by
Black Girl With Long Hair
Keyshia Cole has let her fans in on her journey to being reunited with her birth father. But many were surprised to learn that he, like Keyshia’s mother, is African American.
For years Keyshia’s mother Frankie told her that her father was an Italian man. And although she couldn’t offer details, Keyshia ran with this in ways that had some folks raising their eyebrows. Most notably, back in 2012 she suggested that her biracial heritage disqualified her from participation in the annual Black Girls Rock show.
From MadameNoire.com;
I’m just going to have to throw this news out there how it is because I really can’t wrap my head around what was going through Keyshia Cole’s mind during a recent appearance on “106 & Park.” The songstress was asked what it meant for her to be a black girl that rocks (and to participate in the recent annual Black Girls Rock celebration in New York), but her response threw just about every black person off when instead of hitting the audience with the standard, “we need more images of us” type of response, she said:
“I’m Bi-racial but it’s ok…I’m Black, I’m Black…”
The response was confusing because many biracial women participate in Black Girls Rock — including Tracee Ellis Ross who has hosted the event multiple times. It came across as Keyshia seeking to ‘other’ herself from black women.
Cole later clarified her comments on Twitter;
#BlackGirlsRock first off I feel ALLGIRLSROCK!! And by the way, I don’t not know what I’m mixed with, nor have I tried to find out/… “I was raised in Oakland. My mother is a black woman HOWEVER I do not know my father. Nor really car to know!
It seems Cole had a change of heart, because she did seek out her birth father. Talent runs in the family because DNA shows that Cole’s father is high-profile boxing trainer Virgil Hunter, who has trained former world champions Andre Ward, Andre Berto and Amir Khan.
Cole was excited about the discovery, and shared this image of a young Frankie and Virgil to Instagram with the following caption;
Mom and Dad during their time…. Mommy was such a cutie.!? pop and that mustache tho ? LOL !!!! this is a lot to process man, WOW! They met up last night to speak for the first time in 34 years, intense for me, FOR SURE!!!! Mom usually doesn’t have nice things to say about men, but I can tell my heart pumps his blood? God knows!! I Needed this!!! FrFr #TrulyBlessed and #TrulyThankful ?????
She also shared an image showing how similar her son, Daniel Jr, looks to her father.
Beautiful! We wish Keyshia all the best as she continues her journey into her ancestry.
58 Responses
Self-hate is epidemic in our community. I was so very confused by Keyshia Cole’s comment, on BET. She doesn’t look mixed. She’s just a light skin black girl. There’s one on every corner.
Just because my skin is light that don’t mean I’m mixed with white! and if it is so what?If I claim mixed,so what?I If I say all black so what? You typepeople will try to put a label on me anyway I am so burnt out on ignorance and this nigga.vs. black ghair.vs.bhair who gives sh*t move on ignorant people of any color race white or nat.move on,causeguesswhat. We have!
she still mixed
Mixed with what?
I said this years ago, the girl is black, just like Prince was black. She was just light skinned and acting like a fool. There are many light skinned black people in Africa, so why did she think she was mixed when she obviously isn’t. I know black people who are lighter than her with light eyes and soft textured hair who are not mixed. She is so stupid…
I am so thrilled for her. Everyone needs to know who their parents are. We are all connected and knowing who our biological parent(s) is reunites us. We are all family and our immediate family is just as important to us.
She should have been able to look in the mirror and tell her mom was lying. She looks like a pretty African American woman with two African American parents.
Being black is not just about skin tone if that were true we would all look like Seal. Her father is a light skinned African American man like millions of other light skinned African Americans. Also Mixedrace is not a race at all. Being an actual RACE (with its own culture, traditions, heritage and all the political and social logistics that come with race) constitutes a lot more than just having parents of two different colors. Millions of black people are married to black people with different skin tones.Also, Biracial is the scientific term (doesn’t apply to her anyway) that means a combination of two races, but it speaks nothing of all the other contingencies that creates a race.
