I can remember being in elementary school in Detroit in the early 1980's and Biracial kids caught hell...its like no group wanted them they were either too white or not black enough whatever the hell that means and hell apparently they're still catching hell look at President Obama....same shit different year.

NinaB said:

nursev said:

I find it interesting though that even in death people still wanna debate his race...hell his mom and his dad were Black...it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure this out

We'll be long gone & the shit will still be debated. Ad nauseum.

It most definitely will...truly sad. Even in super stardom one cant escape these questions.

Just too make ya'll smile hell Im a light skinned Black women with long hair and Prince's hair relaxer put me to shame ...that man was beautiful. Folks can debate about his race til Jesus comes, but that man was just a beautiful man He had "it" whatever it was

Fuck Race...what kinda magic was this? Damn he was pretty

[img:$uid]http://i497.pho.../img:$uid]

nursev said:

needed this. so many; especially since he passed, talked that transcending race bullshit or not seeing color and frankly as a black man it bothers me. for the simple fact that because Prince and Michael Jackson were world icons and had many fans of all creeds and colors or cause of the forever changing personel choices Prince made, they aren't black or shouldn't be looked at as such. it's insulting and disgusting to think otherwise. Prince was black starting june 7th 1958 and was just that until april 21st 2016. his mother was black. his father was black. the end.

[Edited 7/25/16 17:39pm]

NinaB said:

nursev said:

It most definitely will...truly sad. Even in super stardom one cant escape these questions.

Tedious 2 the max. If still confused, people should look at the recently released pic of a young John (playing with his band) & Mattie's pic in the Emancipation album. As an artist, P did not want 2 be boxed into one genre. People also forget the charts were still segregated.

2 be put into 1970's R&B was a musical death sentence cuz thats where you would stay and Prince was smart enough to know that. His music wasnt just R&B...it was everything.

tab32792 said:

needed this. so many; especially since he passed, talked that transcending race bullshit or not seeing color and frankly as a black man it bothers me. for the simple face that because Prince and Michael Jackson were world icons and had many fans of all creeds and colors or cause of the forever changing personel choices Prince made, they aren't black or shouldn't be looked at as such. it's insulting and disgusting to think otherwise. Prince was black starting june 7th 1958 and was just that until april 21st 2016.

amen to that

nursev said:

nursev said:

Prince was a light skinned Black man he told you that himself and Im pretty sure he knew....next topic

[img:$uid]http://i497.pho.../img:$uid]

I dont know what the demographics for Minneapolis were in the 1970s but Im sure Prince did what he had to do to survive. Poor guy had a rough childhood like some of us and he did what he had to to excel and get out of that so for that alone Im proud of him. Looking back he has always had a mixture of people in his bands and I think that was on purpose.

NinaB said:

nursev said:

Fuck Race...what kinda magic was this? Damn he was pretty

[img:$uid]http://i497.pho.../img:$uid]

The faery godmother's sprinkled some extra special faery dust on baby Princey

that was some powerful dust love it

tab32792 said:

nursev said:

Prince was a light skinned Black man he told you that himself and Im pretty sure he knew....next topic

[img:$uid]http://i497.pho.../img:$uid]

foreverfan1984 said:

I didnt know he claimed to be biracial. It didn't matter. I just loved his music.

.

If everyone's wondering if P ever claimed that himself, prior to Purple Rain, well, here's a 1981 Rolling Stone interview where he discusses his lineage.

http://princetext.tripod....one81.html

"I grew up on the borderline," Prince says after the show. "I had a bunch of white friends, and I had a bunch of black friends. I never grew up in any one particular culture." The son of a half-black father and an Italian mother who divorced when he was seven, Prince pretty much raised himself from the age of twelve, when he formed his first band. Oddly, he claims that the normalcy and remoteness of Minneapolis provided just artistic nourishment he needed."

He was what he was...and he wanted everyone to love his "was". That's all that matters, right?

.

Prince's parents/family roots were Black folks from Louisiana like Beyonce's mom and their heritage is mixed up because of that, but they were still Black.

[Edited 7/25/16 17:44pm]

jazzz said:

It seems that Prince started to develop a stronger black conscienceness in the early/mid nineties, due to his disappointments with the (mostly white dominated) recording industry. From that point onwards, his bands started to featured more black musicians. To me, it always appeared as if Prince, especially throughout the first decade of the new century, kept these ideas more to himself, or his inner circle. He was not always too outspoken or direct about it. It was more through some of his actions, like donations to black charity, that it showed. Only in the later years, he expressed it more explicitly, both in songs as well as in his spoken outings. Do you have a similar impression?

