50 Shades Of Black: Celebrities Struggling With Race Relations

Devyn Abdullah

The Face contestant Devyn Abdullah shocked us all when she announced that she didn’t think she was a black model.

Here’s a recap: The Face guest judge Wendy Williams asked Devyn if she found it “hard to be a black girl model,” Devyn said:

“I don’t really consider myself as a black girl model. I know what my ethnicity is, but I’m fair-skinned and I feel like I have an international look.”

Naomi Campbell summed up our reaction perfectly when she said, “What the f–k does she mean? That’s a disgrace! She’s a black girl.”

Devyn went on to win The Face but she failed at being a role model that black America can look up to.

Zoe Saldana

Zoe Saldana says that she’s trying to be a black role model but Nina Simone’s fans won’t let her. The Dominican actress has caught a lot of shade for not being dark enough to play Nina Simone.

But Zoe says black folk are out of line. In an interview with Hip Hollywood, she said:

“I guess what kept me from being hurt by the negative comments was that I’m doing it for my sistas and my brothas and I don’t care who tells me I’m not this or I’m not that, I know who I am and I know what Nina Simone means to me.

“I did it all out of love for my people and my pride of being a black woman and a Latina woman and an American woman and that’s my truth.”

Beyonce

When Beyonce first posted the images from her new Pepsi campaign on Instagram, her fans immediately went ham:

“Blonde hair, ridiculously lightened up pic, you’re not Marilyn Monroe @baddie you’re black, be proud of it!”

“I knew they were tryna [trying to] market u as a white Beyotch…so sad how much does your soul cost?”

“Why they making this women [woman] look almost white??? Such a shame smh”

This isn’t the first time Beyonce’s caught shade for her complexion. But is this Beyonce’s fault or her PR team’s? As a black role model does she have a responsibility to stand up for her complexion?

Will Smith

Did you know that Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Will Smith to play Django? But apparently Will turned down the role because Django didn’t kill enough white people — namely Leonardo DiCaprio. In a recent interview with EW, Will said:

“Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!'”

Will had a chance to play a strong black character and he passed it up because he wasn’t the starring character. The move has some of his fans wondering if Will is done playing black role models.

Rihanna

Colored People Time is a hard stereotype to shake and Rihanna isn’t helping. She was four hours late showing up to a Chicago area high school to congratulate them on winning her DIAMONDS video contest.

Not that Rihanna was a great role model to begin with, but nearly standing up a bunch of kids? We know she can do better than that.

Steve Harvey

Playing the race card is never a good look. In an interview with Oprah, Steve Harvey had this to say:

“Hollywood is still very racist. Hollywood is more racist than America is. They put things on TV that they think the masses will like. Well, the masses have changed. The election of President Obama should prove that. And television should look entirely different. [Scandal star] Kerry Washington should not be the first African-American female to head up a drama series in 40 years. In 40 years! That’s crazy.”

Come on Steve, things haven’t gotten a little better? Steve was a King of Comedy, the author of a best-selling book and now he’s the host of Family Feud. Can we all agree to only pull the race card when it’s warranted?

Terrence Howard

In an interview during his promotional tour for his new movie Dead Man Down, Terrence accused his fans of being terrible at race relations.

“We have a crab mentality where we still pull each other down because of choices that we make, because I choose to marry an Asian woman instead of a Black woman.

“I think as Black people we have to start helping each other. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say nothing at all.”

Martin Luther King Jr’s Children

TV One recently reported that MLK’s heirs are refusing to allow the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation to use Martin Luther King’s name. From now on they’ll have to be called the Memorial Foundation — which will make it hard to continue raising money to build a memorial for MLK in Washington DC.

Why are they doing it? According to USA Today, its because the Foundation’s new Washington DC monument gets donations that would otherwise go to the family-controlled King Center.

Hard to tell which is the greater cause here.

LL Cool J

LL lost all of his cool points when he hooked up with country singer Brad Paisley to produce the song “Accidental Racist.” If you haven’t heard it, its a song about being a “white man from the Southland” who doesn’t see anything wrong with the confederate flag.

Paisley needed a black man to make the song sound less offensive — and LL agreed. Then when fans were offended, LL defended his (weak) lyrics in the song:

“Music is about, and art is about, connecting different people and building bridges and breaking the rules. If it’s not compelling and it’s not complex and it’s not interesting, then what are we doing? So I think that’s the right move. I needed to do something that was going to be interesting like that, and shake things up, and jump out of the box. I’m really proud of it, and I hope the world hears it and enjoys it.”

Waka Flocka

Waka is catching heat for saying that black women were out of style in a recent radio interview on The Boom Box:

“How you feel about white women lookin’ good right now? How you feel about that? Do you speak black? Spanish girls is taken — no, used to be black girls was the baddest s**t you know what I mean? Spanish, J-Lo be poppin’ … white women are poppin’ right now, man. They f**kin’ poppin’. Imma just be real.”

For real, Waka? White girls are what’s hot in the streets? Sisters don’t have it anymore? OK.

ASAP Rocky

ASAP Rocky made dark skinned sisters all around the world feel some kind of way when he threw shade their way in an interview with The Coveteur. When they were on the subject of makeup (for some reason) he said that only light-skinned sisters should rock red lipstick:

“I like red lips, it’s fine. I’m going to be real, though: it’s bad for making out, because it gets on the guys. But for real, for me, I feel like with the red lipstick thing it all depends on the pair of complexion. I’m just being for real. You have to be fair skinned to get away with that. Just like if you were to wear like—Fawking for instance, what do dark skin girls have that you know fair skinned girls cant do… Purple lipstick? Naw, that looks stupid on all girls! Purple lipstick, guys! Like, what the Fawk…”

ASAP Rocky isn’t a great role model or an expert on makeup tips.

Lil’ Wayne

Lil’ Wayne is still in hot water for trivializing Emmett Till’s murder by using it in a rap lyric:

“Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels, beat that p*ssy up like Emmett Till.”

Wayne still hasn’t apologized for giving black history a slap in the face. And now the Till family has sent him an impassioned letter asking for one.

Kerry Washington

We’re not really sure how to feel about Kerry Washington’s little bout of reverse racism. Recently, Kerry told Ebony magazine that she wouldn’t have agreed to star in Scandal if the president on the series was a black man.

“I was a little concerned because [the character has] a scandalous relationship with the [occupant of the] White House.

“I thought, ‘If the president on the show is Black, I will not do the show.’ Because to me, it was too important a moment. I didn’t want to do anything that compromised my relationship with the [president] or that made it seem like I had an insider view on the Obama presidency.”

Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart’s Tweets are getting out of pocket. This is what he had to say recently about dark-skinned black women:

“Light-skinned women usually have better credit than dark-skinned women….Broke a*s dark hoes….lol”

Kevin says that it was just a joke, but not many of his fans are buying it. And that’s unfortunate. Now that Kevin Hart is under fire for a drunk driving incident, he needs his fans now more than ever.

He won’t win many more with “apologies” like these:

“People are stupid. This is something so minute. If you are a Kevin Hart fan, you know exactly what I talk about and how I talk… Last time I checked, I’m as black as a doggone oil can. How can I be racist against what I am? Women, y’all just go off the deep end. Y’all kill me with this whole light skin/dark skin thing… Kevin talks about everybody. Nobody is left off-limits… ”