mrpancake
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Oct 6, 2024 20:31:13 GMT -4
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Post by mrpancake on Apr 10, 2005 10:47:42 GMT -4
I guess I'll only speak for myself, but one of the most "annoying parts" about being multiracial is having to explain yourself to others, especially if you don't look a whole lot like the other race(s) that you are. I honestly don't mind sharing that I have mixed blood, I think it's something to be proud of and is very interesting in general, however, I have had plenty of people who react in somewhat annoying ways when I tell them. They have assumed I was lying (my name does not reflect the "ethnic" part of me at all), they have joked about it, they say that I'm not "really" Mexican/Puerto Rican because we don't speak Spanish at home etc. It's sometimes easier just not to deal with it if you've had uncomfortable experiences in the past with it. Honestly, I don't preach being multiracial from the rooftops because I don't feel the need, but I have no qualms telling people about it if for some reason they ask.
As far as the whole Latino thing, I can't honestly say I really understand it, but as far as culturally, it is interesting to see the difference between my family and other "white" families.
My mom's family came from a generation where it was not looked highly upon to be multiracial, so they made every effort not to be. My grandma says her parents rarely every spoke Spanish at home, and there are only a few occasions where they did (and it was very hush-hush and only to each other). Even though my mom's side is very "anglicized," you can very much tell culturally that her family is not white. It's always funny to me to see that people seeing their extended family nearly every weekend isn't normal, and neither is making HUGE amounts of food for a party, etc. I know that all seems superficial, but it is interesting to see all these little things that tend to occur when one is multiracial.
I do like that Hollywood is embracing racial difference a bit more now, even if it is for more superficial reasons. However, it is still so hard for Latina women to get parts at all in film/television without being the token Mexican fireball. It's a stereotype that sadly won't be overcome any time soon (in my opinion) but at least it's somewhat changing. It's a vicious cycle of sorts. Hollywood hires Latin actors/actresses to play these traditional "Mexican roles" and although they'd probably rather not perpetuate a stereotype, they still want/need to work.
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veronicamars
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Oct 6, 2024 20:31:13 GMT -4
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Post by veronicamars on Apr 12, 2005 14:46:14 GMT -4
What else has Nicole Lyn been in?
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 6, 2024 20:31:13 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2005 17:32:12 GMT -4
Here is an interesting list. It's not all racial, though, some of it is cultural.
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stargirl
Blueblood
Posts: 1,783
Apr 11, 2005 22:21:31 GMT -4
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Post by stargirl on Apr 12, 2005 19:10:17 GMT -4
Halle Berry is obviously biracial. But she doesn't really seem to want to talk about it. She seems to basically identify herself as black.
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Post by chiqui on Apr 12, 2005 23:44:44 GMT -4
Holy f*ck. I had no idea the Van Halen brothers were half Indonesian.
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hillbillylover
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Oct 6, 2024 20:31:13 GMT -4
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Post by hillbillylover on Apr 12, 2005 23:46:51 GMT -4
She was in Deliver Us From Eva.
On a Barbara Walters special that aired a few years ago, she said it was her mother who told her to identify herself as black because in America, that's how she would be seen.
Of course you can make valid arguments that this may have been poor advice on her mother's part, but whatever the case, Halle said she knows and is proud of who she is.
Besides, in recent years I don't think she's avoided talking about being biracial at all. When she promoted Swordfish in the UK, she went on and on in an interview about her mother being from Liverpool and how much she loved and identified with the place because it was in her blood.
I think that nowadays, when biracial people identify themselves as the color of the minority parent, the press no longer sees their race as being something that's interesting enough to mention. Why is that the case? Perhaps that's because the members of the fourth estate don't think it's particularly interesting or newsworthy to be "just" black or "just" Asian.
But being mixed is still seen as extraordinary and therefore newsworthy.
As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single self-identifying bi or multi racial person in showbiz who doesn't have their entire racial heritage listed in every single article that's printed about them. Even if they've been in the public spotlight a long time and everyone knows thier racial make-up.
