Maybe this is a stupid question but:how can he be white while hia parents are black ? It is not very clear in the movie . Maybe somenone who has read the book can answer this . Is somenone of his granparents white ? Is the movie a true story ?
shareA person who's parents are biracial or multi-racial with white in their family can look white. Look at Walter White who was 1/32 black yet lived his life as a black man during the 1930s and 1940s. So there's your answer. Biracial people and multi-racial people come in all shades. As a biracial person, from a family of many colors, I understand how this works.
shareThis movie tried to show that race is really unimportant. Society makes a big issue out of the color of people's skin, however color really doesn't make a man. It also shows the differences between the perceptions society has for a white man as opposed to a black man. It was advantageous for Coleman to claim white (the way he looked), over black (what he was), because of the time he grew up in. He never really embrassed his color/culture.. The movie had some great performances and was really enjoyable to watch.. I'm watching it again, now.
Here's to M. Claude. My friend and mentor. RIP.. (1964-2001). Love ya, boy!
It happens.
My mom is black and my dad is half white half black. I look completely white and have no apparent black physical characteristics. Nobody could tell I'm 3/4 black, or anything besides completely white. I have brown hair and brown eyes. Both of my parents are from Africa (mom is Nigerian and dad is from South Africa). I'm not albino or anything either. I know people that are 1/4 and 1/2 black that are way darker than me.
I am African-american, and my grandmother is quite fair-skinned and both her parents were very obviously black. Genetics are a funny. A kid can reach back into the family tree for anything.
This movie touched on more than just the paranoia of racism. As a matter of fact, I don't think it had anything to do with "paranoia" at all. Racism IS everywhere if you're not apart of the dominant culture. Anyone who has ever been discriminated against at least one time for whatever reason is not paranoid. They are aware. Of course, I don't expect anyone who hasn't experienced racism to understand what I mean.
This movie was about self-hatred. This movie was about a very dirty secret that African-americans have tried to guard for a long, long time; passing. It pains me to even type about it now. It pains me because it hurts to know that people of my race hated themselves so much. Through slavery, conditioning and caricature, they were made to hate themselves. They actually bought the lie. That's painful, you all. That hurts like hell.
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where or when was it established that his black father was not his real father? are you basing this on something said during the film, during the dinner table scene? if so, you have misread that scene.
when coleman's father kept reiterating "if i were your father..." what the harry lennix character (the black dad) was implying was the white COACH had more influence over coleman than he himself, the father. THAT is why coleman shamefacedly said "you ARE my father" because he recognized that his father was hurt by coleman's disobedience regarding the boxing issue.
in all these post all i can say is i never hear so many dumb people in my life and think is your using science to try to back it up. sorry but there is no real differnce between white an black people. we are 99.9% the same, everyon on the planet i should say. the wayt ht his genes came togetter he just had alot less pigmant. it is not like a paint mixer two parts black 2 parts white, now shake. there is a high problity that both parents of coleman had light skined parents they could have been dark skined. it could have been one or a few of colemans great great grandmas that had been raped or been a misstress of the master.
share[deleted]
As one who has read the book (it's fantastic), I can tell you unequivocally that Coleman Silk's father in the dining room scene is his real father. He is saying "If I were your father" to insult Coleman; to show him that he is becoming more distanced from his family and closer to his boxing coach (a career path his intellectual father considers insulting to the family).
sharethank you for confirming that, trefingers...
shareI didn't bother to look at every single post so if someone already said this I apoligize. I don't believe that this is a true story but it is a real life one though. I think my mom said when she was watching Oprah, or some show like that, and there were people whose parents were both black and that the the child looks as white as me. It's not common but it's true and she said that these people said that they disowned their family and tried to hide their actual race (sound familiar). So don't be so ignorant when you see this movie
shareits not uncommon, i'm white but grew up with many black friends. There are often lighter toned "blacks" that could easily be white. I get a very dark tan in summer, and they used to joke i was darker than Jay's younger brother.
share[deleted]
Actually that happens a lot. Sometimes when black parents are really light-skinned the kid comes out looking white. The same way that two white parents can be brunette and have a blonde haired child.
shareFYI - Anatole Broyard was the inspiration for this novel. He was a critic for the NY Times who had left his black family to pass as white. His father was fair skinned and also passed. Anatole was known as a very harsh critic during his tenure at the Times, but he was a fan of Philip Roth's and he probably would be been taken with the novel/movie that resulted from his story. Didn't really think the actors that portrayed this couple were very believable though. Anthony Hopkins will always be HANNIBAL to me and Nicole is too dainty to portray a lusty janitor. But it was a good movie/novel.
