Debarges with other famous people
El and Missy

Chico and Kelley Price

El and Miss Ross



El and Teena Marie

Chico and Bobby Brown

El, Stephanie Mills and the Winans

Debarge members and Bobby with Jesse Jackson

Chico and Keith Sweat

[Edited 5/14/09 15:55pm]

Great Song from "All This Love:

Everytime I see Keith Sweat I think of that Atlanta Housewife!


Wow El was skinnier than Mz Ross!!!


i love all these pics

DesireeNevermind said:

He is skinny isn't he? I bet he could eat some food though.Most skinny folks do.

Fridayfoster said:

Skinny dudes have big schlongs too. Nature has a sense of humor don't she?

DesireeNevermind said:

This is sad but true to SOME black women.I wish SOME sistas would not think like this and love their beautiful brown skin.It is slave thinking.

DesireeNevermind said:

That maybe true about skinny dudes with big you know what (trying to be nice here ) Yes Ms.Nature has a sense of humor.

Fridayfoster said:

there are white girls that think this way too. I have a friend. She won't date anybody but a black guy and has 2 kids cuz she wanted her own lil "lisa bonet" as she calls it and some dude from Highschool musical (can't remember the name) she says she won't have a baby by a white guy cuz "she's not tryna do her kids like that". I luv the kids but they are nothing special to look at.

scriptgirl said:

But you also have to keep in mind that this was different era in terms of what was available to women for contraception. First of all, although the birth control pill was FDA approved in 61, it wasn't available to prescribe to married women until '65 , and it took a Supreme Court ruling for that to happen (and for single women, they couldn't be prescribed the pill until the early 70's)... IUDs were just coming into wider use in the 60's in the United States, and statistics from that time show that only 30% of American married couples used diaphragms. So just assuming she would not have used birth control isn't very logical or fair, considering how restricted its' availability was in her time.

Birth control for a woman in a repressed patriarcal society, and a black woman in an interracial marriage in a nation with no women's reproductive rights,let alone civil rights essentially meant two things:

1. Attempt to refuse the advances of your husband (which I can't see living in the 1950's when womwn were still treated as 2nd class citizens, let alone a black woman having the nerve to be married to a white man. That was stigmatic in itself and pushed her further down the social totem pole)...

2. If you get caught up with a baby in your belly, you have to somehow find the money, resources,and connection to make a date with a coat hanger in some dingy back alley "medical office"...

Ottensen said:

Good Lord we were like Afghanistan at one time. All that's missing from this is a Burka!

Ottensen, I bow to you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and knowledge.

DesireeNevermind said:

Gurl, you ain't neva lied!

scriptgirl said:

I'm telling you, Ladies, we are so lucky to have neen born in the times that we were born in

I mean, think about it...it's the 1950's, interracial marriage is a crime punishable by law in parts of the country...even into the 60's where anti-mscegenation (anti-race mixing) laws were being repealed, they used to take Gallup polls showing that over 95% of white Americans disapproved of interrracial marriage...this family must have been a living breathing walking freak show wherever they went.

Add that to being a poor, black, unskilled wife who married young; without a college education she would have had limited choices for lucrative employment and setting aside money for her escape. Even if she could have landed a job as waitress or maid...that would mean she would have had to leave her kids at home in his care. Because after all, who's going to help the walking freakshow family? It not like there was money or resources for childcare service back then, and even if there was, do you really think (based on the stigma at the time) anyone wold be interested in taking on those types of children?

So basically, being a religious woman, stuck with an abusive husband who holds all the social power simply because he is white (remember the tales of the police showing up for their domestic disputes but then always leaving without filling out a report once they saw that they were an interracial couple?), you're already a 2nd class citizen as woman in 1950's America, and you have few reproductive rights...sorry, but you culdn't PAY me to go back to this era...not even you you guaranteed me 100 million dollas and a trip back to the future . So yup, I tend to be a littl easier on the mother involved in this scenario...