If it is agreed, and a well known fact that the concept of race is just that, a concept,with no scientific basis. Then someone in fact defined this concept. I actually looked up the definition of black, nearly ten years ago now, on a whime in the midst of a discussion with my ex husband while he was taking a AA studies/history class(taught and attended(my ex) by white men, professor asked me to attend,i declined). Not online in an actual dictionary. The secondary definition of black is; a DARK-SKINNED person!!! Litetally, only those four word, I am not paraphrasing, it made no mention of African ancestry.If you insist upon utilizing and observing the concept of race, you may as well do it correctly. This was eye opening for me because I have always struggled with the concept of race, as it is viewed by Americans. The concept of race is based solely on phenotype. African Americans refer to people who are phenotypically white, as black. You are continuing to enforce what was once actually law; which served only to enslaved those who were previously not, and to strip them of wealth and rights. As well as prevent the country from becoming predominantly people of African descent, if not black, and prevent the accumulation of wealth amongst this demographic. That was the sole purpose to label these people as black, regardless of their phenotype. That seems like a pretty hateful thing to continue to perpetuate.
Race and ethnicity, for the last time, are two different things!! Black and African-American are not synonymous. Not every black person is AA. Not every black person is of African descent. Not all African-Americans are black. They could be more aptly referred to as Anglo-African-American. I did not make this term up myself!! If it leaves a sour taste in your mouth, that’s about how I feel about the term “afro-latina”.
I was very curious to see what the man found to be Ms. Coles father would look like, I wasn’t surprised, but very much amused. If he is a black man, then the Sicilian man who fathered my best friend is also a black man(HE IS NOT. No matter how much height his coarse 3b can achieve)!!!
I am embarrassed at how hard I laugh when I saw this man..
Soooooo, initially, she trusted Frankie, who was a crrrrr—-O_o——ck hoe…….KK
he still aint blak
What we see happening in the USA is that the racist TERRORIST order prevailing in the USA which is a creation of the ruling KKK establishment of the USA want to erase the real black people from off of the face of the earth. It has therefore engineered a SATANIC racist lie that calls any MIXED person with more black African DNA or with less black African DNA a black person in a move to erase the real black people. They are also pushing that SATANIC racist agenda in the brains of black people everywhere especially in America so that black people start to make babies with (Racially Mixed) people without any restriction what so ever until there is no more black people left. For example. The (One Drop Rule) is a SILENT genocide against black people and many of them are falling for it like slaves.
https://www.facebook.com/Joeyz21/
In reality only two black people can genetically and biologically produce a black child. And her father is NOT black he is MIXED so that both genetically and biologically makes her MIXED too.
Her father is obviously MIXED not black. She inherited her light skin tone from her fathers white European blood and DNA. She is still MIXED. She is MGM (Multi Generational Mixed).
Then is ERRBODY MGM, bc how many Sub-Saharan Africans are mulling around in the US producing these biracial babies?
damn.. proud of her 🙂
First off, I am still in awe of how many men Frankie had to have slept with in her lifetime that she is having such a hard time helping her many children figure out who their fathers are. I understand that she was on drugs, but wow. I think it is wonderful that they have found each other and I hope that they will be able to build a positive relationship together. However, where was he all this time? Keyshia Cole has been famous for a while now and her story has been known for a while now. It never occurred to this man that if he slept with Frankie 30 some years ago and Frankie gave birth to this light skinned child, and he’s light skinned that maybe he should get his mouth swabbed? I personally think it’s tragic that scenarios like these are so common these days.
Chile, he probably didn’t even remember…SMH
i cant believe it.
wow.
Peter Gunz
Anyways. The length people go through to erase Black people with mixed identities and the length people go through to erase their Black identity
are both disheartening. Y’all are literally evil for calling her names, like how is abusing Black women going to help anti blackness, it’s backwards.
Also that type of attitude messes Black people with mixed identities up because we’re taught if you don’t just acknowledge your blackness it’s self hatred.
Both sides are extreme and I wish y’all wouldn’t leave nasty comment about a Black woman finding her identity and dealing with self hatred but whatever.
