Halle Berry Says Nahla Is Black
According to rumors, Gabriel Aubry hates when people call Nahla black. If that is true than he and Halle Berry must have fought every day. In the new issue of Ebony Magazine, Halle Berry says Nahla is black and that Halle believes that if you even have one drop of black blood that makes you black. I would have hoped that the two of them discussed this prior to Halle getting pregnant. I mean if Halle is going around calling her daughter black and saying she is and her dad is saying she is not black, that is going to be one messed up child. I kind of take to heart what Halle says in the interview when she says that it is up to her daughter to identify what she wants to be. I wish everyone would jut be a person but that is unrealistic I guess when forms always ask you what race you are. I do know that it should be up to the child though. Just like with issues of sexuality or what kind of people you are attracted to, this is a decision best left to the child and the parents should not be arguing about it.
71 comments:
[s]She is really making the rounds. If he is racist then he must have been making constantly making remarks to her and treating her as less than equal.
I'm amazed she would have a child with him and allow the same to happen to her child. [/sarcasm]
She needs to give it a rest. I'm not buying her story.
I read an interview a while back where Halle's mom told her when people looked at her all they would see is "black" and that she needed to accept that....after reading this I think Halle is going to do untold damage to that beautiful child...she is really messed up.
Thank you for adding "According to rumors," Enty. :)
Well as someone who is black, it makes sense. Despite what all of you may think, the one drop rule is alive and well in America. Nahla is black regardless of whether or not Nahla grows up to accept this or not (and because of who's raising her, a biracial mother who identifies as black) she will be black.
I think it's ironic that Halle Berry is buying into the "one drop" theory. That was a theory promulgated by slave owners to maintain property rights over the children they conceived by raping their Black slaves.
I think it's a personal thing. I'm 1/4 Maori and fully consider myself a Maori and the Maoris I know also consider me Maori. Everyone else just considers me white. *shrugs* It's in the eye of the holder and beholder.
Halle becomes less credible in her allegations about Aubry each time she puts something out there IMO
I'm just thinking out loud here.... So, if one drop black makes you black, what does three drops of white make you? Isn't the definition of racist to consider that one race will always be superior over others? Isn't she therefor insinuating that one drop black is dominant, therefore superior, over the rest of the blood? About 12 generations back I had a relative who was Irish. Does that make me Irish? Because I surely have at least one drop.
Why can't that baby be simply a beautiful, beautiful child? Why does color even factor into it? Funny thing is, there are really people in the world who look at women like Halle and simply see a beautiful woman. Color has nothing to do with it. As it should be.
I hope her parents teach Nahla to have pride in both of her respective cultural and ethnic backgrounds. She'll make her own decision but they will certainly inform how she constructs her identity.
Before all of this custody nonsense, I never really thought of Halle Berry as anything else than a beautiful woman, although a bit of a crazy woman when it came to relationships. I never thought of her and David Justice as a "Black" couple or as her and Gabriel Aubrey as a "Mixed Race" couple. Both couples were gorgeous. She's the one who threw the race card into it.
Give it a rest. She's the one keeping the race issue alive and I live in the segregated South for God's Sake.
If the one drop rule applies, doesn't that mean everyone ever born was/is black? Our species did originate in Africa after all and our ancestors were black.
Although most people of black and white parentage identify as black, it's up to the individual to determine what they identify as.
If "one drop" makes you Black, then there are a whole lot of folks out there who are Black and don't even know it.
Ok, why is this such a big deal? People I know don't go around saying "I'm 1/6 German" and sure Nahla has "a few drops of black" (horrible expression) but if I see her stading to an ice cream car and someone asks for directions to it, I'll say "next to the tan/brown little girl" I don't know if in english or the U.S that's offensive. It's not a racial slur.
Let's not foolishly assume that this blog represents how most of America thinks because it does not. This country has been mired with racial psychologies and other non-sense for hundreds of years, and it'll take hundreds of years to get rid of.
