Nicole Ari Parker

Parker in 2004, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Date of Birth: October 7, 1970

Ethnicity: African-American

Nicole Ari Parker is an American actress and model. She is known for her roles in the films The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, The End of Violence, Boogie Nights, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, A Map of the World, Blue Streak, Dancing in September, Remember the Titans, Brown Sugar, Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, Black Dynamite, Imagine That, and Almost Christmas, and on the series Soul Food, Second Time Around, Empire, and Chicago P.D..

Her parents, Susan and Donald Parker, are both African-American. She is married to actor Boris Kodjoe, who is of biracial background. The couple has two children.

Nicole has said:

I’m just light-skinned and from Baltimore… My mother’s from North Carolina and she has green eyes and freckles. So, I’m sure there’s a whole lot of white and Native-American mixed-in there. But I’m only claiming African-American, because that’s really what I know.

A picture of Nicole with her father can be seen here. A picture of Nicole with her mother can be seen here. A picture of Nicole, Boris, and their children can be seen here.

ethnic

Curious about ethnicity

110 Responses

  1. Multiethnicchick says:

    Typical internalized racist mixed american. Like Barack Obama, she doesn’t bother to claim her mixed ancestry. She

  2. xoxo says:

    She’s mixed, probably hates the fact that she is. I don’t know why she wants to be just Black. Not racist by the way, alright?

    • Freerk says:

      Racist? I’m sure, when she says, “I’m only claiming African-American, because that’s really what I know,” she only refers to her experiences with American white racists.

      She obviously is mixed, but in fewer years many Americans tend to call any person “black”/African-American with partly African-American descent and let them know this. When they don’t want to integrate you, you sh*t on them.

    • midori29 says:

      @XOXO WRONG we black women can look like her Nicole, without alot of admixture. Normally we range from 5% to 50% admixture in the Americas to be African American. BUT you can be not very mixed and look just like Nicole and be majority black subsaharan African. Everyone comes out of Africa therefore black Africans can range from very light skinned to dark skinned . Both her parents (Nicole) are blacks.

  3. cwm85 says:

    She is obviously mixed but hasn’t looked into her DNA or just wants to acknowledge her African side. Black is not a race, it’s a color.

  4. pookerella says:

    I think you should be proud of your heritage, both ethnicity and racial. There is nothing wrong with her feeling more connected to her African-American ethnicity. That’s her socialization and that’s fine, but you can’t deny your racial heritage, especially when it’s so obvious. Look, that is the story of America, embrace it, be proud.

  5. cimetina says:

    I really wish people would stop talking about how some Africans are this light in southern Africa or have hair like that in eastern Africa. The large majority of slaves did not originate from those areas. Sure there may have been some admixtures, but slaves on the American continent came mainly from West Africa.
    Parker herself admits that there must be a lot of European and Native American in there, so why do some people on here try to prove how she can be only black??
    “African-American” is a culture that she identifies with and grew up in, but does not mean that she is of pure African descent.
    I live in Europe and there is no way she would be considered black here. She would be considered mixed race, especially by Africans.

    • andrew says:

      wise words.

    • ashash says:

      Honestly, who cares? Most African-Americans are European admixed and not “pure African.” They don’t identify with their white ancestors for very obvious reasons and just because they have light eyes or light skin like Nicole, Vanessa Williams, or Tyra Banks does not mean they are more likely to identify with it. Again for very obvious reasons. It isn’t the same as being biracial today.

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