Tatyana Ali
Ali in 2010, Joe Seer/bigstock.com
Birth Name: Tatyana Marisol Ali
Place of Birth: North Bellmore, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: January 24, 1979
Ethnicity: Indian-Trinidadian, African-Panamanian
Tatyana Ali is an American actress, model, and R&B singer. She is known for playing Ashley Banks on the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Her father, Sheriff Ali, is of East Indian ancestry, from Trinidad and Tobago. Her mother, Sonia, is of African-Panamanian heritage. Panamanians are made up of predominantly mixed Amerindian and Spanish ethnicities, otherwise referred to as Mestizo. Her sister is television producer Anastasia N. Ali.
Ali speaks Spanish fluently, and some Hindi.
Tatyana is married to educator Vaughn Rasberry, with whom she has two children.
African americans are africans living in america. The white ppl brought our african ancestors to america to work as slaves. Therefore we are african american.
OK…but not all of us feel that way. some of our ancestors married (yes, married) white folks in the years after slavery, not to mention those of us who are mixed up with any number of other ethnicities (esp here in nyc).
I call myself Black…but HATE to be called African American! I am not African…which is a continent btw.
Whether u like it or not, u obviously have african in you. Instead of hatin it, try embracing it. No offense.
To Michelle
Your only part right about the marriage stuff.They married before slavery,during slavery,before they got to the states;and are still doing it today.Also your not alone with not liking been called African American,lots of black people are like that.Some don’t like it because they feel their ethnicity was here before African American was even thought of.
right! i have this thing against hyphenated group names because it’s always the minorities who have to be hyphenated..mexican-american, asian-american etc.. whereas others get to call themselves what they want without having a group identification. I have no problem being called black, technically im not that color, but i think it’s clear as day that some of my ancestors are from africa. duh! ;-) but im def not from africa quite sure id have to go back to the early 1700s to find an actual 100% african in my family.
to africana below me, realistically without racial pride just because no one wants african-tagged on their name doesn’t mean they’re embarrassed, im a black american my culture is unique and born from my ancestors in america not africans not europeans i acknowledge those people. Im quite proud of my black american ancestors and nobody else. But I acknowledge that I will come to non black people in my family tree before someone african. that’s just the legacy of slavery sweetie, and since I dont consider myself native american even though noth my great grandparetns were, and since i dont claim my grandfathers french heritage or my great grnadmother’s irish heritage….why would i claim african- when i def. know nothing of it?
To mariposa
The only problem with that is a large portion of black people ancestors here were never slaves
I dont recall taking your comment off.
Why did you take my comment off this blog site?
No, she isn’t black mix! She’s panamanian and trinidad mix with some asian and indian decent traits…what ever her race is, she’s a beautiful, brown skin looking woman. Btw! Why do blacks embrace the term African Americans if neither you,your parents, or grand parents are from Africa, in other words blacks that are born in America make themselves 2nd class citizens by embracing that term AA.
she looks like a zamba , half african , native american with more native ancestry and its visible. especially with her hair texture.