shareMy mother and father are both black. Darker than I am. However, because my fathers mother is half black, and East Indian, I was born not fair, but medium. My husbands mother is the caribbean, and she's very dark. But his father is puerto Rican, hence, he was born lighter than me. However, when our 2 children were born, everyone assumed (when we weren't together) that I had had children by a white man. My daughters hair has soft curls, and is VERY LONG! My sons hair is straighter. They are very very light skinned. Black people are very colorful. We are not just one shade.
shareThe subject matter of this movie astounded me, but the true lack of
credibility regarding the 'color' of Coleman Silk stands out like a
sore thumb. Especially since it was the entire premise for the story.
So in an era of incredibly accurate filmaking, why so obvious an error?
As far as the question of skin color differentiations, genetics is one
answer; heredity skips entire generations. Clearly 2 darker skinned
parents could produce a lighter skinned child, but only if that lighter
influence had been introduced somewhere along the familial lines. The
real question here are not the life facts key to the storyline, but the
CASTING of the roles of both Colemans. There is almost no likeness from
young Coleman to old Coleman! It was indeed believable that young C.S.
could pass for someone of Jewish heritage. Old C.S. however, falls down
flat. No resemblance whatsoever to the young C.S. And he has a hint of
a Welsh/British accent. A better choice for the older C.S. would have
been Ben Kingsley, who could have pulled off the race critical aspect
of the role.
I was reading some posts that speculates the mother had an affair because the father said "If I was your father...". Coleman's mother never had an affair. Like some of the previous posters before me has said, Coleman's father was making a sarcastic remark because it seemed his son had found a replacement. In the father's eyes, Coleman was taking the advice of another man and the father was being defensive. The movie never hinted that coleman's mother was having an affair. In fact, the scene at the dinner table confirmed that Coleman's parents were black, therefore making him a black man.
"There is a power beyond good and evil. The power to create and the power to destroy."
black is beautiful
white is beautiful
mixed is beautiful
alright?!
Skin color comes in different shades of white, of black, of brown and of red. Does it really matter?! We're all individuals and it's great that we don't look all the same.
/ Kel' who's a Northern European Caucasian with hints of Middle European, Black and Valonian blood. And the inheritance of these wonderful mixes makes an all white skinned, blue eyed, blonde haired girl.....But who cares...))
Omigosh! All those yellow people are going to be upset!!!
sharehttp://myspace-009.vo.llnwd.net/00248/90/07/248807009_l.jpg
This person considers himself black.
There's a lot of murkiness in black american genetics. A lot of non-African genes floating around, and really, when african mixes with white genes for hair color, and eye color are already present. they'll just happen more frequently w/ euro blood in the mix.
diversity is beautiful. :)
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can i get his phone number. i think alot of people also forget that there is alof of navitamerican and chinese genes in african american blood as well as european.
shareIs that you in that picture? You/that guy looks like a girl.
Having read P.Roth's novel and seen the movie, I would simply ask everybody to ignore the likelihood of A.Hopkins being black or white! It is probably possible, if not very likely. However that is besides the point: Accept the fact, get into the story and enjoy it. Both the movie and the novel are brilliant!
shareI think it is pointless to try to explain the racial possibilities or accuracies of this movie. Being born light skinned from dark skinned parents is possible and the message the movie is trying to send is that of the troubled existence of a guy in such circumstances.
The fact that Wentworth Miller and Anthony Hopkins were chosen for the role is irrelevant and to expect a 100% fit in that role would be like expecting a real extraterrestrial in the role of ET.
The other stories run in parallel (Kidman, Harris, Sinise) but they all have the same in common: a terrible and/or troubled past.
sorry if i'm redundant..i didn't read every response..
but it's very possible, and not uncommon for two very lightskinned parents to have a child that could pass for white. especially if one or both of the parents are light-skinned because they are mixed..
but i agree, anthony hopkins in the part(although his acting was great) makes it a little hard to believe.. but at the same time, i suppose the whole point was that everyone thought he was white..
it's actually possible to have an all white baby even if both have the darkest skin you can get
Or an all white couple can have the darkest black baby.