And yes, technically we all have AFRICAN ancestors and the concept of "race" is bogus, but most Americans don't know this.
I'll just leave this comment as someone who is biracial. *I* may consider myself biracial, but do you know what the world calls me? Black. People are generally quite surprised when I say that I am biracial - actually I'll take that back. Most black people automatically know that I am biracial. Most non-black people? Nope, all they see and think is that I am black, and black only. I believe THAT is what Halle Berry is talking about.
I have two children with a Caucasian father. One of my kids is extremely light skinned - folks generally never ever guess that he is 1/4 black and in fact, I have been asked - by complete strangers - if I am just his caretaker or if I adopted him(!) My other child has much darker skin tones and I never get the comments with him that I do with my oldest. Racial issues are alive and well in this country. Don't fool yourself into believing that as long as we see each other as human, then race doesn't matter. It's a nice thought, how I'd love to live my life. But it is not reality.
Not that I expect anyone to agree with me on this, because apparently Halle is just EVVIIIIILLLLLLL
"but if I see her stading to an ice cream car and someone asks for directions to it, I'll say "next to the tan/brown little girl" I don't know if in english or the U.S that's offensive. It's not a racial slur. "
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Really? It would be so hard to just say "next to the little girl"? Why would you have to add her skin color into the equation?
Actually....the one drop rule was once law of the land in the United States....look up the pleussy (sp) vs. ferguson case...where a man who was 1/8th black was denied sitting in the train coach that was meant for white people just b/c he had some black in him.
It's the reality in the U.S. that if you have a drop of black blood ( can't speak for other races) you are automatically seen as black or part black and never seen as full white.
Also...Irish isn't a race....just a nationality....so I don't know how that is relevant to the conversation.
How many of you people consider Halle or Obama as white....let's be real and stop pretending about the racial construct that the american society have. f you passed them on the street would you guys ever think of them as anything other than black.
@Jessica
What if there were two little girls stood beside the ice cream truck? Like it or lump it colour is used as a distinguishing characteristic.
I am not black (that I am aware of...) so I don't know how relevant my contribution here will be, but here I go: My son and I were talking last night, and he asked me if he was Native American. His father and I are both a percentage of Cherokee, just like a ton of people in our region. However, we are also of Western European heritage too (German, Scots-Irish for me; Scottish at least for him that I know of). So I told my son that he is an American. We are mutts. My ex's brother and mother are very dark-skinned because of their Native American heritage - the brother-in-law has been mistaken for being Middle Eastern several times. My son could've had that coloring, but he ended up looking like me - auburn hair, pale skin, freckles. Like I said, I don't know if this is germane, but the discussion I had with my son is that he just American. I think most of us are. I hope he keeps that attitude throughout his life, although I suspect it might not be easy.
@Jessica It was a hypothetical as if I were describing her in a crowd, I get that you think it's offensive and that's ok it's a sensitive issue, but where I live you don't say it as an insult, you're just describing her/him. If she had a yellowish color I still will have said tan girl.
Well, if we are all descended from monkeys, does that make us all monkeys?
Yes Sunnyside1213, but we are classified as cheeky monkeys ;)
Oh give me a break- Halle Berry was doing nothing more than pandering to the audience of Ebony. She parades her "black" when it suits the occasion. Unless she's a full blown sociopath, she did not spend several years of her life with a racist, and then have his baby. Halle Berry is one of those pathetic narcissists that make shit up so they come off as a victim. This racist card crap is backfiring on her big time.
I don't know if it has anything to do with where you grew up and who you know, but I look at Halle I see mixed, not black.
My kids went to school with many different mixes of children. It's just not an issue around my area. I found it funny when the siblings would argue over who looked more -insert whatever you want- than the other.
You people and your logic. Sigh... ;)
Remember when Halle Berry was an actress that made interesting movies? I haven't seen anything good from her except for her cartoonish overacting in X-Men recently. I wonder what need she has for drama of this sort, with her extremely dramatic breakups and recriminations with every man fool enough to talk to her. Sort it out, Ms Berry. Figure out what you're doing.
if were gonna have these constant postings of Halle showing more and more how insane she is. Please add some Gabriel eye candy.
