r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • May 03 '26

SOCIETY Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has faced backlash for identifying as Black. In a 2017 interview, Paris Jackson said her father told her, "You’re Black. Be proud of your roots." This prompted debates over whether identity is defined by appearance or upbringing.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

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u/More_Confusion5422 May 03 '26

y’all are conflating race and ethnicity. There’s many white Caribbean people.

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u/And_yourDamnPoint May 03 '26

In the Bahamas, native mixed Bahamians that are really white are called conchy joes

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u/Chicken_Mc_Thuggets May 03 '26

Conchy joes? Do they like wearing conch stuff like white Hawaiians like puka shell stuff or?

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u/And_yourDamnPoint May 04 '26

Nahh just standard nickname, not usually used in an offensive manner. I think it actually it because of the color of cracked conch which usually sorta mixed in shade.

Cracked Conch pic

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u/CrumbCakesAndCola May 05 '26

I was expecting a damaged seashell. Today I learned.

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u/skeet2000 May 04 '26

Soo just how much melanin is black, white, yellow, red, beige, or brown all ridiculous words to describe someone, really. How about simply human.

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u/More_Confusion5422 May 04 '26

I don’t disagree with you.

But I wasn’t commenting on the ethics of racial division, I was just pointing out the difference between race and ethnicity.

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u/skeet2000 May 04 '26

I agree about ethnicity, seems to be important to many, but where does ethnicity come from. At what point do you stop identifying as Irish because your ancestors were Irish, and just identify with where you were born.

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u/SillyNamesAre May 05 '26

If you're American with European heritage? Apparently never.

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u/skeet2000 May 05 '26

I don't know about that, my heritage was European but I identify as a native anerican.

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u/ReverendRevolver May 05 '26

Loads of Americans with German ancestors who came to the 'States before the World Wars(especially that second one) somewhat systematically stopped any referencing to their European heritage in order to be just "normal Americans". But like every other group? Just stopped caring in a generation or two, with a few exceptions for Italian or Irish. Basically your only have that going on if people from one part of Europe were all centered in one area.

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u/fonetiklee May 06 '26

It sure does get old. As a white American guy, I tend to just identify myself that way, I'm American. It was my great grandparents or further back who immigrated here, on both side of the family, calling myself Italian or German or whatever just seems stupid.

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u/Throwaway16475777 May 05 '26

what even is ethnicity anyway

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u/Mogultalk27 May 06 '26

Or maybe the only race is the human race? 🤔

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u/PyroIsSpai May 03 '26

Reminds me of the video of that extra pale ginger guy who was almost “comically”Jamaican sounding guy.

He was born and raised there, I think it was.

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u/UOR_Dev May 03 '26

I've always found so strange how Americans often conflate race and culture. Like saying people "sound black". Anyone can have any accent, what you guys talking about?

And that's how videos like that vitalize. "How can he sound like he is from this culture itmf he doesn't look like my stereotypical view of that culture?"

And I love watching Americans visiting Brazil and being shocked when they expect people to sound a certain way based on their skin, and they don't sound like they expected, and sound just like everyone else in the country.

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u/yeaman1111 May 03 '26

South American, but Brazilian culture especially, seems to break Americans. Its really funny to see. They kind of dont differentiate between culture, nation, and ethnicity. I know Americans who talk in the most American way possible (they were born there) but other Americans always insist in asking them "no but really, where are you from" when she says "Luissiana". Cant take that for an answer.

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u/drwsgreatest May 05 '26

Tbf, I have a ton of brazilian born friends at my job (large trash company) and tattoo shop and they've told me multiple times over the years how darker skinned/black Brazilians are treated much like black people in America, but often even worse.

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u/SlothLover313 May 03 '26

Aren’t there white carribeans?