If you have some mixture, it can happen. In places in latin america is very common to see this.
what about white couples having a pure chinese looking baby?
or asian couples having a pure white looking baby?
sorry, i'm being facetious.
i'd be prone to give a case of a white couple having the "darkest black baby" a paternity test.
similarly, it is not possible for a black couple, with the darkest skin imaginable to have a white baby.
you really don't know anything savvygal.
shareyeah, right...
a jet-black couple with black features having a pure white baby?
sho' you right...lol
you can have to black people in america that are techically mixed. les the 1/4 european dencet have kids that look white. it does happen. where the woman is fathful and has not been sexually assulted. not all balck women cheat don't believe everything you have seen onr ricky lake.
shareit's one thing to talk about black people of mixed ancestry having children that span the color gamut.
it's another thing to suggest that two jet-black, unmixed black people can have a pure white child.
the latter is simply impossible.
if they are unmixed obviously is impossible.
But two jet-black parent can have a "pure" white baby, if they had a white relative over the years.
Anyone know the name of the movie someone was making, about the real story of a white south african family giving birth to a black girl during apartheid?
Thats a real life story, a white couple in south africa,in the apartheid era gave birth to a black girl, everyones tought she was white at the beggining but as years passed, the girl started to look more and more "pure"
if it can happen on both sides.
C'mon. Use common sense. A white South African family giving birth to a black girl during apartheid? Do you actually think that the most logical explanation---that the woman committed adultery with a black man---would have been publicized during a time that "miscegnation" under apartheid carried some steep punishment? If I were in that position, during a time when racemixing carried heavy penalties, I guess I'd concoct some cock-and-bull story about a "throwback" too.
Reminds me of the more recent story of a biracial man (visibly of black heritage) whose white mother explained his appearance by claiming he had some kind of "skin disease" and was actually white. (People actually went for this nonsense, too!) This happened in the United States, fairly recently. (The man in question, whose name escapes me, is in his late 30's or early 40's.)
Ok, maybe someone comes with the name of the girl.
She had two white parents. Her father even took the dna test to make it sure he was the father, and he was. from that on he even got her a white id card.
But as she grew up, she became more and more dark, and had to live with black people until the apartheid ended, she rencountered with her mother a few years ago.
Even their brothers, who looked just like their parents, don't want to see her again or give interviews, primarly because they have shame/fear they have black blood too.
Why do you think this can't happen?
Why do you think the "one drop of blood" rule was made?
Look at the caste system latin america used in colonial times, they had the "throwback" included with "albinos" (like 1/16th black blood)
And again it can happen on both sides
i am familiar with this case, although unfortunately i can't recall the girl's name offhand. i have my serious doubts about the validity of the dna test the father took. let's just say that i'd be curious to see the results if the dna test were repeated, with current more advanced technology, under a different political climate. :)
the "one drop rule" had nothing to do with genetics or the dubious possibility of a "throwback". the "one drop rule" was concerned with the solidification of white hegemony. it was purely political, with widespread social, political and economic repercussions.
It was because of the throwback, no one would be worried about anything they have in their blood if the blood could be really "thinned". That's the reason of the one drop of blood rule.
I live in mexico, i have a friend who is white, she painted her hair blonde and doesn't look bad at all, pale as hell. Altough their parents are not as indian as you can get, they have a relatively dark skin tone.
Someone i've meet at tepic, looked like a brown kirsteen kreuk, i asked if she was part chinese (god, she really looked like a tanned kirsteen kreuk), and yes, she had something in her mom's side (her grandmother, don't remember) the fun part is that she told me she has a blue eyed blonde brother, she even showed me pictures of her family on msn messenger, it's really weird because all in the family have some dark skin, and because they live in a coste area, they get even more dark, but her brother skin gets burned in all the photos.
If you say something about cheating, maybe in the second case, but the first girl was born in a rural area, hardly you could get someone with white skin over there
and white-white couples giving birth to something that couldn't pass for white i've meet a decent amount.
Or how about ronaldo?
he's a brazilian football player, altough he has some black blood, he has a pale skin, straight hair, sometimes looks more european that many europeans in football.
He had a child with a white blonde brazilian, and the kid is "jet-black" with curly hair and all. That's something you can find on the internet
is this the guy you claim has "pale skin, straigiht hair" and "sometimes looks more european than many europeans in football"?
http://www.thefa.com/Features/EuropeanLeagues/Postings/2002/12/34210.htm
if so, you and i have some vastly different notions of what "pale skin" and "looking european" means.
that guy looks like countless african-american brothas that can readily be found all over the united states.
give me a break! he's not even what most black folks call "high yella". lol
I tell you, sometimes looks more european.