I thought she was up for best actress for Frankie & Alice this year, but perhaps I'm mistaken. That movie actually looks really good.
Sunnyside, monkeys are a different species. Race does not make us significantly biologically different.
@kcqueen - I think you have something here. There has been something that has been bothering me about this argument the whole time - if Gabriel was racist - why would he be in love with Halle and in turn how could Halle be with him.? Hmm?
Another thought also occurred to me, but not sure how to write this down with the proper context. So what if Gabriel was saying "don't call my baby black" in a tone of protectiveness instead of defensiveness? Like if someone was taunting him - "oh your black baby, black child" and G responded with a warning of 'stop calling her black with that tone.."
Does this make any sense?
Then, because we can't hear how the inflection of the comment was made, Halle is manipulating it to make Gabriel sound racist.
Again, any of this making sense?
I just find it hard to see Gabriel as racist.
That is so bullshit. This girl is mixed, period. By now I think nobody is buying this Halle Berry victim thing.She should give it a rest. She had that hit and run thing and even so she managed to get back to her feet and have a good career, so she should just try to go on and be a better person, cause is been given lot os opportunities.
I mean people do fight nasty and say bad things about each other when love is gone, but I cannot believe they were together for that long if the relationship was that bad....she should get over it, move on, and try to make nice for her daughters sake, cause a father is also important. Raise this child as mixed, for God´s sake, it is really stupid to have one parent calling her black, and the other allegedely calling her white, when Nahla is both.
Can someone please explain to me the "forms" thing? If someone is 1/2 black 1/2 white, and they get a form at school that says "what race are you? black, white, hispanic, other" and they choose ANY of the options, will the school come back and say, "no, you are not this, you are this"? If my kids, who are mixed, white and Mexican, wanted to put white, hispanic, native american (my husband is Aztec) or other, who can dispute any of those as correct or not? Race baffles me to no end. My grandfather was 1/4 Cherokee, but he looks like he would be my husband's grandfather more than mine. And my kids look like my maternal grandmother's family who were French Canadian. I don't understand why anyone should HAVE to identify with any one race.
But whatever, back to the topic at hand...looks like Halle is the one bringing up race, not Gabriel, which is what I thought in the first place.
Can't Nahla just be beautiful and leave it at that?
I really don't know why Halle can't get past the fact that this is no longer about her.....she should be overjoyed that Nahla's dad wants to be an active part of her life....
I wonder if Halle would be saying all of this if Nahla was very fair skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes????
I'm black and puerto rican and my husband is from Macedonia. When our son was born he told me he was going to put white as his race. Being that I was all drugged up I didnt put much thought into it. But I would never tell my son that he is only black or white or whatever. Even though my son is 1 years old he knows about all of his cultures. He speaks and understands spanish and Macedonian. He has been to Macedonia and Puerto Rico. I'm sure when he gets older people will look at him as a white guy...he kinda has that Derek Jeter look to him but a little lighter. Ijust think Halle calling her daughter just black is wrong.
Halle is being a bitch and fucking up her daughter in the process. JMO.
She needs to back off and stop with this. It is just making her sound like a total whack job.
Why can't children be proud of both races?
If she says she's only black, is she denying her father's side of the family?
How would everyone feel if she said her daughter was white and not black.
Geezus Halle.
Grow the Fuck up!
She's as bad as the KKK
kcqueen was RIGHT ON....Halle has a long history of running directly to her black fans when it serves her.
She must really be feeling some serious heat, for ALL THIS pro-active smearing of Gabriel.
I also agree with Lisa...if Nahla looked as white as Gabe, she wouldn't be able to do this. Nahla is bi-racial, it's obvious by looking at her. And perception is what counts in race---like Halle and our President grew up dark enough to be seen as black, so they have a similar social experience to other black people in America. But for Halle to bring up this 'one drop' thing is just DIVISIVE. There is no place in the 21-st century for all these inflexible labels. Halle is doing society a disservice by perpetuating race as a source of division. Us vs. Them.
