I agree with just about everything you stated but I just want to make a correction- by definition, Latino is not a race
-
lavenderspirit2005 — 19 years ago(November 28, 2006 11:41 PM)
I view Jasmine Guy as a talented actress of mixed race who happens to culturally identify with the Black community as is her TOTAL right. I think she was also awesome in "A Different World"-I loved her style!
-
activista — 18 years ago(March 30, 2008 07:09 PM)
It's not a stupid discussionsadly, race is STILL an issue in this societyI'm sorry, but anything like race that determines where you live,whether you'll even get decent health care, or even whether you will get a job outside the specific zip code you live in. There isn't a damn thing stupid about something that has a direct effect on your quality of life. The subject of race,frankly,is only stupid to people who have NEVER in their whole damn lives had to even deal with it AT all.
Also, about Halle Berryshe said that it was her own white mother who told her early in life that she was black,and that she was going to have to deal with the fact that people would treat her differently (and not always in a good way). So how the hell is she denying her motheror any other bi-racial person in or out of the public eyeby not constantly mentioning her half-whiteness all the time? Let's be realdoes she look anything like a white woman? Hell no! Has society ever accepted her as one? Hell no on that,too! (She looks great, and is actually one of my fave actresses,BTW, so,no I'm not dogging her or nothing.) Gimme a damn breakin this society, people don't give a damn about how white one of your parents may be, if you look black, you're BLACK, period. Sure,Barack Obama's mama was white, but that sure as hell didn't keep him from going through the same predjudice/racism that all black men/men of color in this society go through, mainly because everybody else saw him as what he isa BLACK man, and he's obviously very proud of his blackness.
To mizzhollywood:
Just because someone is half-white does not make them 100% Caucasianit dosen't even mean that they will be accepted as white depending on what part of the country they live in. Just because someone LOOKS white dosen't mean that they are,or that even consider themselves white. You sound like you're saying that anybody who only a little bit black should automatically consider themselves whiteyou go on and on about how Jasmine is ignoring her white half, well the reality is, if society (or even parts of her own family) have never even accepted her as white, why the hell should she? Hell, just because a black person looks white dosen't mean they're gonna be accepted as white right off the black. Obviously you're not a black person, otherwise you would not have ever brought this up as an issueI think it's ridiculous, and also think the whole one-drop-rule is bulls*** because it was invented by slavemasters simply to divide black slaves from the mixed slavesthat's ALL that s*** was aboutit shouldn't even be relevant in the 21st century, but we're still holding onto that outdated,useless 18th century racial catagorizationsthat pretty beep up, if you ask me. -
Joyred — 17 years ago(February 06, 2009 08:28 AM)
My blood aunts and uncles come in different shades of brown from high yellow to very dark brown, but they all share the same mother and father. I know that we had white great grandparents and what not, but this doesn't really matter because a mulatto will also be seen as black. If we were in the days of slavery, Jasmine may not be doing work in the field per say, but she would be a house slave. She might be able to pass for white, but once they fo5b4und out she had a black father, she would be look down upon. Its not a matter of someone like Jasmine disowning her white part, its the fact that she isn't delusional about the reality of this matter. The reality being by American's standard and most of the world she would have been categorized as being a black.
In history, there are countless stories about how a mix or mulatto wanted their whiteness to be acknowledge by society. To be seen as equal to whites, but that was never so. This is why the mulattos of Haiti eventually ended up joining the maroons against the whites because even though these gen de color did all they could to fit into white society, the whites made sure they knew their place. No amount of education or white upbringing would make them equal to whites. Knowing this even if Jasmine clearly looks biracial, the thought that she would have been a slave no matter how yellow she was would have been in the back of my her mind. Yes being a mulatto might guarantee freedom, but was not always the case. Its not Jasmine deny her whiteness, its the fact that society would not have accepted her whiteness due to her blackness. Obviously, I see a mix person as being mixed, but these same mix people still go through racism because of what they are mixed with. Back in the days to be mulatto was seen as tinted and corrupted. Not many white family back in the days would have accepted a mix race grandchild they saw them as t2000inted blood cause of the black in them.
To make it simple, if the whites in those days, even some today do not accept you as white, why would you want to embarrass yourself and act like you were one of them when they clearly made sure that you knew that you were not one of them? If they deny you even you do share blood, why should you acknowledge them?If the whites don't see you as white no amount high yellow is going to make you white since mulattos despite the benefits they received were never equal to the whites. Lets not be ignorant or delusional when it comes to reality. The reality being she clearly is mix even look more white than black, but the white system would have still seen her as a Negro. She wouldn't have been seen as a wifey material to a white man, but more of a mistress type. Jasmine played in a drama about mulattos in New Orleans, which shows how a mulatto who may very well pass for white was still seen beneath white society. It shows how these mulattos wanted to much to be acknowledge by their white kins, but despite the small priviledge they could not fully enter white society. I don't know what the drama is called, it was on showtime, this drama will make anyone who doesn't yet, understand why Jasmine and others like herself categorize herself as African American instead of Caucasian. Again if the mulattos of Haiti were treated as equals to their white parent, they would not have join the maroons in getting rid of their white masters. There's nothing here that is too hard to understand unless one is delusional. Everyone here knows she is mix, but there are people out there, the Hitlers of the world who sees pure Aryan blood the model of society. -
Sparky48 — 14 years ago(April 23, 2011 09:13 AM)
"mizzhollywood"
How do you define "biracial"? The fact of the matter is that ALL black Americans are of mixed blood, because of American slavery. The only difference between someone who's "bi-racial" and someone who is a "real" black person is that the former's race mixture is more immediate and , in most cases, heavier than the latter's. Be that as it may, I don't think anyoneespecially a white personwould view Jasmine as white or even "half-white". The racial term "black" is not descriptive. African Americans come in all colors.