I did..he was more overtly Black with his bass lines and funky sound as well. Not only were his musician darker, so were the women he was hanging with. (which I was happy to see) On Tavis Smiley he talked about his relationship with his diverse audience and his perspective on how he was percived in both the White and Black community, and it was different. In recent years as the race issue got bigger, and it continues to, you could tell it effected him deeply. I wish he was around for all that's going on now. I'm sure he would have something to say. I miss my Brother Prince. Rest in Paradise

[Edited 7/25/16 17:46pm]

NinaB said:

laytonian said:

.

This quote from someone who knew him in school is very telling:

"As youth leader for Park Avenue United Methodist Church -- where Prince had his first wedding in 1996 -- Art Erickson saw him almost every day throughout his teens. Prince came to play ball, and also went to church camp. Erickson made the rounds at local schools, so he often would join Prince at lunch. Blacks, whites and biracial kids segregated themselves, and Prince normally sat with the biracial kids, Erickson said."

A coworker once told me that she was ostracized in school by the whites and darker blacks because her skin was lighter...even though both of her parents were black.

The quiet one: A high school classmate recalls the Artist as a young man.

By Jon Tevlin Star Tribune

MARCH 13, 2004

http://www.startribune.com/the-quiet-one-a-high-school-classmate-recalls-the-artist-as-a-young-man/11527586/" target="_blank">http://www.startribune.com/the-quiet-one-a-high-school-classmate-recalls-the-artist-as-a-young-man/11527586/

Tyka has spoken on the difficulties she experienced, growing up at that time & place being light skinned.....if what Art Erickson says is factual, various scenarios could be the cause.

This whole flippin' planet has a very long way to go.

nursev said:

Just too make ya'll smile hell Im a light skinned Black women with long hair and Prince's hair relaxer put me to shame ...that man was beautiful. Folks can debate about his race til Jesus comes, but that man was just a beautiful man He had "it" whatever it was

Only nursev lol I love it
U always give the best replies 2 Prince pictures

nursev said:

Prince's parents/family roots were Black folks from Louisiana like Beyonce's mom and their heritage is mixed up because of that, but they were still Black.

[Edited 7/25/16 17:44pm]

But Creole was always a different group. Beyonces mom is Creole like Sheila E's mom and actress Lynn Whitfield.

Some 70s stuff started happening and drawing ridged lines of race. A lot of Creoles were even shamed out of speaking Creole

OldFriends4Sale said:

nursev said:

Just too make ya'll smile hell Im a light skinned Black women with long hair and Prince's hair relaxer put me to shame ...that man was beautiful. Folks can debate about his race til Jesus comes, but that man was just a beautiful man He had "it" whatever it was

Only nursev lol I love it
U always give the best replies 2 Prince pictures

and he did I mean his hair was beautiful and you posted some great Prince pics and threads over the years too

OldFriends4Sale said:

nursev said:

Prince's parents/family roots were Black folks from Louisiana like Beyonce's mom and their heritage is mixed up because of that, but they were still Black.

[Edited 7/25/16 17:44pm]

But Creole was always a different group. Beyonces mom is Creole like Sheila E's mom and actress Lynn Whitfield.

Some 70s stuff started happening and drawing ridged lines of race. A lot of Creoles were even shamed out of speaking Creole

Im a 70's baby so I wasnt aware of that and yes they were and still are unique.

laytonian said:

.

This quote from someone who knew him in school is very telling:

"As youth leader for Park Avenue United Methodist Church -- where Prince had his first wedding in 1996 -- Art Erickson saw him almost every day throughout his teens. Prince came to play ball, and also went to church camp. Erickson made the rounds at local schools, so he often would join Prince at lunch. Blacks, whites and biracial kids segregated themselves, and Prince normally sat with the biracial kids, Erickson said."

A coworker once told me that she was ostracized in school by the whites and darker blacks because her skin was lighter...even though both of her parents were black.

The quiet one: A high school classmate recalls the Artist as a young man.

By Jon Tevlin Star Tribune

MARCH 13, 2004

http://www.startribune.com/the-quiet-one-a-high-school-classmate-recalls-the-artist-as-a-young-man/11527586/" target="_blank">http://www.startribune.com/the-quiet-one-a-high-school-classmate-recalls-the-artist-as-a-young-man/11527586/

Prince always connected and expressed his identity (with women) And most of the women he dated were of mixed heritage or biracial. Even if you look at the women connected with his AOA period 99% of them were biracial or mixed.

