Paula Patton
Patton in 2011, photo by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Paula Maxine Patton
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: December 5, 1975
Ethnicity:
*father – African-American
*mother – German, English, smaller amount of Dutch
Paula Patton is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films Hitch, Idlewild, Déjà Vu (2006), Jumping the Broom, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, 2 Guns, Warcraft, and Sacrifice (2019).
Her father, Charles Patton, is black. Her mother, Joyce (Van Raden), who is white, has German, English, and at least 1/16th Dutch, ancestry. Paula has identified herself as Black. She has stated:
I find it [the term “biracial”] offensive. It’s a way for people to separate themselves from African-Americans… a way of saying ‘I’m better than that.’ I’m black because that’s the way the world sees me. People aren’t calling Barack Obama biracial. Most people think there’s a black president.
Paula has a son with her former husband, singer and songwriter Robin Thicke.
Paula’s maternal grandfather was Benjamin Alexander Van Raden, Jr. (the son of Benjamin Van Raden and Grace Read Alexander). Paula’s grandfather Benjamin was born in New York. Paula’s great-grandfather Benjamin was born in Nebraska, the son of Carl Edward Holeman Van Raden, whose father was Dutch and whose mother was German, and of Louisa Bergman, whose parents were German. Paula’s great-grandmother Grace was born in New York, and had English ancestry. Grace was the daughter of Robert Read Alexander and Laura Davis, who were from Massachusetts.
Sources: Genealogy of Paula’s maternal grandfather, Benjamin Alexander Van Raden, Jr. – https://www.wikitree.com
Obituary of Paula’s maternal grandfather, Benjamin Alexander Van Raden, Jr. – http://www.legacy.com
Marriage record of Paula’s maternal great-grandparents, Benjamin Van Raden and Grace Read Alexander – https://familysearch.org
Paula’s maternal great-grandfather, Benjamin Van Raden, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Paula’s maternal great-grandmother, Grace Read Alexander, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Paula’s maternal great-great-grandparents, Carl Edward Holeman Van Raden and Louisa Bergman, on the 1880 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Wow, she stated she finds the TERM bi-racial offensive, the TERM not being of mixed heritage itself. My neices and nephew are of mixed heritage and yes, I used to also say they were bi-racial however, when my niece turned 11, she explained to us how uncomfortable the term made her feel and actually made her feel seperated from all racial groups….being a kid is tough eough, perhaps Paula also had to deal with this “seperation anxiety” and she has a right to not refer to herself with a word/term that makes her feel uncomfortable
I agree. It’s strange to separate yourself like that from who you are in reality, but people have their own reasons for it sometimes. From her experiences, it’s offensive, so no one should say anything to her about it because they’d have had to have lived in her shoes growing up to know why she won’t identify as partially white. When I was growing up, it was hard for me to say I was half white because my white side was darkly complected Mediterranean, so even with kids looking at my mother, they would think she was Middle Eastern or Hispanic. But overall you can’t know why someone does something until you know their situation.
She’s not saying that she’s not white. She clearly said she is black because that is what the world see’s her as. She’s not disowning her mothers ethnicity by not saying she’s bi-racial either. In terms of her race/ethnicity she’s going more by her skin tone. When someone see’s her without knowing her family history, they will automatically assume she is black because of the way she looks, and because of that she is accepting being black and taking full pride in it. I’m sure she doesn’t tell her mom and her family that she’s not white and that she’s black only she just identifies herself with that specific race and goes with it.
Honestly, she does NOT look black to me, she clearly looks mixed, and more white ancestry than black for that matter!
i agree with american87,cuz if i saw her for the first time,i still would of known she was mixed,well basically saying dat she looked half black and half white.Because if someone just told me she was just black,i still would of known she had white in her,its obvious(no offence,but i still can tell,and theres nothing wrong with that)(she looks beautiful and that you can see the black in her,and the white in her)But no matter how she denies her own moms ethnicity and part of her self,she is still half black and half white,and again nothing wrong with that.
Kudos, to you Robert Newman, your right, but the percentage might even be higher than that. Now i believe you have the right to call yourself whatever you choose, if your biracial and want to be called that fine, if you want to be called black fine, want to be white thats fine, Biracial is a new term, a decade old, I struggle with the term biracial only because very few whites are 100 percent and blacks highly mixed with white in this country in the past, all thru out this nations history.
There some light skinned blacks that look more biracial than biracials,
there some very black looking biracials. Miss Patton call herself what feels as, thats her choice, Not all biracials have to agree, not all latinas agree, not all whites agree or blacks its your choice, if your a MGM mixed race person and you want to be multiracial instead of black thats fine because your mixed heritage, but some blacks may think your opting out thats fine, its her choice to be called black but once you choose be consistent.
I agree with this, too many I would be considered a dark skin or brown skin black person, but I am actually mixed my grandma being a white European Jew. However almost majority of all my black friends are lightskin, and I would say majority of my lightskin friends have no recent lineage of white in their genes! They dont know wh0 is white in the family. It was someone from 100 of years ago! But they are still lightskin and some look half and half like they could be mixed! And I hardly look mixed at all, and I am mixed- so there for this is one of the many reasons African Americans identify theirselves the way they do, because they dont know where the mixing took place! Some do but see theirself like every other black person- many different colors but identifiable!
To call one self “African American” is only a social political way to identify one self. If she claimed to be so-called “Caucasian” there would be much larger uproar. Most ppl of African Diaspora are highly mixed with other ethnicities…choosing “African American” just means that is the identity that you connect with culturally. I’m “black” but my skin is not. I have strong Native American/Asian features along with my “African” features. I also have Middle Eastern ancestry. My identity is still “African American” that is how most Americans see me.
Thank you for explaining this! I dont even see why we need to explain this because whites did not want mixed people or a person with a drop of black blood before but now they want to claim they are white or get offended because they dont identify with being white give me a break, it’s too late for all that she is a proud African American now let her be!
Hey Paula, guess what? You’re Bi-racial AND probably MORE white than you are black. Sorry sweety. Accept the facts. Facts don’t lie. People lie (like you clearly are) but facts don’t just like mirrors don’t and if you look in a mirror you would see it for yourself.
EDIT/CORRECTION
Hey Ethnic, I think you need to list Paula Patton as African American and Caucasian… because she is not fully Black. She may consider herself to be… but she is not fully. Her dad is Black and her mother is White…