Sorry about the "pale skin" maybe you are thinking something like scarlet johanson, i mean fair skin, or ligther.
I know, that when he gets into the sun, he couldn't pass for white. But i've know people who taught he was only portuguese until they saw other pictures. I mean, look at some of this pictures, in one he even has ligther skin in the head because he recently shaved.
http://www.musibrasilnet.it/archivio/Quindici/ronaldo.htm
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/sportsView.cgi?/news/2002/06/24/Sports/ronaldo020624
http://www.tsn.ca/tsn/news_story.asp?id=74165
Doesn't he looks like vin diesel?, and many people affirm that they taught he was only italian at first
But again with the topic.
In your taughts why can't a jet-black, in looks no way mixed couple give birth to an aparently all white baby?
or why an all white looking couple give birth to an all black looking baby?
why can't a "jet-black, in looks no way mixed couple give birth to an apparently all-white baby"? lol
because the entire notion is absurd, that's why.
because if it were feasible, based on some notion that there is some remote "white" blood present in the gene pool of this "jet-black" couple, we'd see this "phenomena" happening regularly, so much so that it would be the norm, since it's pretty common knowledge that most african americans have "mixed" backgrounds.
but it doesn't happen regularly and we don't see it happening. just like we don't see a pure asian couple with some remote white strain producing a "pure white" baby. (how come these ridiculous notions only apply to black people? we never hear of asian "throwbacks" or native american "throwbacks". curious rule that only seems to work for one "race" of folks...lol)
this whole notion of a "throwback" is nothing more than a racist fiction meant to scare people away from engaging in what used to be called "miscegenation".
it's a bogus notion.
Ok, so when you are saying this, you are really saying, that all the post of people saying "im blonde and blue eyed and black" or "im white and one relative is dark, but we are both black" are technically wrong, because they are white.
If there is no possibility of a "throwback" is actually wrong that this people claim black heritage, or identity.
the one drop rule applied to every race, there was the pocahontas exception, because some powerful families claimed native american heritage.
If you say there is no throwback, then the one drop rule should be forgotten, but even affirmative action is based on that, you can look like heather locklear and still get affirmative action.
And look in all the imdb, obviously a lot of white entertainers claim native american, asian, indian, all you can say heritage, but as soon as someone mentions it, all people goes "he/she doesn't loook like one"
But when heather locklear claimed african heritage, every "black" in the imdb goes around saying "blacks comes in every color and shape like heather locklear"
so if there is no possibility of a throwback, the only thing that could link you to black people. Then it's wrong to say wentworth it's a "light skin brotha" or to say that black people comes in all shades.
encopado, no offense, but your thinking is extremely muddled.
a "throwback" has nothing to do with the fact that because of the way race has been constructed in this country, children who are technically "biracial" were historically categorized as "black" and therefore part of the black community. the construction of a "black" category such that the children of enslaved mothers and european fathers followed the status and position of the mother is a development that we can trace historically, starting with roughly 1640-1660 as we begin to trace the gradual solidification of chattel slavery in the U.S. once you understand that historical reality, the fact that "blacks" come in all colors no longer seems to be contradictory or a conundrum. as early as the late 17th century, there were slaves in the tobacco fields of virginia who were virtually indistinquishable from the white planter class. we're talking about the formation and construction of "race" (understanding that race is first and foremost a political and cultural construct)and the caste-like features that came into being that relegated anyone with the slightest discernible strain of african blood to the black category.
as i stated earlier, the "one-drop" rule is a political construct, meant to harden the lines between "black" and "white" and solve the quandary of what to do with mixed-race children who posed a threat to white hegemony and the functioning of a slave system predicated on "race".
the concept of a "throwback" is something altogether different. it is the belief that because of some distant, remote "black" gene within the gene pool of someone who is phenotypically "white", that it is possbile for that person, married to another phenotypically "white" person, to produce a "black" child. it is an absurd notion---a scare tactic meant to dissuade folks from race-mixing and give credence to the notion that any transgression of racial boundaries through "miscegenation" can result in the ultimate bugaboo (for white folks)---the physical embodiment of that "transgression": a "pure black child".
