Jessica Alba embraces identity politics, yearns for “my baby to be brown”
Last June, young actress Jessica Alba was quoted making pro-assimilation remarks. The quote:
“My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, … So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, OK, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.”
I applauded what she purportedly said at the time, but warned that it was probably only a temporary outbreak of sanity. Hate to say I told you so. In the latest issue of Latina magazine, Alba, now pregnant, denies that she made those remarks last summer and has embraced identity politics wholly:
In Latina’s March 2008 cover story, Jessica Alba gets personal with Editor-in-Chief Mimi Valdés Ryan and directly responds to the rumors that have resulted in her now-commonly used nickname, “Jessica ‘Don’t Call Me Latina’ Alba.” Check out some of her revealing answers below, and don’t forget to pick up the full story when the issue hits newsstands on February 19!
On her reluctance to walk the red carpet at Latin events: “I’ll support those shows, but I can’t go on the press lines and have people make me feel bad about myself. Life is too short. I can’t change how I grew up, and I shouldn’t have to apologize for it. I know I feel close to the Latin community, because that’s what I grew up with.”
On claims that she’s proud to have cut loose from her Mexican roots: “I never said that. Cut loose from what? What the hell are they talking about? Why would I want to cut loose from the only family I know?”
…On what she wants her baby to look like: “I’m excited for my baby to be brown. I just have to believe the dark gene is going to survive. Cash and I are like, please!”
Stray from the p.c. orthodoxy in Hollywood, and pay a price. Looks like Alba will spend the rest of her career trying to get back into the good graces of the diversity-mongers.
Sad.
***
Obvious point: Can you imagine a Hollywood actress excited for her baby to be white?
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Categories: Hollyweird
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Hollyweird is fueling much of the islamo-hatred directed at our country.
Chalk another one up to the shallow thinking self-serving, intellectually bankrupt Hollywood crowd.
Anything else new?
sad? no. pathetic? yes.
I had her pegged as one of those who just may make it in Hollyweird without too much effect. Her stance on nudity was great. Too bad she’s turned down the wrong path. No matter to me. I haven’t been to a movie in 5 years because they are crap.
My wife is Asian. I am Caucasian. My children and I are just American.
Ain’t that how it’s supposed to be?
Please don’t give Alba an excuse by generalizing the Hollyweird syndrome on her. All people make choices about their lives. We may not agree with them and, to be sure, Hollywood has its share of strange types, but I think it’s more accurate to just call out the weirdness factor on an individual basis. Calling it Hollyweird gives the poor misguided individual, like Alba, cover and a place to seek refuge. I think she should be held to account, for what it’s worth, in this petulant, trite forum if for no other reason than to make ourselves feel enlightened and powerful.
It’s that editorial prerogative thing…;-)
Ancient aj proverb.
Whant brown baby, eat cocoa puffs for nine months.
movie industry (barf)
Who cares?! She’s Jessica Alba for chissakes. Holy cow…anyone who looks like that can say whatever the hell she wants in my book.
http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip11031.htm
“By birth her natural hair color is a deep rich mocha brown. Like all celebrities in the public eyes, Jessica has experimented over the years with a wide range of hues from light blonde to deeper honey shades.”
Maybe the baby can be bleached too.
yeah she might be worth being client #9 but only if she didn’t talk..
It’s always funny when a no talent actress such as Alba tries to talk ‘politics’. Idiots.
Quite the irony since in most Hispanic societies, the more white you are, the better. Watch a few Mexican soap operas and you’ll notice all of the actors look VERY different from the folks Doing The Jobs Americans Won’t Do.
Jessica’s mother, the parent who actually stuck around and raised her, is of Scandinavian stock. But there aren’t that many prominent Hispanic stars in Hollywood (you can probably name them all easily) and Jessica has long emphasized her Hispanic roots to her career advantage. Halle Berry has done the same thing, emphasizing her blackness even though her mother is Caucasian.
But if she wanted a Brown Baby so badly, why did she hook up with a white boy?
This identity crisis is a direct result of liberal diversity indoctrination. Everyone is a hyphenated something or other the final product being a totally confused and unhappy adult. It matters not how much money or fame you achieve you will always be miserable and in a perpetual search for who you are. The search never ends as you are more than one well defined identity you are never able to pin down just who you are. Sad yes, predictable too, if you are an American no matter what you may consider yourself to be it is important to raise your kids to be American first all the other things second. That way you avoid having a child that grows up like this and as a bonus you save them a lot of money that would later go to years of psychotherapy. They will know who and what they are and save you the embarrassment of people saying, hey, saw you kid on TV the other day, wtf?
I am going to agree with dakine.
:asprine - stat
Love these people that are brave only when they can afford to be. Blah, Blah, Blah.
Dittos!
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz [snort]
huh? What? Did I miss something?
OK.
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Seriously, though, it’s getting well past old and tired — these identity politics. Of my 4 adopted children (with the other 9 born to us naturally), two are (most likely) Hispanic, and one is 1/2 Sioux.
But that doesn’t make a bit of difference. They’re my children! Why can’t celebrities who suddenly have parental authority and wisdom see that?
Oh. I forgot. Celebrities.
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Last one I saw was Return of the King.
I’m black, my hubby is white. We just want healthy happy babies. Is that to much to ask? I could careless what color they are, they are mine and that’s all that matters.
Is she not going to love her baby if it isn’t, cross your fingers brown? Perhaps not but this is bordering on the ridiculous.
30,
I bet you guys will make some pretty babies.
Grandson - white - love him.
Orphans in Haiti - black - love them.
If babies came in purple and pink, I would love them too.
Somethime people are freaks and you just have to accept it.
Tre and I share something in common. Asian wives married to caucasians. All family members…American.
I’m excited for her baby to be brown also. Like a nice caramel color. Hopefully not that dreaded dark skinned black haired type that so many self-loathing latins hate. That way her baby can have an easier time in Latin America where they discriminate against the darker skinned people. Yes that is right. The dark skinned people actually dislike the darker skinned people. Talk about hypocrisy.(rolling eyes)
My nephew plays Earl as a kid on My Name Is Earl (NO,
I have never seen the show!) and I don’t remember
anyone ever asking him what his ethnic background is,
tho his is quite varied. Also, I don’t remember ever
going to a movie or watching a tv show because of
someone’s ethnicity. What’s the big deal? An American is an American ( we’re pretty much all mutts)
and we get into trouble only when we start this I Am
Such and Such.
Her baby probably will have to turn brown by tanning since she is not very dark and the father
isn’t very dark. Maybe it’s first outing will be to a
tanning booth.
Heaven forbid that she have a “white” baby!!
Have to kill it and bury it the yard, if that should happen….
Alba said:
If I know karma as well as I do, her baby is going to come out with brown and white stripes now.
Johnny, one of my old boyfriends and still (besides my husband) my best friends parents came from Cuba as teens in the 50’s. We dated about 11 or 12 years ago and he got into a major argument with some liberal puke about the discrimination in Latin America between the lighter skinned and darker skinned people. The liberal told him he made it up but I’ve heard from people who hail from Puerto Rico the same thing.
I think Jessica was an Army brat growing up. It would be nice though if these celebs would get married though before having kids, I guess I’m just an old fashioned girl.
Spanish chicks are hot.
BrianNY
ROFL
Soap,
Thank you. God-willing we’ll have a little one or five within the next several years.
So, let me get this straight, Jessica Alba was for assimilation before she was against it? Which one is it, Jessica? When the wind blows a different direction will you change your mind again?
I hope her baby turns out brown as well. McCain needs some more lettuce pickers.
You can never be too sure what color your kids will come out. Look at Michael Jackson’s kids.
The only thing I checked when my sons were born was
number of fingers, toes, health, etc.
If you are not prepared to love your baby no matter the coloring, etc., then don’t get pregnant!
A baby is a baby and to me that is all that is important. I love babies. Period.
I surf a couple of webs that feature Hollywood and those who hovel in that general vicinity. In public they perceive themselves as they might write the script but when on self maintenance they can hardly comb their hair and dress comparable to street people with their ever present bottled water (suffering from severe hang over dehydration I assume). I think Hollywood has jumped the shark and is now on it’s Titanic Cruse. See Jessica on the sun deck.
Nothing wrong about wanting a brown baby but why the need to publicize such. Just do it.
I think she has less “latin” blood than she claims.
Just look at her backside.
It’s the LA pollution, folks. It manifests itself in funny ways.
And they don’t always stay the color they are born. Case in point: I am dk blonde/blue eyed. My hubby: lt. blonde/blue eyed. Our youngest son looked hispanic when he was born! I kid you not, his newborn picture looks like he should be in another family. He now has brown hair/blue eyes and light skin.
A friend of mine adopted a black baby. In her newborn picture she almost looks white but by 8 months was about as dark as you can get.
Look at Michael Jackson. Who or what is he, these days?
Idiotic.
Someone once told me the darkest gene always wins
out. Not always true. I have a friend who is part
Filipino, part Black and part Choctaw Indian. She is
married to a man who is half White, half Black. Their
two children are medium to light brown ( depending
on time of year ) with brown hair.
However, I have another friend that looks full blood
Comanche even though her family has been mostly
white for at least three generations. Sometimes those
old genes show up when you least expect them.
Wait, she’s Latina? Well, I guess that explains the hotness factor. And here I thought she was just a boobalicious mutant cat creature.
My dad is white, his parents are white, their parents are white. My mom is white, as are her parents, grandparents, and so on.
I look like a cross between a roll of Charmin and the white porcelain sink, add in some white printer paper and you’ve got my skin tone.
(There’s a rumor that we have American Indian blood in there somewhere on my father’s side in the distant past, mainly due to a picture of some ancient female ancestor with beads around her neck, but it could just be wishful thinking.)
I PRAY that some errant ‘dark’ gene shows up in my family so that people will quit mistaking us for albinos.
I think there’s something deeper at work (if you can call this woman a “deep thinker”) here. I think that many Americans want to feel special so they attach labels to themselves. Look at the black community. Instead of just being “Americans” they need to ethnically label themselves “African-Americans.” If they want to be racially labeled, then they’re just “black Americans.”
Same thing with hispanics. They want to be treated as “Mexican Americans” or “latinos” or “hispanic Americans.” The third label strikes me as ironic since the word in essence means origins of Spain or Iberian peninsula. Most hispanics don’t even really identify with their Spanish roots because of the Spanish colonial history in places like Mexico, Central, and South America.
We’re all Americans. If you define yourself based on your ethnicity or your color, then you just “box” yourself in. This is why policies like Affirmative Action really hinder the people it was originally intended to help.
I think it likely that Jessica’s been out on the town with some dark partners and she’s softening her hubby for the severe shock he’ll be recieving on the dark-baby’s birthday…
We want good little white children sooo bad! We’re all, like, please! No ugly brown babies!
Jessica Alba is nothing but a pretty face and ample chest flesh. Like a cream puff without the cream, so is her skull.
Slow news day. Who cares what the Hollywood losers say? Who IS she anyway? Can’t say that I know anything about her, or ever seen her. I must lead a sheltered life!
On March 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm, TXRose said:
I have a friend who is part
Filipino, part Black and part Choctaw Indian. She is
married to a man who is half White, half Black. Their
two children are medium to light brown ( depending
on time of year ) with brown hair.
So, someday when those children fill out some offical forms, and need to identify their ethnicity, will they just check “all of the above”?
Last I heard, the same professors, anthropologists and
archaeologists that are trumpeting that a North
American group ( Anasazi ) were cannibals are now
trying to pc the Aztecs, Toltecs and Mayans in Mexico
and Central America and are saying that they were
nowhere nearly as bloodthirsty as we previously knew
them to be. In other words, all of those carvings on
their buildings, all those bones in the cenotes and all
of the blood spilled on the floors of their buildings is
artistic license. So, the same Mexicans that are claiming the U.S. because they, as Indians, were all
here first, don’t want to claim any attachment to
Spain and now may decide not to claim an attachment to these same Indians. What the heck
will they be then?
Jessica who?
#48…that’s what our son says he does…
Scots, Irish, Cherokee Indian, Bohemian, and Italian.
The left in general are deeply, radically racist. That’s something that is never discussed in the mainstream media. La Raza? “Whiteness studies”? You will never see these things discussed in detail in the mainstream media.
Her baby-daddy, Cash Warren, is the son of “Hill Street Blues” actor Michael Warren and he is black, thus Cash is brownish, too.
Poor Jessica must’ve been beaten up badly for her past comments to come back this way. Note that when she said those things, she was flacking for the Fantastic Four sequel in which she went even blonder with her hair color (as the character required) but added on distracting blue contact lenses which she didn’t have in the first FF flick IIRC.
Jessica is a beautiful girl who genuinely seems to be a nice person, always looks great on the red carpet, and avoids the behavior of the Paris/Lindsey types. However, she does not seem to have a lick of actual thespian ability and will probably never be as much an “actress” as she is a “movie star”.
When your career depends on appeasing the Powers That Be for work and you can’t bring guaranteed crowds (which is why Ahnuld was allowed to work) or critical acclaim, you’ve got to pronounce the proper shibboleths lest you be passed over in favor of the next hot girl who knows how to stay in line.