I really think the younger generation is so tolerant of differences, and very integrated in their friendships these days. Even with sexual orientation and gender identity. It gives me A LOT of hope.
I'm a white, hippie-type Liberal, if it matters. 39.
I swear I need to stay out of the Halle Berry topics because the clear consensus at CDAN is that Halle is crazy. But I'll say it again anyway: It doesn't matter what Nahla or Halle or Gabriel calls the baby. It's about what the WORLD calls you. Halle also said this:
"If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself, and I think that's often hard for us to do," she said. "
And you know what? She is RIGHT!
I have checked the box marked "White" or "Hispanic" on a form and have been flat out told "You should check the Black box because that's how people perceive you." WTF? Lesson learned growing up? I can call myself anything I damn want, but the world continues to see me as Black.
My son that looks white? He'll check the White boxes and nobody will think twice. If he tries to check the Black box, I have no doubt he will be questioned, while my darker skinned son will have the opposite issue.
We classify people by race here in America. It ain't cool, but it is most certainly the way things are done.
@HannahPalindrome said...."Halle's as bad as the KKK." Really.
These Halle discussions have officially become filled with too much venom for me.
Libby, you are right in a sense about the younger generation being more tolerant, BUT who are they being raised by? How one is brought up plays a significant factor in their beliefs and value that most find hard to escape.
Rocket Queen, you are right about the venom. Talking about race, religion and sex brings out the worst in people at times.
to add to ^^^^ comment, I will say, yes, people are more tolerant of certain people, but shit rolls down hill, and there always seems to be someone (group) at the bottom. Seems like some people always need someone to hate.
I don't think they're being raised in that way much at all anymore. Unless they want to live off the grid, most people these days know to keep their prejudices great & small TO THEMSELVES, and it definitely extends to child-rearing. That is, people usually know their prejudices are wrong and try not to perpetuate them.
Lots of kids with unabashedly racist or xenophobic parents tend to rebel by seeking out such friends (I know I did).
I know the dirty racists will probably always be here, but I've just noticed that every decade, the kids get more and more about 'content of character'. It makes me happy.
Sunnyside, we're not descended from monkeys. We're descended from apes. Sorry, pet peeve. :)
I agree with those saying that it's really what the outside community puts on the little girl that will end up determining a lot of her identity. Due to our racialized past and present we see "black" characteristics even when a child is predominantly of another race. People will identify Nahla as black and that's something she needs to come to terms with in her own identity.
(Also, as bad as the KKK? Really? Really? When Ms. Berry goes on a multi-generational racist spree across the countryside terrorizing, beating, and lynching thousands of innocent people because of their race, then we can discuss how she's like the KKK.)
MacVixen, I don't believe in the check-boxes either. Or perpetuation by Halle or anyone of labels based on 'one drop.'
Sorry Ms Luey. I stand corrected.
I'm so white, can see my blue veins really well in my arms, chest, etc...but I've got Irish, English, Spanish, Scottish, French, & Choctaw Indian in me. My husband has German, Irish, Scottish and Cherokee Indian in him. He tans very easily and has dark hair and has been mistaken for Mexican during the summer. Until he takes off his ball cap and you see his redneck tan from fishing all day. My girls darken very easily in the sun and my youngest is constantly asked if she is French or Mexican. She just says French and Spanish and Indian among others. She enjoys tanning instead of burning to a lovely shade of lobster in the sun like her mother. Doing genealogy, we've found "secrets" on my husbands side. They think they were black due to some census records...but during that time period it was BETTER to be considered BLACK than INDIAN, so if you could pass for white, you said white, if you could pass for Black, you said Black. You denied your Indian heritage lest you get burned AGAIN by the government. The area his family lived is right near a reservation and the same families followed each other for generations. They're Indian, but the older ones refuse to talk because they're scared they're black. It is sad, interesting and amusing. I mean, we are going to find out one way or the other you might as well talk about it. If your people WERE black GET OVER IT, it is 2011. Who will it hurt now?
