Tyra Banks
Banks in 2011, kathclick/bigstock.com
Birth Name: Tyra Lynne Banks
Place of Birth: Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: December 4, 1973
Ethnicity: African-American
Tyra Banks is an American model, television personality, producer, businessperson, actress, author, and singer. She was the host of The Tyra Banks Show from 2005 to 2010, created, and presented, the show America’s Next Top Model, and appeared in the films Coyote Ugly and Halloween: Resurrection, among other works. She is also known as BanX.
Her parents, Caroline (London) and Donald Banks, are both African-American. A picture of Tyra with her parents can be seen here.
Tyra has a son with her former partner, Norwegian photographer Erik Asla.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show America’s Next Top Model (2014) stated that Tyra’s genetic ancestry is:
*79% African
*14% British
*6% Native American
One of Tyra’s great-great-grandfathers was named Walter Taylor.
Tyra’s maternal grandfather possibly was Ernest London (the son of Edward London and Ophelia Christopher). Ernest was born in Louisiana. Edward was the son of Charles London and Maria. Ophelia was the daughter of Antoine/Antony Christopher and Susan West Duncan/Champ.
Tyra’s maternal grandmother was Florine B. Coleman (the daughter of Fletcher Coleman and Lucinda/Loucindy Wisner/Hampton). Florine was born in Texas. Fletcher was born in Texas, the son of Ezekle “Zeke”/Ezekiel Coleman and Julia Beasley.
Sources: Genealogical information on Tyra Banks – https://blogs.ancestry.com
Black people can have hazel, blue, or green eyes. Usually because of a genetic mutation or distant white ancestry.
most likely because of a distant white relative.
also alot of blacks claiming native, usually its a white relative,seen a video on this before. this woman thought she had native blood in her only to find out it was white blood..
so yeah..jus like to share.
i would usually agree with mamita that it was a distant relative
but both her parent are dark
so this time it could be a genetic mutation
you mean like the same mutation that gave it to white people in the first place.The same white people who were once black people
To anyone who thinks that just because u have differnt color eyes or hair u cant be black then think again because i myself have greeen eyes and am Fully black, not mixed, mulatto or whatever.
You’re right,i saw pictures of a tribe in Africa with blond hair and blue eyes but with very dark skin.You have to remember that Europeans were once there (generally Italians,French and Brits) and that some of them mixed.Like in Afghanistan you see green eyed women with very dark skin and black hair,why ? The greeks and brits were there.
Lies. Green eyes is a recessive trait from a mutation that occurred in Europe/Middle East. Someone in your family passed that trait on to you who is not black.
it dosent matter rlly i have hazel eyes and skin too light to be considerd carmel and im black it dosent matter i do kno that i do have french ancestory and i have a grandma thats dominican we all have light brown hair and light eyes all expept my mom and dad they have dark hair ebony skin color and no im not adopted its all how the gentics carry out dosent matter weather my hair if kinky and curly and extreamly frizzy or puffy and tangled im black and i know it and will ppl stop saying this person way to pretty to be black have some class whats race got to do with it
She definitely ain’t just African American.
Sorry no such thing as a pure race everyone is mixed so stop acting like black ppl are separate from this fact. Just because two ppl have the same skin tone or eye trait doesn’t mean they’ll by some miracle they’re child came out with light skin and light eyes. Genetics tells us a recessive trait is being use that both parents must carry indicating mixing with people who have this recessive trait to begin with and geographically lighter skin and eyes come from climates that are cold. Thus assuming european or similar ethinicity being an influence. So no you are wrong for making the assumption that she’s just black! Take an anthropology class and educate yourself for once! Or maybe a genetics class!
But for most blacks in America, due to lack of slave records etc, tehy have no idea where any mix came from and so much of it is 200 years old so all they know is that they are black and if it was some slaveowner 200 years ago who impregnated a female ancestor of hers, what relevance is it really? Especially if she like many blakc people can’t even prove it or find out about it? So she is black. Like many black people of different hues, eye colors, etc, they consider themselves just black. It is not their fault that they were brought here and all they were listed as were “Property #1” etc. And to further this, most African Americans don’t even know what part of Africa they are from. It is vague. Slaves were brought directly sometimes from one area and sometimes they made stop overs in differnt parts of Africa and the New World so knowing what they are is hard so that is why African Americans say they are black. That’s the only information they have. Not their fault. Ask the former slaveowners to provide the paperwork. lol.
Tyra Banks IS OBVIOUSLY BLACK!!! END OF STORY!!!! I am black with very light hazel eyes and brown skin yet both of my parents are black especially my father he is darker than my mother and i got my eyes from that side of the family. People always askin are you mixed? You got some European in ya? possibly, from a very long time ago probably as a result of rape but most likely not. So until proven otherwise tyra banks is BLACK!
BLACK IS BEATIFUL.
Oh and another thing why is that any time a famous african american shows a hint of light skin and aren’t as dark as chocolate they are automatically assumed mixed. Most black people are actually brown. Black in fact has a very wide range of skin tones.
Because success cannot be considered as black by some people. Sad. If she was a crackhead, they would say she is black.
Preach my brothers/sisters preach, people associate anything unsuccessful to black. That’s why they want 90% of black celebrities to be labeled mixed or white bcs they are successful shame on them. Thank God those celebrities don’t disappoint us and just want to represent their blackness.
i couldnt have put it better
when they fail they are just black
when they are successful they have to find some lineage from another race .e.g they are trying to say gabrielle union is mixed with asian?
AINT THAT THE DAMN TRUTH……………………………………………………………………………………………!