The only thing I've often wrestled with, with this concept, is the sexual abuse against the children and how she couldwithstand it (if she even knew about it). I mean, we've all read enough Alice Walker and Toni Morrison to know that these stories are out there in real life. But part of me is actually surprised not that she didn't leave him, but how he managed to not, well, get killed. I guess ultimately it goes back to him being the sole provider, higher on the social totem pole (even though he was clearly a sick bastard) and had he suddenly turned up missing, they would have got her ass, and then the kids would have ended up as orphans in a very unforgiving system...

I still could see myself thinking though,

"You know Bob, you are very lucky to be alive, my friend"


Yeah,the more I thinkof it, we really are lucky that we have a million choices as women today, and we don't have to be rich to have them either

I think the mom did know about the abuse. Bunny said recently, she and her mom weren't speaking and that is due in part to Bunny's book, but maybe also because of the mom not protecting Bunny from the dad.

I could be wrong, but I don't think Chico (born 66) and the twins (born in 70)
went through a lot of trauma re being biracial. I knos Chico has never spoken of it-not that that means anything-but I since they were born so much later than many of their siblings, I wonder if the impact of abuse was lessened.

DesireeNevermind said:

DesireeNevermind I was thinking the same thing.

From Reuters:
One of the prominent R&B family acts of the '80s was Motown's DeBarge. Now Kristinia DeBarge, daughter of founding member/keyboardist James, is taking the group's musical legacy to new heights.

The 19-year-old recently entered the Billboard Hot 100 with her first single, "Goodbye." Sampling Steam's 1969 pop No. 1, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," the song is No. 30 on the tally and also appears in the latest Nivea ad campaign.

DeBarge is signed to Sodapop Music, a new label co-founded by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and industry veteran Jeff Burroughs. Her as-yet-untitled album is scheduled for a summer release through Island Def Jam.

DeBarge describes the album as "empowering and inspirational, aiming to give women strength and help young girls feel like they're not alone. It's the kind of album that will make you feel like everything is OK."

Tracks include "Cry Me a River," about a girl ready to move on from a painful breakup; "Sabotage," chronicling the struggles of peer pressure; and the ballad "It's Gotta Be Love."

DeBarge says she separates herself from other artists by embracing her vulnerability instead of looking on it as a bad thing. "It allows me to be who I am, to be compassionate and sing beautiful songs," she says.

She launched her career when she participated in "American Juniors," an "American Idol" spinoff, in 2003, and reached the top 20. Once filming ended, she joined her father on tour.

It was during one of those shows that the 14-year-old DeBarge met Edmonds. He took her under his wing and has been working with her for the past five years. Their efforts paid off on the eve of her 19th birthday in April, when DeBarge met with Island Def Jam chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid and signed her first label contract.

Now she's ready to further develop her birthright. "Being a DeBarge has done nothing but bring good things my way," she says. "I've worked hard for everything that's come my way. But I also know my last name has been in my corner."

I wish Ms. Kristinia DeBarge well but what I've heard.
I'm aware of her "target audience" but lets hope she has the talent to produce something with a lil bit more.. substanance.

Yeah, I am not crazy about her music-that said, she does have a VERY good voice-youtube her American juniors perf. The fact that her music is so poor has more to do with the shittiness of the biz in general. That said, it is nice to see another Debarge out there, keeping the name alive!

New Chico pics from his forth coming cd, "Addiction"






[Edited 5/15/09 20:43pm]
[Edited 5/15/09 20:44pm]

Ottensen said:

Wow Wow Wow you hit on some VERY GREAT points!!!! The fact still remains that she could have left before she produced more children. In fact the sad part is she did keep leaving him in between children; she kept stating NOBODY WANTED TO TAKE CARE OF ME AND ALL THOSE KIDS!!!

Etterlene came from a huge christian family right there there in Detroit with her. If you read between the lines they didn't want to or couldn't afford to take care of her and all those kids.... She knew about the sexual abuse going on and did nothing about it maybe she felt helpless. Her brothers didn't like what was going on under that roof and tried to intervene but she took up for her husband! Back then they would have been lynched for abusing a white man! What a shitty situation to be in. Mama D had to have low self esteem about being so dark; and needing to be loved no matter how dysfunctional it seemed. She said she didn't think Robert Debarge would like her because she was so dark; that is an emotionally unstable comment right there.

