celeb news Throwback: Oprah asks Mariah "So, what are you?"

[Touchdown]

 

[suburbannature]

"A person, first and foremost."

[KatyPrismSpirit]

she literally looks mixed i never got this discourse

[Shinning]

Wait Mariah is latina? How did I never know this.

[suburbannature]

3 minutes ago, Shinning said:

Wait Mariah is latina? How did I never know this.

Yes and no. Her grandfather was from Cuba/Venezuela but he was Afro-Venezuelan (likely of Guyanese descent). He is listed as Black ("Negro") on census and immigration documents. 

[Frozen99]

mimi answering with class.

 

[shoganai]

Oprah’s just a more lucky and more protected Ellen. Both despicable.

[GoodGuyGoneGhetto]

22 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

she literally looks mixed i never got this discourse

Long Comment Incoming…

 

1) This “discourse” is one for which exists, overall, in the United States of America and amongst Black people and has done for since the dawn of Chattel Slavery. 
 

2) Most Black people knew that Mariah was mixed-race and half-Black.
 

Putting aside her skin tone/phenotype and ethnic features, her voice carried so much ‘gospel-influenced soul’ and there wasn’t a single White Woman walking this earth who could sound like that without either being Black or raised amongst a Black socio-culture and being heavily influenced by such. Even the White soul singers of the time who Black people loved (ie. Teena Marie, Lisa Stansfield) didn’t sound like Mariah. 
 

The main issue was the fact, as Mariah has said, her label, and namely Tommy Mottolla, refrained her from speaking on her  “racial background” due to the fact that they wanted to market her to a “mainstream” (ie. White) audience and not polarise them. 
 

They knew that her her voice and style of music would inevitably capture a Black audience, and it did; “Vision Of Love/Love Takes Time/Someday/Vanishing” were HUGE on R&B radio, however her look was still ambiguous enough to draw in a white crowd with her songs still being sold to Pop radio. 
 

They strangely didn’t let her do interviews with Black-based magazines like Ebony, JET or Essence until 1992/1993 even though she wanted too. I believe she ASKED to go to the Soul Train Awards in 1991. 
 

For years Mariah had to defend herself at the fact that people thought she denied her blackness early in her career because people were so hung up what she “was” and “wasn’t” and what she “appeared” to be.

 

14 minutes ago, suburbannature said:

Yes and no. Her grandfather was from Cuba/Venezuela but he was Afro-Venezuelan (likely of Guyanese descent). He is listed as Black ("Negro") on census and immigration documents. 

This.

Edited December 11, 2023 by GoodGuyGoneGhetto

[suburbannature]

4 minutes ago, GoodGuyGoneGhetto said:

Long Comment Incoming…

 

1) This “discourse” is one for which exists, overall, in the United States of America and amongst Black people and has done for since the dawn of Chattel Slavery. 
 

2) Most Black people knew that Mariah was mixed-race and half-Black.
 

Putting aside her skin tone/phenotype and ethnic features, her voice carried so much ‘gospel-influenced soul’ and there wasn’t a single White Woman walking this earth who could sound like that without either being Black or raised amongst a Black socio-culture and being heavily influenced by such. Even the White soul singers of the time who Black people loved (ie. Teena Marie, Lisa Stansfield) didn’t sound like Mariah. 
 

The main issue was the fact, as Mariah has said, her label, and namely Tommy Mottolla, refrained her from speaking on her  “racial background” due to the fact that they wanted to market her to a “mainstream” (ie. White) audience and not polarise them. 
 

They knew that her her voice and style of music would inevitably capture a Black audience, and it did; “Vision Of Love/Love Takes Time/Someday/Vanishing” were HUGE on R&B radio, however her look was still ambiguous enough to draw in a white crowd with her songs still being sold to Pop radio. 
 

They strangely didn’t let her do interviews with Black-based magazines like Ebony, JET or Essence until 1992/1993 even though she wanted too. I believe she ASKED to go to the Soul Train Awards in 1991. 
 

For years Mariah had to defend herself at the fact that people thought she denied her blackness early in her career because people were so hung up what she “was” and “wasn’t” and what she “appeared” to be.

 

This.

You know Tommy gave her an earful for this speech 

 

 

[GoodGuyGoneGhetto]

10 minutes ago, suburbannature said:

You know Tommy gave her an earful for this speech 

 

 

Right!
 

She acknowledged R&B radio, her fellow Black community, the LORD etc.

 

I just know he went home and cussed her  out. 
 

 

Tommy was really f*cking weird for not letting her interview with JET or Ebony during her debut era, especially as the album was as huge on the Pop charts as it was on the R&B charts, yet she interviewed for Rolling Stones twice and was doing on Z100 radio interviews like every month. 
 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by GoodGuyGoneGhetto

[suburbannature]

Just now, GoodGuyGoneGhetto said:

Right!
 

She acknowledged R&B radio, her fellow Black community, the LORD etc.

 

I just know he went home, cussed her out and said “we are not going to ghetto-fy you”.
 

 

Tommy was really f*cking weird for not letting her interview with JET or Ebony during her debut era, especially as the album was as huge on the Pop charts as it was on the R&B charts, yet she interviewed for Rolling Stones twice and was doing on Z100 radio interviews like every month. 
 

 

And the way he used to **** on rap music and was in denial of its popularity and quality. He was a major weirdo.

[suburbannature]

And then there's Sandra Bernhard's trifling ass calling her the literal n-word

[G.U.Y.]

59 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

she literally looks mixed i never got this discourse

She could literally pass as a white latina in the 90s.

[suburbannature]

2 minutes ago, G.U.Y. said:

She could literally pass as a white latina in the 90s.

with those Debut locks and features? She looked like a fairer-skinned Biracial woman. 

 

 

i never understood that discourse either.

[G.U.Y.]

2 minutes ago, suburbannature said:

with those Debut locks and features? She looked like a fairer-skinned Biracial woman. 

 

 

i never understood that discourse either.

There's a lot of people from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece with naturally curly hair and darker skin tone in comparison with Nordic or English people.

[suburbannature]

1 minute ago, G.U.Y. said:

There's a lot of people from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece with naturally curly hair and darker skin tone in comparison with Nordic or English people.

well yes, I know that. I just always thought it was obvious that she was biracial from her features. but we are kind of bastardizing a more nuanced discussion 

[jezebelvictoria]

1 hour ago, suburbannature said:

with those Debut locks and features? She looked like a fairer-skinned Biracial woman. 

 

 

i never understood that discourse either.

While I also think Mariah looks mixed; these pictures could also pass as a Latina. 

[Devin]

2 minutes ago, jezebelvictoria said:

While I also think Mariah looks mixed; these pictures could also pass as a Latina. 

prob cause that hairstyle was the look in the late 80s/early 90s. 

[CityPop]

This was the start of Oprah continuously disrespecting Mariah on her show.

[suburbannature]

18 minutes ago, Devin said:

prob cause that hairstyle was the look in the late 80s/early 90s. 

and her eyebrows, I fear

[swissman]

Okay ngl I came in here expecting this to be a Barbra Walters type "What kind of a tree are you?" question.

[Digitalism]

I mean she was even branded as a Latina in latinamerica. So Tommy was definetly taking advantage of the situation