Jada Pinkett Smith
Pinkett Smith in 2003, photo by DFree/Bigstock
Birth Name: Jada Koren Pinkett
Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 18, 1971
Ethnicity:
*father – African-American
*mother – African-/Creole-Barbadian, African-/Creole-Jamaican, one eighth Sephardi Jewish
Jada Pinkett Smith, also credited as Jada Pinkett, is an American actress, dancer, singer, songwriter, and businessperson. She has starred in Woo, Scream 2, The Nutty Professor, and The Matrix films.
Jada is the daughter of Adrienne Banfield-Jones and Robsol Grant Pinkett. Her father was of African-American descent. Jada’s maternal grandfather was an emigrant from Barbados, of African-Barbadian descent, while Jada’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of emigrants from Jamaica, who were of African- or Creole-Caribbean descent. Her brother is actor/writer Caleeb Pinkett.
Jada is married to actor, rapper, and musician Will Smith, with whom she has two children, actors and musicians Jaden Smith and Willow Smith.
Jada’s paternal grandfather was Robsol Grant Pinkett (the son of Maslin Frysinger Pinkett and Martha Josephine Dyer). Robsol was born in Maryland. Maslin was the son of Daniel James Pinkett and Sarah E. Peaker. Martha was the daughter of Eli Dyer and Alverta Hackett.
Jada’s paternal grandmother was Shirley Nancy Crystal Holland (the daughter of James P. Holland and Alice Whitehead). Alice was the daughter of Joe Whitehead and Sallie Watkins.
Jada’s maternal grandfather was Gilbert Leslie Banfield (the son of Gilbert Banfield and Ella E. R. Parris/Paris). Jada’s grandfather Gilbert and his parents, who were black, were from Saint Michael, Barbados, in the West Indies/Caribbean.
Jada’s maternal grandmother was Marion Eliza Martin (the daughter of Ralph Nunis Martin and Daisy Maude Costa/Coster). Marion was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to emigrants from Jamaica (Saint Ann and Kingston, respectively). Marion, along with her parents, are listed as “Mulatto” on the 1920 U.S. Census. Marion is listed as “Black” on the 1930 U.S. Census. Ralph was the son of James Wisdom Martin and Louisa Ann McCormick. In her autobiography, Worthy, 2023, Jada writes that her grandmother Marion’s grandfather was of Portuguese Jewish background.
Pinkett Smith in 2010, cinemafJoe Seer / Shutterstock.com
Sources: http://readingeagle.com
Genealogy of Jada Pinkett Smith – http://www.geni.com
Genealogy of Jada Pinkett Smith (focusing on her father’s side) – https://www.wikitree.com
Jada’s maternal grandfather, Gilbert Leslie Banfield, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Birth record of Jada’s maternal grandmother, Marion Eliza Martin – https://familysearch.org
Jada’s maternal grandmother, Marion Eliza Martin, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marion Eliza Martin on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Jada says she Black or African American all of the time. Yes, she is West Indian, Creole, and Portuguese-Jewish, but I’m sure she doesn’t have a need to state it all of the time as some people do.
if you are black and born in this country then your african american but her roots are west indian mix on both side
You can be mixed all you like, there is nothing special about it. You live and die like all people. You can claim both sides, or one side, but nine times outta ten you will not be accepted into that white inner circle. The majority of mixed people in reality know this. This is why they try so hard to claim being mixed, as they believe in someway this will give them a hand up on not being “seen” as Black.
Goodness! Who have you been talking to? Mixed means accepting the truth of histories and . Just because you will someone to be something factual, and everyone buys into it, doesn’t make it true. Why do you care if she is mixed? She can culturally be anything, but genetically, facts are facts.
Many mixed and Biracial people want to be allowed to be themselves, however they culturally identify. It’s not about being better, it’s about being understood. Allowed to be considered as related to your parents and family of different races. Allowed to be many things and have many interests. To not be stereotyped in ways you can’t live up to. Etc. Try to open your mind and have some empathy.
As a biracial person, I’d say they’re not too far off the mark, if we’re strictly applying it to the kind of biracial people whining in these comment sections. I would just disagree with their assessment of how many biracial people have this particular problem. Most of us begin by saying, “Yes I am Black. Yes, I am European.” The European side often does not embrace this while the Black side does and so, eventually, identification with the European fades away and identification with the Black remains. A consequence of European people’s purism and conception of themselves as, “white.”
Ethnicity is entirely culturally and historically based. Whatever she is culturally and historically is her ethnicity. DNA tests don’t change someone’s ethnicity. Race isn’t a real genetic thing, anyway, so your “genetically” argument is irrelevant even there but race is distinct from ethnicity, regardless.
If you want to be your own thing, go make new culture and history of your own instead of trying to steal from others and force people into a contrived identity who are happy with the one they have. All because you’re afraid someone will think you look like a Black person which, for whatever reason, you’ve decided is a bad thing. If you had an identity you’d talk about what you are, rather than defining yourself only as, “not Black,” and trying to force others out of their Blackness. You would claim people who claim you back on the same terms you do instead of leg-humping anything with light-ish skin. Even other biracial people tend to reject your outlook because it’s appears to us that your, “identity,” is just colorism and an inferiority complex toward Europeans. Or maybe you’re not even mixed but just using us to concern-troll.
Just because the first homosapiens were found in Africa, it doesnt mean we all have black genes. If you study evolution, you will find that we acquired different traits according to the place the homosapien had migrated. Also, different kinds of homosapiens have been found throughout Europe with aryan features..
A lot of you have serious issues. Being Black or African American (which ever one you prefer) today usually means that you are mixed with something. Kind of like the Latin community. Look at her features, she is obviously mixed with something, but that doesn’t mean that she is less black or more black or whatever. Whatever she chooses to call herself is up to her and her alone, just like whatever you choose to call yourself is up to you. Stop making it a bigger issue than it really is. All worked up over nothing. It doesn’t what color you are. The only thing that should matter is how good of person you are.
yeah but by how much, not a lot thats for sure. a lot are only 1/16 or 1/8 and sometimes even less than that. Then you get to 1/4 and so on and you could be considered mulatto