She and people that claim to be “biracial” need to get over themselves and quick! Bottom line: White people in America SEE you as BLACK! No more, no less! Unless it is of some benefit to them! Most self-hating biracial people want to claim to be both because they DON’T want to be seen a BLACK. They understand that we are often thought of as second-class, and are mostly hated throughout the world. This is because they DON’T KNOW their damn history! We once ruled the world and are descendants of kings and queens. We gave the world pretty much everything and it has been appropriated by those in power. Knowledge of self can carry you a long way. For years they have tried to eradicate us because they KNOW we are superior. Look at our body structure, and how slow we age when we don’t indulge in alcohol and drugs. Look at our hair and the thousands of things we can do with it! Our beautiful curves and full lips! LOL! Things they previously laughed about and are now going to great lengths to imitate. You do know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! LOL! That is called MELANIN Baby! Everybody wants some! It is so precious that these fools are trying to BUY it! LOL! So for all my my bronze, brown, mocha-chocalatte sisters embrace it baby! As Prince said “YOU GOT THAT LOOK! ”
We are some beautiful people! We don’t have to be MIXED to be considered beautiful either. That is a myth perpetuated by society to keep us down. If we were that unattractive the slave master wouldn’t have visited the slave quarters so much!
To those MIXED, BIRACIAL, HALF-THIS & HALF THAT, and those that don’t want to be considered BLACK again I say GET OVER YOURSELVES! You may not pIck a side but know this, the WHITE side of you has and it is NOT with them. Think I am lying ? Keep living. Look at your “biracial” stars and pay attention to how they are treated. LOL!
Truth!
Yes hunny u better speak it!
Although I agree with most of what you said. As “zenny” said above, you’re not helping the cause by bashing biracial or mixed women. Maybe that’s not a struggle you have to endure, because you can’t relate so you don’t know. Furthermore, mixed/biracial people are not just mixed with black & white. I’m biracial and my father isn’t white, but he’s not black either. He’s biracial himself and from another country. I recently met my fathers side of the family for the first time in my life and to deny my other side is denying my father. For so long I identified with just the african american community and culture because of my mother. However, in the past when I would say I’m black, people would look at me puzzled and say no you’re not or ask are you mixed? When I was a kid other kids would ask “what are you”? It used to hurt because I know their intention wasn’t mean, but it still made me feel like I wasn’t human. Like I was something other or less then human. So, although I understand the 3% rule and how society may think. I’ve learned that I should embrace all of me and not deny my biracial heritage because some folks want to consider me as just black (with a possible question mark). Because I have two parents, not just one. It takes two parents to make a child and every time I get ready to say I’m black, I think about my aunts, cousins, uncles etc. on my father’s side and think how I’ve denied one half of myself. It’s not right. I’ve learned to embrace this part of me and their culture.
But “Black” has never meant both parents are of pure african descent. So calling yourself “black” does not erase any mixed race heritage, it never did. The term Blackness like whiteness is a social construct beyond just complexion. Adam Clayton Powell was Black, Malcolm X was black, Vanessa Williams is black, Beyonce is black, Traci Ellis Rose is black and so is Halle Berry. Black is about a shared consciousness coupled with a black heritage/ancestry that causes you have it – no matter how small that heritage is frankly.
You all other yourselves like you’re different however its been discussed by numerous scientists that 85% of black americans are racially mixed. Yet many “biracial” people don’t want us using the “mixed” label just because we’re of mixed ancestry with darker skin.
Real talk for all “black/white biracial” or mixed” people. You can’t ever be white because as a social construct whiteness demands that a white means not having anything else but caucasian heritage. But you can be black because blackness as a social construct does not have those same parameters, quadroon, octoroon, biracial, whatever…its still black.
Well said,_you view it the way I view it.
Thanks for posting this. My kids are biracial and I as their mother am offended when people state they are black. I carried them in my tummy, right under my heart for 9 months and they are part of me as much as they are part of their dad. One side doesn’t superceede the other. They are African American as much as they are European (I’m European, born and raised in Europe, and I immigrated to the US as a teenager). My kids identify as biracial, they accept both of their parents heritage as equals. It’s the society that tells them different. This identity issue is ingraved into people’s conciseness that will take few more generations to erase out of their minds.
Maybe you need to tell your European/white culture to stop treating biracial people like they are full black then. Because, more often than not, black people who call biracial people full black or treat them as such are taking cues from white people, who reject anyone who has a drop of something that isn’t white in their blood (the ‘one drop’ rule.)
Amen. You are teaching them right. Good for you.
Who care what white people in Amerikkka see them as. Thats’s what’s wrong with black ppl always giving them power over who we are “White people see us as niggas is it true because white people say it & if u know your history u would know that the 1 drop of black rule is a a white slave massa rule that they made up any damn way.Black people been brainwash for so long that we support massa rules . if bi racials don’t want to identify as black they have every right to. Everything white people say & made up is not LAW.