your heather locklear example doesn't hold water. in fact, i'm at a loss to exactly what you're attempting to "argue" with the heather locklear situation. heather is a white person with remote african ancestry (present in the early 18th century), the descendant of what anthropologists term "tri-racial isolates" like the melungeons, the jackson whites, or (in her case) the lumbees.
wentworth miller, on the other hand, is the son of a black man and white woman. for generations, because of the historical construction of race in this country (which frankly, i'm too tired to recount) people like wentworth have generally been considered "black". (only within the past 20-25 years has the "biracial" category and accompanying ideology taken root.) at the same time, there have always been people who looked like wentworth who identified as black and were accepted as such in the black community, who do NOT have a white parent. the fact that the african american community has historically contained individuals who spanned the gamut in terms of color and features is rooted in our slave history and the peculiar construction of race that shaped the contours of the black community in this country.
just because you say that it can't happen does not mean that it doesn't .
shareis that the only retort you can muster to all that i posted? lol
listen, believe what you want. this is growing extremely tiresome.
if you want to believe old wive's tales and myths meant to discourage blacks and whites from "mixing", go right ahead.
i have no idea what your talking about. but i will tell my parents to take that underadvisement.
sharei have no idea what your talking about.
it figures. :)
im mixed and you siting here talking about the old wives tale of to discourage mixing. whatever
sharehow does your being "mixed" negate the fact that myths like the "throwback" concept were propagated to discourage race-mixing?
the more you post,the more it becomes obvious to me that you have no conception what i'm talking about.
she didn't say that they were not mixed. but that the were jet black and their are jet black mixed people out there.
sharethis is the last post that im gonna add to this thead.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=377839&in_page_id=1770&ct=5&expand=true
the hardest thing for me to believe was sir anthony hopkins (character) could ever be so much as 1% black. He is such a white brit! now the guy who played him as a young man is a different story but there was no resemblance!
still i love anthony hopkins as an actor!
I think this movie is pretty unrealistic, to say the least. I love the actor Anthony Hopkins, but this doesn't make me change my opinion. Highly improbable indeed...in many aspects...even the romance between Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins is quite exaggerated (a woman like that, wouldn't fall in love with any man, even if he would be young and handsome, unless the (older) man would be very-very, I mean real rich). Then about the younger actors...Have I missed a casting for Fashion TV?!? Because, both the men and the woman..are so good-loking...This reminds me about the BayWatch Series, where all the woman were top supermodels and all the men were tall and handsome. Nobodey was fat or ugly, everyone was beautiful and young...like in heaven...Let's be serious! Is this the real life? The accident was, also, unrealistic...Probable but highly improbable... Also the issue with the white child of two black parents, already pointed out by somebody else...
sharehere we go again with the "white child of two black parents" thing. lol
how about the lightest black child of two fairly light-skinned black people?
not meaning to beat a dead horse but it's been mentioned more than once in this thread that it is not uncommon to have someone looking like coleman in a family of light-skinned black people...
This movie is not at all unrealistic. Many African American families have members who have features enabling them to pass for white. Many did because they could. Life as a white skinned person is usually much easier than life as a black skinned.
Which do you think would be harder if you could look in a mirror and see white skin, straight hair and blue or light eyes? Being treated as a n****r or in any racially derogatory manner where you live in this country - or just moving away and becoming a white person somewhere else in this country.
I have great admiration for those who stayed within their communities and demonstrated living proof of the irrationality of racial hatred but kept on being who they were. That was a choice which guaranteed suffering of some irrational sort, for sure.
On the other hand, I find it hard to call a person trying to live a peaceful, fulfilling life a coward because he cannot handle the heartbreak or challenge caused by racial discrimination. Surely every black skinned person knows of some heartbreak or irrational color discrimination either to themselves or someone black whom they know.
All Americans should have the right to live their dreams. Coleman said he wanted to be known as a classics professor, not as a Negro classics professor. There was a major difference in his time and place! Yet, in order to do that, he had to deny, to murder, who he was. I don't see this as his personal failure as much as I see it the failure of America to live up to the best that it could be.
Black Americans are the melting pot. Every so called race, every color, every feature known to mankind is incorporated into Black America. The only plus to discrimination is that it narrows the playing field. The biggest minus is that narrowing this field is indiscrimate in it's elimination by color. The best are tossed out with the mediocre and the worst. The same are left behind.
Good because this article proved nothing.
What's more dangerous than sincere ignorance?