As an African American, Prince ran the gamut--individually and culturally--of what it means to be an African American. In America, sadly, it is still more difficult for African Americans to be seen as multidimensional beings, even though--historically, culturally, ideologically, genetically--African Americans are as multidimensional as any group in America. As such, to be deemed as black or African American is too be deemed as part of a monolith, limiting one's human dimensionality and economic opportunities. Thus, Prince, understanding this, early, did what many African Americans have done to survive and thrive since the time of American slavery, which is to mold or present oneself as something that can be more palatable to the white masses/power structure, especially since it was his desire to play all the music of his heritage, and, by 1978, rock music had been completely coopted by the white mainstream. As Little Ricard has said on many occasions, "R&B never meant 'rhythm and blues,' it meant 'real black' because they [the white power structure of American music] needed to create a category for me so that Elvis Presley and Pat Boone would have a category [rock-n-roll] all to themselves." So, Prince lied about his race to make sure that he would not be limited because of it. One can call it self-hatred, or one can call it self-preservation.

*

What's funny is that Prince, himself, couldn't even keep the lie straight because in a January 1980 article he states that one of his parents is black and other is mixed, in a February 1980 article the previously mixed parent is black and the previously black parent is mixed, and by March 1980 both parents are mixed. What's worse is that no journalist interviewing him at that time bothered to do their research and have him clarify this. Yet, as times and lives change, Prince, for whatever reason--and there are a few specific reasons, began to identify more with and engage issues more specific to the African-American community, which, of course, pissed off many of his white and biracial fans. I mean, how dare an African American man born in 1958 address issues specific to the community in which he was raised? Didn't he know that it was his responsibility to maintain the lie of his mixed heritage so as to continue to appease the fantasy of many of his fans of him being a "special Negro" or an exotic "other" through which others could live vicariously?

*

Anywho, Prince's narrative arc from multicultural utopia to an understanding that no multicultural utopia can exist without African Americans becoming more self-determining is a pretty normal/natural narrative arc for many African Americans. It seems that, like Prince, many African Americans have a "come to Jesus" moment when they realize that fighting for a multicultural utopia may not be the best course of action. Even W. E. B. DuBois and Martin L. King, Jr.,--two of the greatest fighters for integration--both had their "come to Jesus" moment and realized that self-determinism and not mindless or blind integration would be the best answer for African Americans. King stated that he "may have integrated his people into a burning house," and DuBois, in his seminal essay, "Does the Negro Need Integrated Schools," stated that [African-American] children need schools that are well-funded and administered by people who love them, not schools administered by whites who doubt their intellect. Not long after the publication of this article, DuBois renounced his American citizenship and moved to Africa. Prince didn't renounce his citizenship; he just released The Rainbow Children, which pretty much pissed off folks in the same manner, even though he had been moving in this direction for about five years or so.

*

Therefore, Prince's narrative arc of racial awareness/identity is not atypical or unusual of African Americans; it's pretty typical of African Americans who have and continue to struggle to find place and space in American hell.

morningsong said:

NinaB said:

morningsong said:

This whole flippin' planet has a very long way to go.

Planet's good, people not so.

Ok, yeah, true.

morningsong said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Not biracial but definately he did stuff on his journey that expressed his 'multiracialness' along with his 'blackness'
in many ways the same that he accented his femaleness.

He said for himself he was black. If you don't want to claim it then that's your issue not his. You be multiracial, personally I don't have anything against it. It just when someone else defines themselve and then others try to correct it to fit into their own personal model then it becomes a problem. Why can't he in your mind just be black, why does there have to be a footnote of anykind?

"Bushy headed Mulatto breakdown" -1998 NPS

He is Black. If he identifies that way he is.
But that doesn't and never has totally defined him.
Mixed people always catch hell for saying so. Prince knew this.

And multiracial is an acceptance of Blackness(if the person is part African)
Kimora Lee Simmons says she is 100% Black. She also says she is 100% Asian.

"He's all black, he's all white, everybody better jam 2night, Limousine" 1984 Blue Limousine

in 2010 during an interview he was refered to as a black artist, he stretched out his arm and put it next to the woman and asked "Am I?"

Our lives are full of footnotes of all kinds. Only some people are set in concrete terms, are not fluid, don't have layers. We live in a world full of social constructions. As he sang on the Rainbow Children, nothing wrong with destroying the 'digital haze'

CherryMoon57 said:

If folks are ok with someone being black or white but not multiracial, multiracial must be the new black then...

the Banished Ones are still visually distracted by the Digital Haze ie the 1 Drop Rule. Time for the Deconstruction. Reproduction of the new Breed Leaders stand up, Organize. lol

OldFriends4Sale said: