La La Anthony

letsbereal says:

My dad is puerto rican and he’s even darker the Lala. where as my mom is puerto rican and she has a very pale. Skin complection doesnt matter.

0UTSP0KENGURRRL says:

Why does everyone keep saying, “LaLa is not Black, but Puerto Rican”, “Lala is light-skinned, therefore, she’s mixed or Puerto Rican”, And “Puerto RIcan is a race/ethnicity”?

Uh, hello?! People, it is 2011! Everyone (at least the majority) should know PUERTO RICAN is NOT a RACE, but a PLACE you are FROM! That means either you or your parent(s) are (or use to be) a resident inhabiting the island of Puerto Rico! And you share the attitudes and behavior, belief(s), values, language(s), and so forth as a whole that characterizes your nationality. THIS IS an example of WHAT CULTURE and/or ETHNICITY IS. This is what TIES you to your NATION (i.e. France, Africa, Japan). For instance, if you or your parent(s) are of (the racial terms) African or Black descent, but are natives of a spanish speaking continent or country, then you or your parent(s) are identified (in the U.S.) as a BLACK HISPANIC! It does not matter if you or your parent(s) originated from Mexico, Spain, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, or etc.

And according to Edward Tylor, an English anthropologist, “cultural traits are entirely learned.” (1871) – Subsequently, a baby can be placed into another culture shortly after birth and can be thoroughly enculturated to that culture! Regardless of his or her skin color, body shape, and other presumed racial features. In other words, an African (or Black) American woman is far more similar culturally to her European (or White) American neighbors than to the West African woman from Senegal. THis is culture DIFFERNCES between two individuals who are of the same descent, but do not speak the same language nor do they share any other significant cultural patterns due to the fact that they were brought up in very different societies.

And just because someone has a lighter skin complexion (i.e. LaLa, Mya, Lauren London, etc.) does not mean he or she is biracial or mixed. The darkest could be the most mixed or biracial person. For instance, one of my closet friends is mixed, but her skin complexion is the same as Gabrielle Union. However, one of my brothers is the same skin tone as Beyonce, but he is not mixed or biracial. Another example would be on the Tyra Show, in one of her episodes, on biracial girls that hate part of their race, one girl who hates blacks, happened to look black. she did not look like a (generally speaking) light-skinned black (lauren london, beyonce, mya, raven symone, rihanna, halle berry), she looked more like a dark-skinned black (meagan good, gabrielle union, kyla pratt, lola monroe, kim porter, etc). In the United States, the racial classification term “Black” refers to people with ALL possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, INCLUDING albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry and exhibit cultural traits associated with being “African-American”. Therefore, the term ‘black people’ is NOT an indicator of skin color but of racial classification. Basically, if Lala parent(s) is a native of Puerto Rico, but is of African descent, than, racially speaking, she is STILL considered an African/Black American. However, culturally or ethnically speaking, she is a Black Hispanic, Latino/na, or (to be specific) Puerto Rican.

Therefore, I do not understand why everyone is having a fit over her “blackness”, “biracial-ness or mix-ness”, or “hispanic-ness”. I can understand why LaLa would not acknowledge BOTH of her ethnicities. And why she would jump from one ethnic to another. People put so much emphasis on what you racially or ethnically considered yourself. For instance, I am a Black American (non-hispanic) that has a caramel-cappaucino complexion and waist length hair. Specifically (ethnically) speaking, I have a very mixed heritage – African (or Black), Cherokee, and French (mother-side); African (or Black), Creek, and British (father-side). But I was born and raised in a predominately African (or Black) American society. And the fact that NO ONE can DENY my AFRICAN ANCESTRY, I am what you defined as the ‘typical African (or Black) American’ who does not look mix. However, for some unusual reason, some people (often Black) put me in the “mixed” or another category because of my hair/features. For instance, someone asked me if I was “haitian” or “creole”. And being a Black/African American does not deprive you of your OTHER ethnicities. All whites fall into one category – “White”, but still acknowledge their ethnic differences. The same goes for Asians too.

Therefore, PUERTO RICAN does NOT defined the COLOR of your SKIN! It has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a someone’s APPEARANCE or GENETIC MAKE-UP! If it does, then, PLEASE, tell me where it says on your BIRTH CERTIFICATE your RACE is PUERTO RICAN?! Because I do not know ANYONE with a birth certificate that RACIALLY IDENTIFIES him or her as PUERTO RICAN! I’m not trying to be Ms. Know-It-All, but I’m just saying, “do not feed ignorance with ignorance.” That is a very bad habit that many us (humans) possess.

NATIONAILTY – the status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization.
CULTURE – the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization.
ETHNIC – relates to cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language and beliefs.
RACE – too complex for me to explain, but it mostly deals with what i explained above about the term black in u.s.

guy says:

So if a white man says he’s black….or a black man says he’s white then they are correct?

Lets think about what we are saying here. According to some of yall Latinos, I can be black as hell but since I grew up around with a white family, white community, then I will call myself white regardless of my physical looks. Interesting debate???