You are what you say you are, at the end of the day, and identified as you wish to be identified. (I think this goes double for sexuality). Within obvious limits of having some of the heritage you claim, and not being in total ridiculous denial.
I remember early in Halle's career, being annoyed with her, though I never disliked her, with her saying this one-drop stuff. She's a black/white person, I'm a black/white mixed person, but apparently her upbringing, parents and neighborhood gave her this must-choose mindset and I am sure it was a survival/fitting-in thing for her. Too bad.
I don't see eye to eye with her on this one. I grew up feeling like I belonged to both racial groups, and neither group, all at once. And that doesn't bother me one bit. There are plenty of other groups I'd rather join than racially defined ones. :)
The world would be a better place if we all started seeing people as individuals, and stopped debating and worrying about which "groups" they may, or may not, belong.
As to the checked boxes thing I have often marked other.I am caucasian & I am so white I could pass for Casper but I mark other. I write in the box AMERICAN.
I havealmost always19 done this since high school (many years ago). It makes officals froth at the mouth because they can't label you. As long as we continue to check those damn boxes we will always be seperate.
P.S. Halle just pisses me off.
I'm white, mid-30s, hippie/liberal. I also grew up in MS and I totally agree with Mr. M & MacVixen. Nahla will be labeled as black/African-American regardless of how she views herself, or how her mother and father see her. I think the Halle hate on CDAN comes from all the other ridiculous shit she's been pulling lately (and earlier in her career)...but Halle is right about this, whether or not she's pandering to her African-American fans.
I hope that the prevailing sentiment here - that color doesn't matter - becomes the norm sooner rather than later.
I traveled in SE Asia with a friend of mine who is 1/2 Phillipino. She grew up in Canada though, and has never considered herself white. But when we were in Asia, people considered her white. To them, she didn't look Asian. Eye of the beholder I guess..
I just wish it was more like, it doesn't matter if Nahla is black or white or mixed or what. She's just herself. Somewhere in between maybe or whatever she wants to be.
What does it even mean to be "seen as black" by society, though? I don't see the negatives, particularly in the case that you're an educated or wealthy enough person...
Somehow, I doubt Nahla will face a great deal of racial struggle outside of self-image/beauty status-quo stuff (that women can always find a bogeyman for no matter what our race & status), since when you're of a certain socio-economic caliber, people the world over are hilariously quick to excuse you your perceived racial ball and chain. Any person of color who has heard someone (the brown skinned included) rail against "niggers" and then explain how they only mean a certain subset of brown people should know what I mean.
IDK, people are fickle and weird and that's why I could give a crap how the world sees me. *shrug*
If Halle's goal is to make sure her daughter feels connected to the part of her heritage that has known struggle, I applaud that...but there's a difference between connecting that sort of consciousness and cutting yourself off from the great potential of letting her develop a more nuanced identity. (It's a blessing.)
I agree with Selock on the soci-economic thing. In America, the great divider is money, not race. If you are wealthy, it really doesn't matter what your racial make up is. In the middle class, it might matter to some people. As you move nearer to the poverty level, race seems to become a very big deal to people. I think for the most part this has to do with education levels. Generally the more money you have, the better an education you have had.
This is also pretty true of physical beauty. The more beautifl/handsome a person is, the less others seem to care about your race.
up until all this has anyone seen some public article or gossip site posting discussing Nahla's race or calling her black? I sure as heck haven't and I just don't buy that Aubry pitches a hissy fit when he sees all those [non-existent] articles in which his daughter is referred to as black.
A better guess would be that the only time there was a comment about Nahla, one that made Aubry react strongly, it was a comment from Berry made to Aubry and likely associated with statements in relationship to Nahla as her daughter made to diminish/undermine his role as her father.
