Tyra Banks
Banks in 2011, kathclick/bigstock.com
Birth Name: Tyra Lynne Banks
Place of Birth: Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: December 4, 1973
Ethnicity: African-American
Tyra Banks is an American model, television personality, producer, businessperson, actress, author, and singer. She was the host of The Tyra Banks Show from 2005 to 2010, created, and presented, the show America’s Next Top Model, and appeared in the films Coyote Ugly and Halloween: Resurrection, among other works. She is also known as BanX.
Her parents, Caroline (London) and Donald Banks, are both African-American. A picture of Tyra with her parents can be seen here.
Tyra has a son with her former partner, Norwegian photographer Erik Asla.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show America’s Next Top Model (2014) stated that Tyra’s genetic ancestry is:
*79% African
*14% British
*6% Native American
One of Tyra’s great-great-grandfathers was named Walter Taylor.
Tyra’s maternal grandfather possibly was Ernest London (the son of Edward London and Ophelia Christopher). Ernest was born in Louisiana. Edward was the son of Charles London and Maria. Ophelia was the daughter of Antoine/Antony Christopher and Susan West Duncan/Champ.
Tyra’s maternal grandmother was Florine B. Coleman (the daughter of Fletcher Coleman and Lucinda/Loucindy Wisner/Hampton). Florine was born in Texas. Fletcher was born in Texas, the son of Ezekle “Zeke”/Ezekiel Coleman and Julia Beasley.
Sources: Genealogical information on Tyra Banks – https://blogs.ancestry.com
Let’s be honest: you cannot choose your race! If you are mixed and you call yourself black, you are denying your racial heritage no matter how you came to acquire those genes.
The statement “be proud of your heritage; be proud of being African” sounds like being proud is in someway forced: as if it’s easy for Europeans or Asians to be proud because of the obvious accomplishments of Asian and European civilizations, and difficult for Africans to find grand accomplishments such as the Great Wall or the Colosseum. Don’t be fooled by such nonsense, which often seems to be the reason the lack of African-American confidence especially academically. There are plenty of examples of grand accomplishments by Africans and the African diaspora. Go find out what they are.
But beware, like every history it is filled with good things and evil things.
Nikita u are wrong. U r not pure black if u kno anything about biology. Anythin but brown is a recessive trait. U can only get a recessive trait by having another recesiive trait which would mean somwhere in ur ancestry of ur mother n ur dad try had ancestors with hazel eyes on each side of the family. So that wud mean u r not pure black. Black is brown, black ppl do not hve colored eyes. It cud b an ancestor from 100 of yrs ago but u still have to have both sides of tha family share that recessive trait… Dug
her eyes are HAZEL not green!
yes i agree asian people are very diverse looking.
In addition to that, Asian people more diverse than people would realize.