And that seems to be a fairly recent practice. After all, Sammy Davis Jr. was half black and half Puerto Rican and he NEVER, during his entire career, was referred to as biracial. And he came up during a time when it definitely would have been to his advantage to identify as something other than "just" black.
Btw, what is it about Halle that makes it so obvious that she is biracial? I'm not being sarcastic. It's just that I've seen African Americans with two black parents who look much more racially vague than Halle.
My best friend's mother is a black woman, yet she's a dead ringer for actress Erika Slezak of One Life To Live fame.
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Karen
Blueblood
Posts: 1,122
Mar 10, 2005 10:32:09 GMT -4
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Post by Karen on Apr 13, 2005 4:56:18 GMT -4
Quite a few famous actresses were or are alleged to be Anglo-Indians including Vivien Leigh (Scarlatt O'Hara), Merle Oberon (Queenie), Diana Riggs (the first Mrs. Peele on the Avengers, though she would be Anglo-Burmese) and Juliette Prowse (sp?) and all hid it. Vivien was born in India, and there seems to be some confusion as to where her mother came from in the biographies I've read. One account says that the mother was Irish and came to India with Vivien's father, another that she was part-Indian by birth and already there when she met her husband. On Merle, "In 1949, twelve years after her mother's death, she commissioned a painting of her mother from an old photograph, instructing the painter to lighten her mother's complexion in the painting to hide the fact that she is part-Indian." This was news to me, and together with the story about visitors being told her mother was her maid just makes me think of what a sad life that must have been for both of them. Kate Beckinsale's maternal grandfather was apparently Burmese.
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Gossipista
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Oct 6, 2024 20:31:13 GMT -4
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Post by Gossipista on Apr 13, 2005 14:35:32 GMT -4
I knew a very elderly man who was friends with the Hartley's (Vivien Leigh's) family in Darjeeling, India, which is where she was born.
He said that Vivien Leigh was an Anglo-Indian (mixed blood), and like Merle Oberon and Diana Riggs, the facts of her birth were obscured to hide the fact that she had mixed blood, which was a huge no-no in India and all of the British Empire at the time she was born.
At that point in India there was still tremendous discrimination on the part of the British to both Indians and Anglo-Indians.
Vivien's mother's name if I remember correctly had a "ji" or "jee" at the end. In India a name with a "ji" at the end often implies an upper-caste Hindu family.
I have also heard that Vivien might have had Parsi blood. A Parsi is a Zorasthoran: a fire worshipper to be simplistic. The Parsis came to India from Persia (Iran) centuries ago and are very well-connected in business to this day, but they don't tend to intermarry as one has to be born a Parsi to Paris parents to be a Parsi, so I doubt that's where her "dark" blood comes from.
Freddie Mercury of Queen (talk about the ultimate pun) was also a Parsi.
In the Anglo-Indian community though, it is well-known that Vivien Leigh was mixed. Again, if it had been known at that point she would never had the career she had. After-all Merle Oberon's mother had to pretend she was her ayah (servant) and that Merle herself was from Tasmania, Australia.
BTW: Ava Gardner played an Anglo-Indian in the classic movie Bhowani Junction -- it was a brave move on her part, because she actually looked the part (pun intended)
For all it's worth Engelbert Humperdink is also an A-I.
It is amazing now that all these stars trumpet their mixed race when before stars had to go to extreme lengths to hide it. Maybe the human race is evolving...
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Karen
Blueblood
Posts: 1,122
Mar 10, 2005 10:32:09 GMT -4
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Post by Karen on Apr 13, 2005 16:04:37 GMT -4
Vivien's mother's name if I remember correctly had a "ji" or "jee" at the end. In India a name with a "ji" at the end often implies an upper-caste Hindu family. A bit of Googling gives the name as Gertrude Robinson Yackje/Yackjee, with Irish/Indian/Armenian usually listed as her descent.
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stargirl
Blueblood
Posts: 1,783
Apr 11, 2005 22:21:31 GMT -4
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Post by stargirl on Apr 13, 2005 20:39:40 GMT -4
I mentioned Halle as being "obviously biracial" because I saw a pic of her with her mom at the Oscars. However, I'd never seen/read an interview where she discussed her mom being caucasion. But now I stand corrected!
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