Mariah Carey: in a frank interview, the singer tells all
…Carey’s own parents divorced when she was little, and although her father materialised occasionally to take her on trips – hiking or to the races – she didn’t get to know him properly until she was an adult… He was tough. He’d been in the military. I do miss him. At the end of his life we spent a lot of time together. And I learned a lot about his side of the family.”
Her mother grew up in the midwest. “She came from – er –?” Carey frowns. “Middle of America?” She brightens –”Illinois!” – and as such, she says wryly, “is among the whitest people I know”. Her father was half-African American, half-Venezuelan. “I’m a black woman who is very light skinned.” As a child, she was self-conscious of her mixed race, and it is still enough of an issue, in the US and elsewhere, that Carey is routinely accused of “trying too hard” in one racial direction or another.
“White people have a difficult time with [mixed race]. It’s like, my mother’s white – she’s so Irish, she loves Ireland, she’s like, yay, Ireland! Waving the flag and singing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. And that’s great. I appreciate that and respect it. But there’s a whole other side of me that makes me who I am and makes people uncomfortable. My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they’d look at me, look at him, and be disgusted.”
She says she “needs to talk” to Obama about this. When he became president, she was overwhelmed and delighted, “but for years we never believed it would happen. There’s a group who will never get it, never want to get it. Because you have to lose the purity of both races and there are certain people who really don’t want that to happen. I think it starts with people teaching their children that it’s not OK, because they don’t want their kid to come home with someone of another race. I understand people want to hold on to their roots. But for me, I was a complete nonentity because of it. Maybe that was part of my drive to succeed. I’ll become accepted.”
And now? Oh, she says, sarcastically, “it’s in vogue now. So I’m sitting here thinking, now it’s cool, great.”
mulatto diaries 
Good find Tiff!!! I haven’t the time to read the article just yet, but I will tonight. Hope all is well.
what a pretty, wonderful woman are u. im proud to have a black queen like u. and to crown it all, u chose to marry a complete black handsome man.i pray u’ll give birth to a handsome black male and a beautiful black queen.
Mariah, you’re gorgeous to me.. always have been and always will be! I have your mother’s coloring (light skin, dark long hair!) and my husband is half hispanic, half black, like your father was… I can only hope our children turn out as beautiful as you! What an amazing mix! 🙂
Mariah Carey is white as light…Genes don’t lie…Why do these mixed race celebrities only want to identify with their miniority side of things. It’s obvious she’s 50% irish from her Mother’s side, and probably less than 25% black from her Dad’s side. Most American blacks have mixed ancestory…whether they like it our not.
Whats so wrong about Mariah claiming to be bi-racial or black! My daughter and son are almost the same mix as she is. My daughter was born with jet black curly hair and vry dark skin and my son had brown staight hair and was very pail. Its not about hair color or skin tone its about where you come from that makes you who you are! My husband is bi-racial with a black mother and absent whatever he is father he grew up in the projects in an all black community and never even new what “mixed” was until junior high even though its apparent that he is not 100% african american can you deny him of being black?
Hey I know I’m late on this but it was a nice article. It is sad that some of you choose to get your panties in a wad because Mariah sometimes chooses to call herself Black. So what, it is her choice!!! You claim mixed people need the freedom to define themselves on their terms, well she may feel Black on her terms. …Oh and please stop calling Mariah beautiful. Her face looks like a horse.
i can really relate to this cause i dont really know my dad my mom and dad split up wen i was three cause he use to abuse my mother i cry evry time i think about it but then again i can relate cause im not famus all though my freinds say i have a great talent wen it comes to singing but honestly my best freind ever is like my favorite singer besides mariah carey.. well thanx for listening hit me up a.k.a just txt me or not u dont have to lolz 443-307-6120 buh-bye!
“Mulato” is half black and half Hispanic, actually.
I’m mixed race but choose to be white; why should I say I’m black when clearly I am not. I am neither really but my skin is light so I choose white.