning to their lives and it shapes each of our realities but it not a science, its not exact, its not set in stone.
Its silly to try and dictate percentages and fractions or proximity of ancestry/family that someone must have to identify a certain way.
A person of mixed parentage can choose to identify with only one side and someone of mixed ancestry can identify with the part of who they are that they don't resemble (or kind of a composite identity which AA basically is if one looks at our history arc. mixture doesn't exclude folks) or as mixed even if they don't fit the stereotype.
As far as I care people can make up bs about their background. What they eat doesn't make me... ahem and I have no right to tell them how they ought to see themselves (plus I don't believe on holding on to folks that take no pride in the heritage we have in common, one should be xyz because it means something and is worth something to you not because you feel society gives you no other choice. I'm proud of who I am and my background and people like that irritate me and I tend to view them as dead weight honestly.)

imo the problem with Jenna isn't her identifying as white, but her thinking to be white she must be a racist and a bigot towards blacks. If I were white and in the audience I'd be mad that her attempt to connect to that side consisted of being a low class, redneck, racist stereotype.
Not having an ambiguous look just makes her look more of a cringe-worthy fool with her flag and her hood

 

[oldcrayons]

MMM...I am haitian and moroccan, I stayed in morocco for a while and I dont agree. Moroccans comes in a variety of shades just as african-americans do. There are caucasian looking moroccans to the dark skin moroccan. The majority looks like theyre mixed than black than white( which you will find mostly in the town of FES)


Now let me show you some shades of Morocco:


My cousins:

moroccan men:

other moroccan men:

This is based on the American census. North Africans, Middle Easterns, etc. are considered Caucasian. I'm not sure about East Africans, but I do know that African-American only refers to those of Saharan descent

 

[oldcrayons]

Also, it's based on anthropology and DNA. They just don't pull this stuff out of their ***.

 

[MissMarie]

modern Anthropology denies the existence of discrete biological races and only deals with race as a cultural and social phenomena (like religion, gender, sexuality, ethnicity...)

US census categories are based off of debunked 19th C modes of classifying all the world's people into three or five or seven groups
along with this concept worked the theory of evolution of cultures and a sliding scale that placed different 'races' on a spectrum from civilized to barbaric
to fulfill their own racial assumptions about other groups inherent inferiority Europeans would explain away or claim groups they felt overlapped physically with themselves and cultures and civilizations they felt met their criteria of worthiness

so the Indus Valley, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the modern peoples and cultures associated with them became Caucasian and were even referred to at times as dark whites (ignoring, interestingly enough, the fact that at one time the 'civilized world' was the Mediterranean, Western Asia, North and parts of East and West Africa but not Europe. The Romans considered the people to their north and east to be the grossest barbarians whereas African and Asian cultures they admired were put on equal footing of worthiness with their own culture and civilization)
the civilizations of East Africa were claimed as non-African either 'Caucasian' or 'Hamitic' and even civilizations in what is now Zimbabwe, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria were claimed as non-African or instigated by non-Africans bringing their intelligence and culture to the barbaric Negroes (and often 'better' features like lighter complexions, wavier hair, narrower features were used as criteria rather than just evidence of native African genetic diversity)

so basically the 5 race approach of the US census is based off a defunct, highly racist and biological determinist framework from an extremely ethnocentric and racist era of the field of Anthropology

(and in recent DNA studies done North Africans are most closely related to each other first, regardless of color and features, and next most closely related to other Africans in the Sahel region, then on down depending on which part of the continent central/east/west, not Southern or Central Europeans or Western Asians. The exceptions being certain large cities and areas of Lower Egypt where a lot of immigration has occurred)

eta: DNA/population studies of today have nothing to do with biological race but can be used to track movements of populations throughout human history, can show relatedness between populations but can't be used to prove whether someone is Caucasoid/Negroid/Mongoloid/Australoid especially as the most genetically divergent and diverse populations reside and have always resided on the continent of Africa (naturally occurring from within, not due to so called admixture from the outside

 

[Akemi]

Was Cornell West airing our dirty laundry with Race Matters? No...it's simply discussing issues dealing with race, diversity, tolerance, and false perceptions. Just because we don't talk about these things doesn't meant the issues will go away. I appreciate Tyra for airing these shows.

It's also not true that nothing changes- I remember one show where this black woman hated other black women- she came back on the show after getting some help and she changed; she talked about her poor experiences and what scarred her. She may have helped someone. In fact, the show helped me.

Thanks for correcting me. I'm glad to hear that good things come from these shows. I was simply talking about the shows that I've seen. I find the shows interesting and insightful, too, but I hate that we there's even a need to do those types of shows. It's good to know that some of the shows are not just talking about the issues but actually helping people.

 

[NikStarrr]

This thread is just proof that a person can't win with some of you people. A "black" person mentions their racial make-up when asked--they're trying to play down their blackness. A person calls his/herself "just black" or "100% black"--that's impossible or they get questioned further. I.S.S.U.E.S. I tell ya.

 

[Irresistible]

will colorism ever end?


its so stupid!

 

[Irresistible]

Just because someone acknowledges all known aspects of their heritage doesn't automatically equate to them wanting to appear"less Black" or not Black. Other factors should be taken into consideration to really come to that conclusion. For some of us it is just a fact that we acknowledge. Doesn't add or take away from who we are.I have always defined mixed as biracial. Everyone doesn't go around saying they are mixed because there is "something else" a couple of generations back. The willful ignorance on this board, on these subjects is stifling. It's just as sad as Jenna's issues and the one up match between the lady in the audience and the lighter woman.

 

[D_Marie]

OMG...while reading this ENTIRE thread I've had tons of stuff to say, things to point out etc. But now that I'm done I'm completely speechless. All I can say is that this is totally interesting.

 

[divya]

MMM...I am haitian and moroccan, I stayed in morocco for a while and I dont agree. Moroccans comes in a variety of shades just as african-americans do. There are caucasian looking moroccans to the dark skin moroccan. The majority looks like theyre mixed than black than white( which you will find mostly in the town of FES)


Now let me show you some shades of Morocco:


My cousins:

moroccan men:

other moroccan men:

Thank you.

 

[dm81]

Well, I wasn't really asking you to.

If you are African-American in this country and your family has been here for generations, it should be common knowledge that there is a 99% chance you are mixed. This is whether you look like the "stereotypical" mixed girl - light skinned with long, 3b hair - or more nontraditional - dark skinned with shorter, 4b hair. Hence, the word obviously.

This whole "regular black" misconception is insane, IMO.

It's great that you don't have to ask someone to agree with you to give your opinion on this board.

 

[Amerie123]

Here's the thing, to sum up a lot of this thread, which is interesting nevertheless. The subject in itself may not ever go away. This will always be a controversial issue IMO... Anyways, long story short, most AA people have some kind of mix in them. Some mixes are more "down-the-line" than others. In some AA's, the "mixed" part shows more than others. So, the question is when is it okay to claim your "mixed" heritage that 99.9% of us have? Is it when your mixed part comes in within 2-3 generations, or 9-10 generations down the line? Who is to say? I mean, you're still mixed, right? I guess in the end, we are all one human race. This topic is pretty much open-ended, and that's my input. LOL.

 

[bravenewgirl87]

Well their parents may be black, but somewhere in the gene pool they have strong "other genes." I'm not saying they aren't black but genetics are really tricky.

ditto. In fact, I could've sworn the woman said she was 100% African-American. In which case, could very well be true. Its not like people in this country don't have a history with racial mixing. But, to say you're 100% black because their parents are 100% black and you're passing for mixed or white person.... nope. not buying it.erplexed

 

[bravenewgirl87]

Why is it self-hatred to clarify what your ethnicity is?

Because other people who feel they have nothing to claim get offended. How dare you be proud of everything you are

 

[bravenewgirl87]

Am sorry but your statement about not knowing "ANY" blacks in america who aint mixed is rubbish!, Am from the UK and I notice that blacks in america who think like you are really insecure and still are in mental slavery,you try EVERYTHING to distance yourself from being african and black, why EVERY black american i meet have 'indian" in there family LOL! by the way when exactly did you all get the chance to mix with thease indians since 99% of them got wiped out, damn anything to get that "good" hair right ? smdh.
And the funny thing is its always the ones who hair is clearly african claiming indian
Just embrace what you have an LOVE yourself!
and how can race NOT be biological?? are you feeling alright?

And to my secure sisters who know who there are and are free, this aint for you, just who ever the cap fits.

Lol. I just realized you're a new member. Well, stick around. You'll meet plenty mixed breeds/biracials just as myself with nappy-as-shyt hair, dark skin, etc. We don't all look like Alicia Keys. Heck, Alicia Keys doesn't even look like the "Alicia Keys" in our minds.

 

[bravenewgirl87]

I'm with you Irresistible,

The first chick just gotta be crazy or getting paid mad loot by Tyra's people to pretend like she is. The other ones are like, "and your point is?"

I understand that you do have Black folks who try to distance themselves in any way possible from Africa (anthropologists have actually studied this stuff and very few of us really do have Native ancestry) but the reality is that most of us simply are not 100% African and if people choose to claim all of their ancestry, why should someone judge them?

If you ACTUALLY have "Indian in your family" why should you be ashamed to say so along with all of the rest of what makes you who you are? There is a difference between denying Blackness and claiming BOTH Blackness and something else!

i agree with all of this, but the bolded probably reigns true. C'mon... I've met some nuts... but I don't believe this girl at all.

 

[Eisani]

i agree with all of this, but the bolded probably reigns true. C'mon... I've met some nuts... but I don't believe this girl at all.

I had no plans of posting in this thread at all, but I had a thought about Jenna. What if her brother's daddy (I'm assuming the white man she referred to) ain't her daddy at all and her mother just never told her ? Just the thought of the potential irony is hilarious to me. Tis all.