Black celebrities coloring their skin?
"Sad and weird. Pity, and too bad. She is at an age where she is who she is, and if she is that much out of touch with the depth of who she is, and has no relationship with her ancestors what can anyone do? Some are so deep into their discomfort they can be manipulated easily into all kinds of foolishness in a business as flighty and unpredictable as show business.
Raised as a White Black Woman has its challenges. The actress, Tempestt Bledsoe, apparently (if this is true) is deep in a messy thought process." - Dawn Wolf (note: I read the actress has admitted to having vitiligo.)
Now there is an article in the online publication, Atlantic Black Star, titiled "10 Black Celebs Who Successfully Pass for White" Now, an attorney, Earlyne McCalister Thomas made a comment on this subject of passing I want to share. It is important her observation.
"Excuse me, but most of the people you listed HAVE NOT made it a point to deny their Black ancestry. Rashida Jones--who doesn't know that her father is Black? Soledad O'Brien has made it a point, well before her documentaries, that she is part Black. Same thing for Maya Rudolph. Oh, BTW, Maya's character in Bridesmaids could hardly have been considered to have been a "white" woman, when the man who played her father in the movie, was BLACK, and the mother was white. Just because some of the people mentioned are biracial, and may play white roles, doesn't necessarily mean they are passing--with the exception of Carol Channing--who didn't find out until she was in college, and living in an age when it wasn't unusual for very light-skinned Blacks to PASS."
Another woman, Sdot Chambers, said something equally sharp: "I don't believe the article says that they denied their blackness, it states that they have successfully passed for white. (basically they were able to do so in their film careers."
Steve Edmonds pointed out to the uninitiated, "People, the term "passing" actually came from American white people. America need to really know their history before saying this is shallow or is garbage. Google Plessy vs Ferguson and read about the "one drop rule" Black people did not make this rule...White people did. Whether we like it or not its a ugly part of American History."
Evelyn is very close to me. She said, "It (passing) is very common amongst our race and people have their reasons. Some just call it love."
"I am familiar with the practice in some detail. But love?" I responded. "That element was never part of the equation. A lot had to do with survival and an inability to deal with the struggles of being Black, and others had a spiritual affinity with their other blood lines. The other side of the equation has to do with one's connection to their other non-white bloodlines. Black Americans more often than not despise anyone they perceive as 'one of us' who accepts and lives out their other heritages."
There is a lot to this subject white Americans have to take responsibility for. In fact, everything is their fault, their doing. But, the 21st century gives another slant to the problem for Black Americans in particular, and for the millions of people of color the world over damaged by the notions of white supremacy. All of us have a chance in this era to rectify, to rebuild, and tear down the crippling notions that white is better. It is a revolutionary idea without the freshness. There is nothing new about the idea of liberation from the bondage of one's sense of identity, but the European was thorough in his purging, and conquering of body, mind, spirit, land, and cultures. The entire concept and acceptance of 'passing' for white can become passé if the will to be one's self can grow stronger than the religion that supports its disbelief in self! If the concept of self expanded to its natural borders and included the generations to come, and the life force of the Earth, our Mother, and knew the relationships that held all worlds together the need to be white would become a joke, or a faint memory in time. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.20.13
"Real Housewives of New Jersey star Melissa Gorga says she is 100 percent Italian- American and denies having any black blood in her. Here’s a before-going-under-the- knife photo of her. You be the judge." note
"Sad and weird. Pity, and too bad. She is at an age where she is who she is, and if she is that much out of touch with the depth of who she is, and has no relationship with her ancestors what can anyone do? Some are so deep into their discomfort they can be manipulated easily into all kinds of foolishness in a business as flighty and unpredictable as show business.
Raised as a White Black Woman has its challenges. The actress, Tempestt Bledsoe, apparently (if this is true) is deep in a messy thought process." - Dawn Wolf (note: I read the actress has admitted to having vitiligo.)
Now there is an article in the online publication, Atlantic Black Star, titiled "10 Black Celebs Who Successfully Pass for White" Now, an attorney, Earlyne McCalister Thomas made a comment on this subject of passing I want to share. It is important her observation.
"Excuse me, but most of the people you listed HAVE NOT made it a point to deny their Black ancestry. Rashida Jones--who doesn't know that her father is Black? Soledad O'Brien has made it a point, well before her documentaries, that she is part Black. Same thing for Maya Rudolph. Oh, BTW, Maya's character in Bridesmaids could hardly have been considered to have been a "white" woman, when the man who played her father in the movie, was BLACK, and the mother was white. Just because some of the people mentioned are biracial, and may play white roles, doesn't necessarily mean they are passing--with the exception of Carol Channing--who didn't find out until she was in college, and living in an age when it wasn't unusual for very light-skinned Blacks to PASS."
Another woman, Sdot Chambers, said something equally sharp: "I don't believe the article says that they denied their blackness, it states that they have successfully passed for white. (basically they were able to do so in their film careers."
Steve Edmonds pointed out to the uninitiated, "People, the term "passing" actually came from American white people. America need to really know their history before saying this is shallow or is garbage. Google Plessy vs Ferguson and read about the "one drop rule" Black people did not make this rule...White people did. Whether we like it or not its a ugly part of American History."
Evelyn is very close to me. She said, "It (passing) is very common amongst our race and people have their reasons. Some just call it love."
"I am familiar with the practice in some detail. But love?" I responded. "That element was never part of the equation. A lot had to do with survival and an inability to deal with the struggles of being Black, and others had a spiritual affinity with their other blood lines. The other side of the equation has to do with one's connection to their other non-white bloodlines. Black Americans more often than not despise anyone they perceive as 'one of us' who accepts and lives out their other heritages."
There is a lot to this subject white Americans have to take responsibility for. In fact, everything is their fault, their doing. But, the 21st century gives another slant to the problem for Black Americans in particular, and for the millions of people of color the world over damaged by the notions of white supremacy. All of us have a chance in this era to rectify, to rebuild, and tear down the crippling notions that white is better. It is a revolutionary idea without the freshness. There is nothing new about the idea of liberation from the bondage of one's sense of identity, but the European was thorough in his purging, and conquering of body, mind, spirit, land, and cultures. The entire concept and acceptance of 'passing' for white can become passé if the will to be one's self can grow stronger than the religion that supports its disbelief in self! If the concept of self expanded to its natural borders and included the generations to come, and the life force of the Earth, our Mother, and knew the relationships that held all worlds together the need to be white would become a joke, or a faint memory in time. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.20.13
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| Melissa Gorga |
"Real Housewives of New Jersey star Melissa Gorga says she is 100 percent Italian- American and denies having any black blood in her. Here’s a before-going-under-the- knife photo of her. You be the judge." note
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| Melissa Gorga |
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