Jennifer Beal's biraciality

As far as I understand most people perceive Jennifer Beals to be white. And certainly in the L Word she appears to be more white than anything else (although I would still question her heritage). But I was surprised when I watched Flashdance for the first time the other night that she looked pretty obviously mixed race, much darker and more African looking than she does in the L Word.

But of course race is not mentioned in the film, so I assume she is supposed to be white. This makes me wonder whether the whole perception of her racial make-up subsequent to the film is based on this fact. It simply wasn't mentioned, so people assumed the character was white, and so therefore the actress must be white.

I mean, if race wasn't mentioned at all in the film, which was the impression I got, then people just assume the character must be white. She could just as easily have been supposed to be black, but people assume, if it isn't mentioned and no relevance is accorded to race, and the actor kind of looks vaguely white, that the character must have been supposed to be white.

I imagine if the character had been coded as black or mixed race (which is unlikely I know), then Jennifer Beals would have been seen as a black or mixed race actress thereafter.

It just shows how people's perception of race can be manipulated. To me, she looked obviously mixed race in the film, but ambiguous enough, just, to pass as white. I guess loads of people simply didn't pick up on it, because there was no cue for them to pick up on race, she was presented as white, in that race wasn't mentioned, and therefore she must be white.