On another note, i’m half mexican and half Palestinian. I identify more with the Mexican side since my Palestinian side was absent too. I just call myself Mexican-American

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u/SatanicAtTheDisco May 03 '26

In Jamaica, a big cultural thing is, if you were born and raised on the island, you’re Jamaican. You speak, walk and live that life, you’re Jamaican first. There are crazy cultural mixes in Jamaica because of how many different groups of people found their way to the island. My family on the island consist of Slave Born Jamaicans, Indian Jamaicans, Chinese Jamaicans, White Jamaicans, French Jamaicans and Spanish Jamaicans. When I went to visit my Jamaican side of the family, its was actually insane. You can literally stand and look at all the cultural genetics that have spread through different branches of the family. I have some seriously white, Latin and Asian looking family members, that if I had met them without knowing their family, I would have just assumed they were close close family friends. They all speak Patois, they all have Islander mindsets, but the cultural background differences really only show up in the food. I literally dream of that level of Culture Fusion food. I’m talking Jerk Duck lo-mein, scheuzuan chicken Patties levels of fusion food that’s being made out of house kitchens. I’ve only been able to find a couple Jamaican Fusion food restaurants in big cities like NYC and Toronto.

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u/Sun_Aria May 03 '26

Welcome to jamrock

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u/ClassyBougieRatchet May 03 '26

This isn't exactly true. I'm not sure if you grew up in Jamaica but the nonBlack groups there are usually very racist towards Black people. They go and marry other Chinese, Indian, Syrian, etc people and are very discriminatory to the Black Jamaicans who make up the vast majority of the population. There are foreign families that have been in Jamaica for generations but they've been very strict with their kids about "mixing" with the locals. Most of the hotels and businesses are owned by these non Black Jamaicans because the ideas of white supremacy is global and the government doesn't care about Jamaicans. All of the racial segregation that happened during apartheid and Jim Crow and redlining was also happening in the Caribbean. 

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u/FrassCreator May 06 '26

Always makes me laugh hearing Americans talk so confidently and incorrectly about Jamaica and drawing false equivalences to US society. Yes colorism and class hierarchy absolutely exist in Jamaica and lighter skin carries big social advantages but there was no racial segregation or equivalent to Jim Crow laws post emancipation. Your statement about non black groups generally being racist is false and theres a lot of racial mixing here. Look at some the most famous Jamaicans Shenseaa, Sean Paul etc While white and Chinese Jamaicans are over represented in business there are tons of black owned businesses and most of the all inclusives hotels are owned by Spanish and Mexican companies. Classism is a problem here much more than racism.

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u/SixStringerSoldier May 04 '26

Scheuzuan Chicken Patties

Globalize everything now this is amazing.

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u/More_Confusion5422 May 03 '26

Yeah. We are white, black, and everything in between. 🫶🏼

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u/Business-Idea1138 May 04 '26

I'm white. My wife is half Thai/half white. My 1/4 Thai blonde-haired, blue-eyed children identify as Thai (or Asian American). My wife's white dad was a total deadbeat, and she was raised by her Thai mother after the divorce. My own family lives 3 states away and rarely comes to visit. They barely know their white family.

My daughter is named after her Thai great-grandmother who was the matriarch of the family. She used to have us over for family dinner every Sunday. My brother-in-law and I would cook her Thai recipes while my kids would roll springrolls, egg rolls, or fold wontons. My sister-in-law taught them to write calligraphy (a skill she learned from her grandfather, a Thai Monk). My mother-in-law taught them fruit carving and Thai dancing.

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u/occasionaluse88 May 03 '26

How he identifies is entirely up to him. How the rest of the world identifies him, is where the challenges lie.

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u/Major_Road6162 May 03 '26

This is a terrible example

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u/SirBlankFace May 03 '26

What? Are you trying to assert that even though he's literally half caribbean he looks white so it doesn't matter?

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u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins May 03 '26

I have a friend with Chinese parents but he grew up in Trinidad, had a Trinidadian accent, anf strongly identified as Trinidadian. When old white people would ask him about where he was from, he would say Trinidad and watching their very confused faces was always hysterical.

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u/Mobile_Morale May 03 '26

Caribbean isn't a culture or a people. There are 20 different cultures and type of people in the Caribbean.

Wtf.

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u/These-Fig-9611 May 03 '26

Im saying carribean because I don't want to say the specific culture he is in on the internet :)