You said it so right! One of the few here who have it right and maybe the only one. I said the same thing. Why we give power to people over us. Smh. God bless you for having your own mind and being intellectual enough to realize ignorance and bliss. These people will never get it it seems. I plan to Wright a book about it or blog. It needs to be done. Amen
Keyshia Cole should take a DNA test. Calling someone “black” doesn’t mean that they are. “Light-skin” does NOT come from sub-Saharan Africans.
How do you figure?
?????
“Calling someone “black” doesn’t mean that they are. “–What does it mean then? Please enlighten us.
“”Light-skin” does NOT come from sub-Saharan Africans.”–There are light-skin sub-saharan Africans. Sub-Saharan Africans have the greatest amount of genetic variation than all the rest of the world combine.
Granted for AA in this country, the light skin would be due to racial mixing over the centuries, but that does not make them any less black in white people’s eye. Only in color struck black folk’s eyes does the light skin hold so much more weight.
Sub Saharan african have the greatest genetic variation. But AA and all those delivered across the diaspora as a result of slavery were primary black skinned kinky headed west africans who are the various shades we are do to racial mixing. Most black americans, caribbean blacks, black latinos, etc are racially mixed.
Which is why I’m at a loss why all the :”biracial” people think they’re unique or so different.
Light skin is indicative of racially mixed bloodline, that is a fact. Regardless of whites or blacks accepting or rejecting that fact. This concept that someone who has light skin, and even light eyes is just as Black as a midnight Black African is just ridiculous and even harmful. We are diverse so what, no judgement need be attached to it.
Actually, no. There are Africans that are blacker than you (have more African ancestry) and are naturally light skin
This is totally not true. I am Nigerian and on my mum’s side of the family, they are so light skinned they look mixed race. They do not have any white ancestry. There is also an ethnic group in Nigeria (The Igbos) who have many light skinned people. Even the Fulanis i the North of Nigeria. Your point about light skin being indicative of a racial mix is false. I have only mentioned Nigeria. Think about the other countries in Africa.
Just curious. Have you taken a DNA test? Also he did not say a particular place in Africa. He said black midnight African also fYI. Africans were mixing as well before Europeans arrived. They are all not that pure, maybe most but not all.
Considering that race is a social construct and not a based in science at all you really are what the people around you perceive you as
Such ignorance I’m from South Africa which is in Sub-Saharan Africa and I’m light-skinned and so are other women in our family and none of us are mixed. If you’d bother to travel the world and remove your ignorance you’d know that there are plenty of light-skinned non-mixed black Africans. Smh
Now that wouldn’t be a leap, lol
le sigh. now she’s just a regular yellow bone.
B*tch was so eager to claim to the world that she was not a nigg* that she didn’t even wait for confirmation. These self hating b*tches are parasites.
lol right! it kills me when i hear other light skinned people rattling off a bunch of ‘i’m part scottish and part native american and…’. you’re BLACK and you’re light because of rapist ass white men. if rape is a badge of honor for you, then wear it proudly like a coon. i’m not claiming that shit.
I never thought Keshia was mixed, I saw her as a light black woman. Since she didn’t know who her father was I wouldn’t have assumed anything either way and I thought it was a leap for her to do so.
It felt like a constipated try to claim that she was anything more when she didn’t know one way or the other besides an ancestry DNA test.
is that woman in the striped shirt Frankie?
I know right!! Say no to drugs kids…
AMEN
Boy I’m laughing ?
I dont know why she just assumed she was biracial with out proof all because of her being light skin and her mom saying “it could have been…” she has a lot of money, she could of found out more about her ethnicity with DNA tests so she would know what she is for sure. However since she knows now I know everyone is happy, to put an end to a mystery no thanks to her mom.
to be honest i always thought she was black not bi-racial..why on earth would her mum lie to her when she is clearly a black woman? oh well
I’m glad she finally found her father and has answers. I know.a LOT of.people will.be.surprised when.they find out they have mkre black ancestry than.they realize.
Why I had to read this thing I saw that picture and was like WTH ..PETER GUNZ Kesha daddy?? Lol