Rihanna
02/24/2016 – Rihanna – BRIT Awards 2016 – Arrivals – O2 Arena – London, UK – Photo Credit: Landmark / PR Photos
Birth Name: Robyn Rihanna Fenty
Place of Birth: Saint Michael, Barbados
Date of Birth: February 20, 1988
Ethnicity:
*father – mix of African-Barbadian and European-Barbadian [Scottish, English, Irish]
*mother – African-Guyanese
Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, businessperson, dancer, record producer, and actress. She has been Barbadian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, since 20 September, 2018.
She is the daughter of Ronald Fenty, who is from Barbados, and Monica (Brathwaite), who is from Guyana. She has two children with her partner, American rapper, songwriter, and record producer ASAP Rocky.
Rihanna’s paternal grandfather was African-Barbadian. Rihanna’s paternal grandmother, who is white, has Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry. Rihanna’s mother is of African-Guyanese descent. In an interview with Allure magazine, Rihanna stated that she was bullied in school and called ‘white’ by the other kids while growing up in Barbados.
Rihanna’s paternal grandfather was named Reginald Leslie Forde (the son of Helen Forde). Helen was the daughter of Joseph Nathanael “Joe” Forde and Louisa Jane Bascom.
Rihanna’s paternal grandmother is Elizabeth “Betty” Fenty (the daughter of Stanley Fitzherbert Fenty and Hilda Olga Coppin). Elizabeth is white. Her parents were born in Barbados. The surname Fenty is usually Scottish and the surname Coppin is usually English. Rihanna’s grandmother is also cited as having Irish ancestry. Elizabeth is from a family of “Red Legs,” descendants of slaves from the British Isles who were sent to Barbados. Stanley likely was the grandson of John Fitzherbert Fenty and Mary Louisa Jane Fenty.
Rihanna’s maternal grandfather is named Lionel Brathwaite.
Rihanna’s maternal grandmother is named Clara “Dolly” Viola Venetta Johnson.
Rihanna in 2011
Sources: Genealogy of Rihanna – https://www.geni.com
Death record of Rihanna’s paternal great-grandparents, Stanley Fitzherbert Fenty and Hilda Olga Coppin – http://www.findagrave.com
Obituary of Rihanna’s maternal grandmother, Clara Viola Venetta (Johnson) Brathwaite – http://downesandwilson.com
Well, the only thing “white” I see in Rihanna is her green eyes. Everything else seems black to me… At least here where I live, she would be considered 100% black. I find it weird and sad she got problems with having a little lighter skin : /
It doesn’t really matter what ethnicity she is, she’s very pretty :)
Rihanna’s mother is Guyanese and so am I. Guyana is a multiethnic society. In my opinion everyone is mixed (in Guyana). For some of us its close like our parents or grandparents and for others its a few generations before. My Great Grandmother on my mother’s side is Indian and my great grandmother on my father’s side is amerindian (native) but I consider my self a black woman…
It’s Rihanna’s Grandmother Who Is White Or Part White. Her Name Is Betty Fenty!
Look Carefully On The Pages I Gave You And Look For Something That Says Interview with father Ronald and grandmother Betty Fenty!
http://i43.tinypic.com/29ur489.jpg
interesting pic. especially that family tree.
Oops! Shoulda changed the name to “Rihannafanboitoo” first… {What? Both are Welsh names; ‘been in the family for generations’. Cosmic coincidence. Would I kid about that? Both are Welsh alt spellings of Daffyd.}
Well, anyway, nice to see Rihanna listed. This is a neat site. Ethnicity’s an odd hobby I picked up as a History major and science fiction fan. And cause I’m one of those ‘hidden’ heinzes: outgrew the epicanthic eyes I had as a kid, but (I still) know I’m Cherokee / Blackfoot on a couple sides…
Hollywood, etc. used to be really ‘assimilationist’. So everyone that wanted ‘normal’ roles used Anglo names as stage names / pen names etc. {Except the “ethnic catalog” actors, etc. Who were given any of the parts ( Native American, Mexican, etc ) the casting call people thought the Anglo- American audience would ‘buy’ them as. With weird ‘exceptions’: Bruce Lee didn’t get the lead in Kung Fu cause they said he was “too Chinese”. }
Nowadays it’s sorta flipflopped. At least sometimes, actors are cast in what Hollywood considers the proper pidgeonhole. Kinda. Wes Studi (a Native Am.)as Geromino vs. Chuck Connors. Though Studi’s Cherokee, not Apache. And looks a whole lot like Connors if he were moreno. And non-blue-eyed. So he Still don’t look a bit like Geronimo (too tall. Straight nosed). {Burt Lancaster looked more like Masai.}
And actors, etc. don’t automatically adopt Northern Western European surnames. Aguilera. Carrera. Agyeman. Boreanaz. Hargitay. Or given ones. Keeanu. Cote. Mariska. Or mononomicers: Madonna, Shakira…. Rihanna. [ Once upon a recent time, Spanish and Irish names pushed the envelope.]
