Tisha Campbell-Martin
Campbell-Martin in 2015, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: Tisha Michelle Campbell
Place of Birth: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Date of Birth: October 13, 1968
Ethnicity: African-American
Tisha Campbell-Martin is an American television and film actress, singer, and dancer. She is the daughter of Hattie and Clifton Campbell. Tisha has two children with her former husband, actor and real estate agent Duane Martin.
I get what you’re saying. But “look” pretty much summed it up. YET, you’re right, technically, Tisha is substantially White and Black, genetically. I don’t know anything about what cultures (African, Native American, American, Black American, etc.) she ascribes to.
Sure, it is confusing to have a label that represents a single racial group, when within that label, people are actually a mix of different ethnic/racial groups and different cultures.
It was explained that “African American” was coined in the 1970s in efforts to reclaim a link to African identity. (And acknowledging Native American ancestry (among White people) was becoming more popular too.) Before that, the term “Black” was used, in terms of how people self-identified on average. Without having direct ties to Africa (via language, culture, tribes, etc.), it doesn’t make sense to me to use that in a label.
“African” almost always makes people think of sub-Saharan African, but people can be all different racial groups on the continent. I had an African friend who was Tunisian; you can just imagine all the eye-rolling conversations he got into for openly calling himself African. He looked like many other Tunisians, with pale skin, green eyes, wavy dark hair, long nose.
I prefer MGM to any terms to describe people who are a substantial mixture of different races, including Black, yet aren’t biracial (from parents of 2 diff. races). It’s just more accurate than African American and it’s an easy acronym; MGM! Like, my mom is 90% sub-Saharan African, so I would say that she’s Black. But someone like Tisha Campbell is more like an MGM.
It’s a crap shoot which half of the DNA that you get from each parent, and since “Black” (my preferred term) Americans have an average of 5%-30% European DNA, it wouldn’t be unheard of for some siblings to come out with more European features than others. Like with Kidada and Rashida Jones, I’d bet that Kidada has more sub-Saharan African DNA than Rashida.
Since the Black Slaves in the U.S. mostly came from West Africa, you can see the features that many West Africans have and see that in Black Americans. However, East Africans like the Ethiopians and Somalians, have different body types, skin hues (even though many are brown), features, hair textures, etc. than the West Africans. Had slaves only come from there, then Black Americans and MGMs would look totally different. It’s the East Africans who first left Africa eventually gave rise to all the various racial groups after undergoing various mutations.
If you’re caucasian with some Asian roots you can’t give lessons about “whiteness”.
The term “African-American” by definition means “African, likely other”.
@neiltennant
I don’t get, how is it that others can understand that African American is just a cultural name, but you can’t. I prefer this new name over being called Negro. If you want to call Tisha Campbell (African American plus other), you might as well call all the black people in the U.S. the same thing. Because no matter what our skintone shows, almost all of us have European bloodlines as well as others
P.S.
To tell the truth, you guys calling yourselves CAUCASIAN is wrong. Caucasian doesn’t mean white, it’s a bone structure . That is not exclusive to white Europeans. even black Africans have that bone structure
To be fair to neiltennant he didn’t imply caucasian means Europian, since he’s Afghan, and that’s in Asia.
I’m still not sure if he’s a troll or just really dumb.
You probably don’t know what “Only african-American looks like saying that you are not AA. We come in all shades, my brother is lighter than her and I dare you to tell me he’s no AA. Everytime I come on this site theirs people hating saying “oh she’s not black she’s too light” you obviously no little about us, the proof is in your face and you still have your doubts. We come in all shades and if you were black you would no that you can’t speak for someone else. You all just want us to be 1shade or ugly but the fact is we are unique and beautiful that’s what makes us special =)
Actually, African American DOES mean black for all of the people out there. AFRICAN=BLACK
Just because Tisha Campbell Martin doesn;t LOOK black doesn;t mean she’s not.
African American does Not mean black.It’s a cultural heritage,we have no fixed(color,facial features,hair etc).We do however unlike others take more pride in our African heritage.The avg African American has a mixed bloodline,we don’t deny it.So you will have those who are lighter and those who are darker.In our families,members been different colors is nothing new,so a family member like Tisha wouldn’t be seen as any different.
Actually Most african Americans are GENERATIONALLY mixed with something else we all dont have pure Black African blood just because we call ourselves AFRICAN-American and There are also many mixed race Africans as well. My grand parents are halfcherokee both of them are. So that means i have native american descent as well. And it might be a little ignorant of myself to say this but truth is a light-skinned African-American might have significant ancestry other than black africans. It would be ignorant to put mixed ancestry past african americans for the simple fact that we look a certain way or identify as black