I would have a hard time believing The Kid came from 2 black parents. He really seems of mixed race, at least to someone like me who has not had the chance to interact with races other than the white one. If mother was black it might draw suspicions of infidelity (hence the father's abuse) to the viewer. Also, the choice of her being Italian (though I don't know where that is evident but I trust you know more than me around here) may explain their troubled relationship to some extent, due to difference in mentality. Otherwise the viewer might have trouble seeing why those 2 people interact so angrily while at the end we see that they love each other after all.

And since this thread comes handy, I hope you don't mind if I share my experience of Purple Rain with you.

5 days ago I watched PR again after 25 YEARS!!!
I was about 14 when it was released and I had seen it on the big screen for the first time. I went there with a friend of mine and it was the 2 of us + one more person in the theatre! We were really wondering if they would show the film after all for only 3 people! Luckily, they did. Of course I was familiar with the soundtrack, which played like crazy in the American radio station I used to listen to (at the time we had only 3-4 state radio stations which hardly played any international music). Prince's music had already been a turning point for me, being used to much more mainstream and "light" music. But Purple Rain the movie proved to be an eye-opener also! I had never seen such a dark and heavy movie before! Now you may laugh at that and I may laugh too, because in subsequent years I've watched many a "wrist-slitting" film but at the time it felt like such an "adult" movie, all gloomy and depressing... And I was really amazed! It seems it had an impact on me because since then I can only watch really dark movies. I can't say I remembered much of Prince's performances or anything else about the film after 25 whole years, besides the atmosphere... Now that I've seen it from a new perspective, and a few times, I can say that it seems much lighter and funnier. And more naive of course. But I can watch it again and again with GREAT pleasure! And Prince's unbelievable performances blow me away each and every time! It's definitely a CLASSIC in my book!

Now I have to go for Graffiti Bridge & Under The Cherry Moon. I've never seen those...