READERS REACT:HALLE BERRY’S BABY RAISES QUESTIONS OF SKIN COLOR IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY
In this POST,BCK introduced Halle Berry’s baby Nahla. The picture of Halle’s daughter incited some very interesting conversations among readers. Here are a few comments from dedicated readers:
She’s such a pretty little baby. Halle’s black gene must be really strong. The baby is only a quarter black but looks more like half black.~Jade
What is wrong with everyone and this “COLOR/RACE” business. My grandfather is light-skinned with greyish blue eyes and my grandmother is dark-skinned with brown eyes and straight hair. They have 12 children together but only one came out light…even though my grandmother’s mother was white. Of their many grandchildren only one came out with very light colored eyes. My grandmother has three brothers and two sisters and they all literally look like day and night. Some are high color and some are dark. We as African-Americans need to stop assuming just because you have two people of different or mixed races that their kids are “EXPECTED” to look a certain way. You all need to shut the hell up and have an opinion about something else OTHER THAN RACE AND COLOR. It’s getting tired and repetitive. We are all adults here NOT CHILDREN SO GET OFF THE DAMN PLAYGROUND AND GROW THE HELL UP. Halle Berrys daughter is BEAUTIFUL!!!!~Island girl
Wow, why must race issues always play such an important part in post such as this one and others that feature interracial families. Nahla looks so much like her father and her eyes are beautiful. Nahla’s eyes do not appear to me to be blue but a grayish color and who knows they may turn out to be a light hazel color.~Steffie
YOU KNOW WHAT? WITH ALL THIS TALK ABOUT SKIN COLOR AND EYE COLOR AND SPECULATION ON WHO SHE WILL LOOK LIKE IT IS NO WONDER WHY HALLE KEPT HER OUT OF THE PUBLIC EYE SO LONG. WE ARE MESSED UP….ESPECIALLY US BLACK FOLK. SHE IS A DOLL WHETHER SHE HAS LIGHT SKIN OR BLUE EYES OR NOT. PEOPLE PLEASE HAVE SOME PRIDE.~Melissa Tarver
I think Nahla looks just like her father. She is 3/4 white after all. Either way she’s a beautiful little girl. And congratulations to Halle for not selling pictures to some magazine, that was very classy of her.~J
Ah yes as race rears it’s ugly head. A beautiful mixed race woman has a beautiful mixed race child. Are some of you happy that whatever the skin colour/eye colour this beautiful angel has graced us with her presence? No instead you all spend time deliberating on how white or black she looks. If Halle found a black man you would complain about the child being dark, she found a white man – you still complain. Some say sell the pics,some say don’t sell. Bottom line is this. What if it were your child? Would you welcome all the negative comments? If I were Halle Berry and this were my kid I would tell you all to Go to HELLLLL!!!!~Claire
Some Researched Facts/Opinions:
- Throughout history, Skin color deter-mined how African Americans were treated and what jobs they were given. Slaves who were considered lighter-skinned were given jobs and chores that were more respectable inside the house, such as cooking, cleaning, and attending to the children. On the other hand, the darker-complexioned slaves were given more menial jobs, such as working the fields, picking cotton, and laboring manually. After the abolition of slavery, the impact of skin color influenced the lives of African Americans in reference to status and achievement.
- At present in our society, the implication of skin color is evi-dent in the varied messages received by many Black Americans. Many African Americans are taught at an early age to be proud of their heritage and skin color, but many still remain “color struck” or color conscious. This means that they attend and respond differently to shades of dark skin.
- Some believe that this thinking has created a “color complex,” where black women measure their beauty by the shade of their skin and lose focus on other ways to express beauty.
When women see images of beauty, they typically don’t think of chocolate skin, dark eyes and thick hair.” - “Some women are insecure and buy into the idea that beauty depends on how long one’s hair is, how light one’s eyes are and how light one’s skin color is – all which are ideologies that stem from the slave movement.”
BCK Says:Is focusing on skin color/eye color another way for people in the African-American community to enslave themselves?
32 Comments to “READERS REACT:HALLE BERRY’S BABY RAISES QUESTIONS OF SKIN COLOR IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY”
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Now wait a minute BCKs… I didn’t comment on the original post, but how can you just assume that the person commenting is a member of the black community?! I believe that it is becoming more and more prevalent for non-black people to go to black blog sites and make comments to stir up mess. These could also be non-black people who have their own opinions about the appearance of Halle’s baby. We can’t continue blaming each other for the things done by faceless people behind computer screens!
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Amy, you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! I see it all the time on black blog. Of course the people that try to stir up mess, leave a message and never come back. They are called trolls.
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Don’t know why folks have their undies in a bunch on how much White or Black Nahla looks? Geesh. Depending on which publication they have looking like the photos above and others they have her looking darker. The above photos have her looking like Aubry, the others don’t i.e. cover of US etal.
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Why is the child’s admixture relevant? Most black people are of mixed race ancestry, and rarely do we spend time guessing and chopping other children of black celebs apart in sections trying to determine what percentage of them is actually black. We don’t know what percentage of Nahla’s ancestry is African vs European because we don’t have a genetic profile of either parents, so how about we call the baby a beautiful human being and lets move on…yawn.
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Barlow@
I’m going to second what you just said. Nahla is a beautiful little girl. Nuff said!
BTW I think Nahla looks like her daddy Gabriel. This isn’t a color thing so please don’t flip out on me. The forehead, eyes and lips (to me) are totally Gabriel. And Sally is right Nahla photographs differently in all her pictures(Supermodel in the house!!!).
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The best way to handle trolls. Is not to comment on their posts. Trust me they will go away.
I once read an interview Halle gave. She said she doesn’t web surf anymore. Because the blogs are so hateful and mean. I’m happy about that. Because no one shouldn’t have to read faceless crappy comments about their kid(s).
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SHE IS A BEAUTIFUL CHILD, SHE DOES’T KNOW WHAT SHE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE YET, RACE DOES NOT MATTER, NO ONE IN THIS WORLD CAN HELP THE WAY THAT THEY COME OUT OF THEIR MOTHER, THERE ARE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE IN EVERY RACE, NOT JUST BLACK, AND I THINK PEOPLE SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON SKIN COLOR AND EYES, THIS BABY IS AN ANGEL AND I AM SO HAPPY THAT GOD BLESSED HALLE WITH THAT PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRL, EVERY CHILD IS A WONDERFUL GIFT FROM GOD, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE, THAT SHOULDN’T EVEN BE ANYONES FOCUS, I’M HAPPY THAT SHE HAD A HEALTHY BABY GIRL AND I KNOW THAT SHE IS GOING TO BE A WONDERFUL MOTHER TO HER CHILD.
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BCK Says:Is focusing on skin color/eye color another way for people in the African-American community to enslave themselves?
BCK my response to your question is this. Yes. It was used as a way to control us in slave times and breed trust amongst blacks during slavery and it is still being used now. I thought in this day and age that people were beyond the whole color issue. It may well not be African-American making comments on there standard of beauty. How ever I know and I am sure if more are willing to be honest that more black then we are comfortable with are not comfortable in their own skin. I for one am, and I make sure my children fell the same way. I think we as black people are to distracted by mundane things, like rims, grills, bling, name brand clothes all to have the appearance of being rich and in doing so are being taken away from what really matters. If they took the money and spent it on things that made money for the way Caucasians did and have been doing for quite some time, then they wouldn’t have to spend so much energy on trying to appear rich they would be. Then they could be with their families more often instead of having them in childcare or being at home hours a day by themselves. I think the reason so many of our black people are poor because they don’t know how to manage the money they do have and don’t try to find out. It is really sad. We are all capable of so much but we accept so much less than we deserve because we fell like we are unworthy because we let our view of ourselves be colored by the racist media with the intention of keeping us down to protect the status quo.
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This baby is BEAUTIFUL! Plain & simple!!
And I don’t care if she’s light, dark or ANYWHERE in the middle!
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Sad, we black folks still can’t even get along or accept one another. Stupid. Wake the F–K up. My family has dark, mid and light skinned bros and sisters. We all get along. Cause we know better. What is wrong with the black community. Wake……..up.
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Nahla is beautiful, it don’t matter what color she is. Duh, does it matter that Halle was with how many black men and now she’s happy with a white man. Color doesn’t matter to her, she don’t care what color her child is… she’s happy that she has a child (beautiful or not) and a man who treats her well. Grow up people, stop scanning the web and pick up a educational book!
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To be honest, I don’t think some of those comments were made by African Americans. I go to another website similar to this site and I see tons of comments regarding race when talking about a child that is more than one race. Garcelle Beauvais twin’s sparked a huge debate because some people actually questioned whether Garcelle was the biological mother because her babies were light and had light eyes. I have personally been asked if a African American has blue or green eyes then someone in their family lineage has to be white. A former Caucasian co-worker asked me that question. It’s amazing the comments that are made and the folks that make them think it’s just an innocent comment. But it’s not. Nahla is a biracial so why would it surprise anyone that she looks biracial…why make a comment that Halle’s gene most be dominant because Nahla has African American features. It’s so sad that in 2008 people can’t see a pretty baby…they have to firt comment on their hair, their complexion, the baby is 1/4 this or 2/3 that. It’s ridiculous!!! It’s called DNA/genetics. There is no set way on how a baby is going to look regardless of race or even what their parents look like.
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What amazes me most is not that people are talking about it ad neasuem, but rather that people are shocked by all the conversation surrounding Nahla’s racial makeup. Since when has this country, and its inhabitants, not been fixated on race?!?! Further, I don’t think that talking about race is necessarily distructive to any one group. I think a lot of the comments stemmed from shear curiosity. While race mixing has occured since the beginning of time, it still isn’t all that common, relatively speaking. So when it does happen, people get to talking (especially when a mega star like Halle Berry is involved).
I guess my point is perhaps an open dialogue about race isn’t as bad as some people might believe. Just because we happen to all consider ourselves black doesn’t mean that we all share everything in common. There are differences among us (racially, financially, educationally, socially, etc). What’s the harm in having casual conversation about those differences or more serious conversations about them, for that matter?
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I don’t think it matters what color she is. I think she has beautiful bone structure and the shape of her eyes are stunning.
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BCK=I think yes it is another way for them to enslave themselves. Instead of being happy that its a beautiful that a Mixed woman with African descent has a beautiful-healthy child, people are concerned about her gaining color or her eyes to darken.
In reality, I know she’ll probably get tanner over the years its only natural because she’ll be outside. But really people, its about the genes and if which gene comes through more. For the most part Halle’s daughter physically took over more of the European American genes rather the African American ones. 75% is a big chunk of genes, though it is possible for someone 25%(A.A.) could look more that then E.A.
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Just she is beautiful and healthy..Thats all its about.
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JAY= Sorry, but I went to a medical site and it said the only way for African Americans to have blue or green eyes is:
*European American blood down the line
*Mutation
*Albinoism
So it’s more then likely an A.A. with lighter eyes has some E.A. blood directly or indirectly down the line.
Though recently scientists have said 10,000 years ago everyone had brown and some mutation came along and people starting getting lighter eyes.But yeah…
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I would just like to say that it is ok to describe such a beautiful human being such as Halle’s baby for who she is. Yes, she has light eyes, yes, she has light skin, yes she has those features! Just because I pointed out those characteristics doesn’t necessarily mean I’m partial to any side of her races. Black people would benefit greatly if they enrolled in a black history course, maybe two. There is so much to know about the history of black people. Black people are naturally good people, caring, loving and trusting…unless they’re provoked. Black people have gone through generations and generations of hardship, enslavement etc. Any race of people would resort to how some black people live had they been through what blacks have been through and some are still going through. Modern day slavery occurs in the mind…Don’t allow it and you won’t be enslaved. Black people and white people have such beautiful children. But then all children are beautiful depending on who’s beholding them (Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder) Let us love one another and our children, regardless of the race. I’m glad someone noticed that instigators could be blogging in…good watching out. Someone was right when they suggested not to comment on the “instigators”!
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i think it shouldn’t matter what skin the child has. As long as its its a healthy child. plus you have to realize that halle is melano like mariah carey but darker. plus i can tell the baby has black in her. i mean when was a baby people thought my mom cheated on my dad because i had light green eyes and was very pale and hair color was like a light brown or gray blonde like color.But my mother is half cuban and black.(her was cuban)
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you know this bothers me alot we are in 2008 and skin color is still an issue that baby don’t know a damn thing about race color nothing and you people are already putting a stamp on her. GET REAL PEOPLE!! her mother is half white and her father is FRENCH.
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As a black mother of a asian and black child, I’m always curious to understand black peoples reaction to us. My son looks more asian then black…for now. Everyone expected that he would take more after me then his father but that goes to show you can not predict how genes mix.
The black community seems obsessed with skin tone, hair texture, etc. This is the majority of comments received after seeing my son. We as a community need to admit and then start the work of re-forming our mindset about these racial “markers”. It seems we have a long way to go after reading thru some of the comments on Halle Berry’s daughters “appearance” but I’m glad that issue was addressed and an open dialogue can be started thru sites like these.
Nikki
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I’ve seen Nahla’s dad, but I don’t recall how looks. Anyway she’s a beautiful little girl and she looks just like Halle’s mom.
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Wow…. I’m also stunned at the ignorant comments made by people. Black and white!
Why can’t people understand that the child is what she is…. a beautiful QUADROON little girl.
Quadroons come in all colors, and with various ethinic features.
One notable quadroon is singer CARLEY SIMON. Other quads’ are tennis star Boris Beckers 2 sons, Noah & Elias. Their mother Barbara Feltus Becker (ex-wife) is 1/2 & 1/2 and Boris is (most likely 100% )white so that makes their boys Quadroons. Both boys are extremely cute! Noah is medium brown skinned, while Elias is very light peaches & cream skinned. Also, Noah has beautiful dark curly hair, and Elias has equaly beautiful blong wavy hair.
If you care to see any photos of the afore mentioned… you can GOOGLE them.
P.s. little Nahla is the splitting image of Halle’s mom… Judith(?).
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i am really disturbed by whats written on Researched Facts when its said that light skinned black slaves had a more respectable slave jobs.my question is this when did it become respectable to be a slave??PLS
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I’m white, and I honestly think that most babies are beautiful, regardless of their skin color. Halle Berry’s baby is absolutely beautiful, and if she had been of a darker complexion she would have been beautiful too.
I’m just happy for Berry and her boyfriend, they must be so thrilled about having such an adorable baby.
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THE BABY IS A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING WHETHER “DARK” OR “LIGHT”.
XXOO
I THINK WE SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON CHANGING OUR ATTITUDES FROM BEING SO NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE. IT SOUNDS LIKE SOME OF US CAN USE SOME ANGER MANAGEMENT TRAINING OR WE MAY END UP BUSTING A VEIN. WHY SUCH ANGRY SOUNDING RESPONSES?? TRY NOT TO GET SO IRRITATED BY THE RESPONSES. THEY ARE JUST OPINIONS
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Black , white, Asian… or wherever, WHO CARES! We have to stop focussing on color (or stop saying “race cause it’s only one race: the Human kind race!) skin…
Come on, look how beautiful is Nahla, who doesn’t want to have such a beautiful baby. Not only because of her eyes, but because of all her features.
I’m African-American and my husband is White American; and let me tell you something: if somebody critizises my children bcuz there are ‘too’ white, or ‘too’ black I’m gonna say to that person: “Get a life and welcome to the NEW CENTURY” (I wanted to write “go f**** yourself”…lol)
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Genes are funny things.. My husband has very dark brown eyes and mine own are dark brown/green hazel… our son had cornflower blue eyes until he was 4.. he now has greenblue/yellow hazel eyes. Skin color is different for white people too.. My son is very pale and yet our daughter is olive and as we joke can walk into a hot room and tan.. whereas her brother burns and never tans. Race is not the issue.. although you all seem to focus on it.. I am just happy that Halle is enjoying motherhood and has a healthy happy child and loving man to expirience this wonderful journey with.. and that is all that really matters.. really now..isn’t it. Oh.. and their daughter is way too beautiful and I can’t wait to see her grow up!
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She is a Living Doll. such a Beautiful Baby
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I think when you raise kids to love who you are and be the best they can be and being a good loving mother they would only want some one of that character.I have three boys and very nice looking and they want someone like me,so getting someone like me they want her to look like me to and I raised them this way and it takes alot of putting me into the boys.
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I agree with what island girl, Jade, Steffie, and Melissa Tarver have said , we as a race have enough problems with race due to how whites perceive us , why must we add more to our already heavy load of burdens and tribulations? I say Nahla is just another beautiful sister and if Halle isn’t making a big deal about how she looks then nobody should have anything to say about how she looks.
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