Which helps Hollywood with the growing foreign markets.
And the rest of us to realize that not everyone’s name is BillyBoBob. [Which is healthy for me: I grew up in a county (in northern KY) where everyone was Irish /Scot / Englishish descended. With only a very few of us ‘mixed blood’ white / Amerindian *( ouch! I’m old) types. And, boy, did we feel the weird ones and out of place for even that. ]
Rihanna’s got an erotically exoticness / exotic eroticness about her. Similar in kind (though varied in detail) to…hmmm…M A R I A H. (How Did I come up with that one?) Or Cote de Pablo. Or Lou Diamond Phillips. ( That was the wife there. Demanding /drool-parity for Mariah Carey. Told her that that was what Rihanna was for)…
As a Science fiction fan, folks like Rihanna / Mariah/ [all right, ok ok… ( to the wife) enough with the hitting…] Lou Diamond Phillips, Keeanu Reeves ( hey! her list’s getting longer) fascinate me. They are living archtypes of the ‘what ifs’ of future / alternate history stories that sf writers have been cooking up for generations now. Sometimes as horrible nightmares (see the badguy Eurasians of the original {Buck Rogers} …) because of contemporary fears of race- mixing. Other times as an albeit bleakly- hopeful future of a non- raced and therefore non-racist future ( Piers Anthony’s Race Against Time). Still others, more neutrally alternate-anthropologic ( S. M. Sterling’s Peshawar Lancers. And his Turkic-descended Keeanu Reeves -looking alternate-Chinese in another book. Which is not on my shelf. :(… Read that 1 at the lyeberry.)
Further, as one of the cudzillion would-be but- never -will sf writers out there, I find inspiration for potential characters. Particularly for the descendants of Terran colonies. Whose populace could be very exotic versus any particular modern one. Especially postulating an early period of isolation. Which would mean a great sensitivity to the initial -wave colonists’ ethnicity. (In other words: more understandable ones: what they would look like as 3rd generation Centauri colonists would be reliant on how many of what went along, and how / if they intermarried. If no redheads settled there, no redheads. Etc. )
A lot of worlds could be as ethnically mixed as Pitcairn. Or Hawaii. Or the Phillipines. Or Barbados.
You never know. Rihanna might just end up ‘in’ an sf story. By me (unlikely). Or by some other more aspiring writer. As ‘mere’ inspiration. Or more.
Lou Diamond Phillips has done sf acting, where his exoticness lends itself to futurely ethnically mixed societies. M A R I A H {ouch! wife got me again. .. [to wife:] hey, I said Phillips first. oh: not all caps… /sigh. So she’s insisting on Cliff Curtis too} could (has) done worse than to make her next cameo in an sf film.
She or Rihanna’d’ve been great as the singer from the liner in Fifth Element. Even greater in Carrie Fisher’s slavegirl costume from {brief pause as I count out the Star Wars movies’ order, action (Breen bounty hunter, capture by Jabba) and names} Return of the Jedi of course… Especially with their bacckkks…
*Native American. Amerindians (American Indians) were finally given American citizenship in 1928. They were ‘dependant indigenous peoples’ previously. ‘Amerindian’ is a (very) pre-1950sish term. Which was intended to be a neutral term alternative / clarifier to Indian ( since that term was already taken, by going on – now surpassing – 1 billion people) It never caught on.
MaaRhyeaahfanboi welcome to the site. glad you like it. It good to hear you have such enthusiasm for ethnicity and the SF point of view is interesting. You have some good points regarding Hollywood’s use of ethnic actors/actresses. They are changing to reflect the changing demographic of the US.
damn rihanna is a fucking human being gosh like seroiusly who cares if she is “really black” or not if u got some type of afro watever in u well pple of the universe u r black u should not define urself of your race & skin tone does it really matter if u dark u dark if u light (like myself) then u just r if u in between then let it be ya all talk about pple n there race n wat they is but ya surely do like they food, maybe the pple like the girls & dudes so it makes no sense u no wat u r there aint no need to really prove a piont cause someone always got some shit 2 say no matter wat it is and we r in reality