She had to feel guilty about the abuse because she let the children run the streets they were wild and ghetto. They were street with no home training and neither of those 10 children she had graduated from high school. Not a single child. Bunny, Bobby and Tommy was already dabbling into drugs before fortune and fame. Their mother is and was color struck and she had no attraction to the black man. It could be because they teased her growing up about her being so dark! You are soooo right about those abortion methods my Grandmother was telling me, you had to use a coat hanger and COCA COLA, it was so STRONG they used it for abortions!!!

Bunny said she hated that her mother and father was married it was embarrassing when they went out in public. She said they didn't see any kids that looked like them. People stared at them all the time pointing and whispering. I can see why Bunny started using drugs at a early age. They caught pure HELL everywhere they went for being multi-racial. African americans can be very racist as well against their own kind let alone a white person, especially back then. El said they were teased and called half-breeds everyday.

Our own black president started doing destructive behavior during his teens because he was mixed and being raised by his white mother and grandma. He said he felt worthless. Mixed kids till this day catch hell!

Bobby didn't introduce them to drugs Bunny did...I hope hatred is not in their hearts against their mother.

scriptgirl said:

This is soooo true. Though I think if they (the record companies) continue to put our junk, the are writing their own epitaph. As far as the younger generation of DeBarges I haven't heard anyone yet I thought could sing. Being able to sing on key doesn't make you a good singer let alone a great one. The only one who appears to have a little something on the ball is Andrew...I don't know who's kid he is. He seems to have some arranging/ songwriting/production skills and plays a mean guitar plus keyboard. Singing, I don't know maybe Andrew needs time to find his own voice.

Andrew is Bobby's son. Give it time. There's 50 million Debarge grandkids. Someone has to have talent!

scriptgirl said:

DesireeNevermind said:

My mother went to this Busy Body concert back in the day she was a Big Luther Vandross fan. It was a big stank about that but it was quickly hushed up when James and Janet eloped! James kept saying Bobby abused them dearly especially him because James was his daddy's favorite child, he got all the love and attention including more toys. This family has had deep incest going on in it. I believe if CPS could have stepped in back then they wouldn't because the Debarge clan was considered to be walking half- breed FREAKS! They had no protection, and if you read between the lines, Unsung is saying in the nicest way possible every evil, terrible thing their father wanted to do to them; he did! It affected Bobby mentally as well. That clan suffered a lot abuse at the hands of their dad! Like Bonnie said the damage is already done in her life...

You can't really point the finger because EVERY PREDATOR was once a victim in most cases; and in other cases people just need medication for mental issues. Quincy Jones and Babyface know about the abuse, believe it or not a lotta stars know about the Debarge deep dark secrets. To them it's no big deal to them because they got their deep dark secrets as well....

DesireeNevermind said:

These silly over crazed groupie female fans keep having babies by poor EL, not to mention his wives added to the count! He is in financial hardship his mother said they are strapped for money! Duh El said that was his home he was arrested in, Okay Palmdale/Lancaster,CA is the slums. There are gangs, violence, crack and meth infestestation right in the area he lives in. The stench of Meth is in the air just go take a drive down there. If he had a fat bank roll then why the hell would he be living in that dumpy area??? Illegal drugs are expensive, them dope dealers ain't riding around in expensive cars and living the ghetto fabulous life for nothing!!!

El got more kids than that and counting! His mama said he was the father of a NATION!!! That is putting it lightly. You gotta know if he's high while he's performing (Go on youtube and watch it for yourselves) the groupies are waiting on him to party and play. These dumb groupies will KEEP HAVING HIS BABIES coked out or not.... I believe he conceived most of them while he was high. The sad part is the groupie don't love him they only wanna be with him because he is EL Debarge and he got light-skin with good hair. It sounds ridiculous but it's a lotta stupid women out there... Damn the man is doing bad these Ladies need to let him MAKE IT!!!!

Andrew Debarge live

Another Andrew Video

Actually, I think Andrew is Tommy's son-Bobby's sons are named Bobby and Christian.