People need to grow up and see our society for what it is. YES Nahla is more White genetically than African American, but once she grows up, (given her skin tone doesn't get lighter)she WILL be considered by mainstream society as either Black or exotic (which is a horrible term, since it basically just means unidentifiable brown person). People on this board can TALK about respecting people for people, and that is how our society SHOULD be. But we cannot deny the fact that we are a country that does not deal well with grey area, we like things concrete. Obama is bi-racial, grew up with his White mother, and grew up in a way that was very different from the typical Black kid at that time (I mean hell, even before the primaries people were debating whether or not he was "Black enough" to run), yet we STILL call him a Black president as opposed to Bi-Racial.
Halle may not have said it the right way, but I get where she's coming from, and for the most part homegirl speaks the truth.
To be 'seen as black by society' is literal: If you have identifiably black features, you will be subject to all those prejudices in a majority white society. It's not that complicated of a concept.
You're right, libby - it's not that complicated of a concept. I was just saying - just speaking from my own experience, no one else's - it's an oversimplification of reality.
I was saying to someone not too long ago that Nahla came out dark for a kid who's 1/4 black and 3/4 white. I know kids who are 1/2 black and 1/2 white and they came out blonde and light-eyed and people (usually white) are surprised to find out about the black parent. My point is, people label what they see. If a person "looks black" they are often labelled black, even if that person themselves does not see themselves as black (like a number of my dark-skinned Latino friends). Case in point: who thinks of the singer Carly Simon as black? I don't think anyone does even though her mother was half black because she doesn't "look black."
Back in the day, Halle was in that movie Losing Isaiah about a black mother trying to gain custody of her son from his white foster parents and used as part of her legal strategy that the foster parents couldn't understand what it was like to be black in America. I hope Halle isn't trying to recreate this in her own custody fight. I'm curious if she gave this interview before or after Gabriel went to court.
RocketQueen
Yes, she's just as bad as the KKK.
I feel like Halle is saying that black is better.
Also, I'm not white.
I think it's important for ppl to be proud of their mother's side as well as their father's side.
She's an asshole.
Halle is beautiful, but she comes across as a moron.
Black people aren't ashamed of blackness. Since this is Ebony mag we're talking about, this isn't 'controversial'. It's only controversial to people who aren't familiar with African American culture. We don't find being black offensive, so I'm amused and pretty fucking disturbed at how disgusted all you are about Halle's comments. And at this point I'm fully convinced that all the vitriol directed at Halle is pure jealousy.
Why does everyone have to worry about and define their race? Whatever happened to simply being a member of the HUMAN race?
White Anglo Saxon is the only thing that really is white. Race is determined by your background, being a certain skin color does not make you another race. A Very lightskinned person is not a white person. Americans think that because they are mixed and their skin color is white that they are white. No you are not. Like who are, know your ancestry and respect it. We are one people made up of many races, enjoy the stew.
If you're gettin all upset about this article, shit if you even find issues with this article, then you TRULY never understood it in the first place...
Ms Luey said...
Sunnyside, we're not descended from monkeys. We're descended from apes. Sorry, pet peeve. :)
Ms. Luey, we're not descended from apes. Apes and humans have a common ancestor. Pet peeve of mine. Oh, and people thinking that humans and dinosaurs co-existed. ;)
I'm of mixed race and most people think I'm white, but it's funny to answer questions about my ethnic heritage from people who are curious and who clumsily tip toe around the subject, trying to find out the answers they apparently think they need.
As she doesn't have to work another day for the rest of her life, Halle's number one priority should be the safety and well being of her daughter and not using Nahla as some sort of weapon against her ex. Halle has lost sight of her priorities. Furthermore, if it were true, Halle should be working to deny the story and not running around telling anyone who will listen that her baby's father--the one she lived with and slept with for years-- is a racist.
@Rocket Queen: So THAT explains the smoldering good looks!
I work with 2 doctors that are Egyptian, and I asked them which race they mark. One said white/caucasian, and the other said other. I said they should mark either other or African American (since Egypt is in Africa).
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