If she is fortunate to have a baby and the baby is not brown, how will the baby feel when she/he reads “mommy wanted a brown baby”?
I certainly wouldn’t call myself a British actor, that part of the family showed up here in 1620. And I certainly wouldn’t be wishing my kids would all be blond haired and blue eyed, that part of the family got here from Germany right after WWI. I most certainly would call them American, with no freakin’ hyphen
Now I have a strange urge for haggis and beer…..
Here’s Some Spanish for Ms Alba:
“Calladita te ves más bonita.”
Of course it’s very offensive, but it is Spanish.
I use my ancestry to explain bouts of poor or inexplicable behavior. So, Scots-Irish, it’s war and work, sometimes simultaneously with the ongoing fascination with stock cars in particular and automobiles in general a definite genetic imperative. No children here, but clearly they are precious no matter the hue.
30 pcs, I believe he is injection-molded plastic.
estupida.
My parents were both “White,” as were all my known ancestors for the past generations identified back to the Fourteenth Century — Anglo Saxon, Swiss, French, Scot, Irish, Welsh, and then they made me — and I burn in any type of sun, as porcelain skin as ever you can find, happiest when it’s cold, windy, overcast or raining, big waves, high cliffs, heather, snow, you name it, it’s in my ancestry there somewhere (oh, yeah, green eyes, red/blond hair, thanks to Scot/Irish ancestry), BUT, I’m an American.
I agree with Michelle Malkin here: could anyone imagine this statement if this actress (or anyone else) said they hoped their baby “was White”?
It’s only been recently that my racial type has even been an issue of discussion or anyone else’s, either. Most people I’ve ever known or heard from otherwise generally are either Americans or they aren’t, irregardless of what ‘color’ they may be. At least in the nation I know. Where all this color-coding of recent times has come from, I don’t know.
But a child is a gift from God, and the last thing I think people who value them as God’s gift ever notice is what their color is or ought to be. I can’t even begin to imagine that sort of thinking.
Hmmmmm, A skinny girl in Hollywood who hates herself and the way she looks….. not surprised by this one.
Jessica Who?
And we’re supposed to care about this because….???
Why does *anyone* care what some movie star thinks? Shut up and act! (or in Jessica’s case, just show off your body).
I have a brown kid. It’s no big deal, however we do save money on sunscreen. If she ever gets selected for jury duty, she can pretend to only speak Spanish or Tagalog. It’s just like UPS, what can brown do for you? I think Jessica Alba is more worried about her pocket book. I agree with Mrs. Malkin, Jessica Alba will spend the rest of her career trying to get back in their good graces.
I stand corrected, DirkBelig *blush.*
She doesn’t want to be The Invisible Woman for real in Hollywood.
Who cares what she thinks, or feels? She in a business that sells eye-candy to shallow men, so I accept her for what she is…just a beautiful face, and according to a magazine article from last year, the most perfectly proportioned woman in the entertainment business (duh, well, not any more!)
Isn’t it wonderful when these “poor, disenfranchised” Holywood liberals can feel so special about themselves? I guess they must feel some sense of shame, knowing that they make their living by taking money from those who can ill afford to spend it on non-essential expenses, in this case, entertainment.
What ever happened to “I hope my baby has 10 toes and 10 fingers.”?
I caught someone on Perez Hilton’s website about her. He bashed her constantly because she DOESN”T play up the fact that she is latino. The comments people left about her are atrocious. Before he started on her, I thought she had a healthy outlook towards her ancestry. As a matter of fact, she DID comment that she saw herself as an AMERICAN. He was po’d she didn’t play her race card. Ease up a little folks. She’s just dumb and is trying to placate everyone. Google her sometime and read the pro-American statements she has made. : )
This is deeper than we care to admit. Race is, and has always been, a deeply woven thread in our history.
Mixed race people have always had to move between two worlds. Their day to day interactions are always a challenge. There are people, individuals, that they must confront each day in many ways and find a way to compartmentalize how they are treated.
Mixed race people are challenged by their peers, classmates, neighbors, clerks in the store, and the person riding next to them on the bus. Who are you? Pick a side. What are you? Are you with them, or with us? It can be pretty tough for a child growing up and to have to go through this.
Yes, her statement is annoying, but I view it in context of the experience of her being a mixed race person in America.
Finally, on the topic of mixed race, I would like to hear how that actor, can’t remember his name, but he is from SNL and played ‘Deuce Bigalow Male Gigalo’ would say on growing up with Phillapino parent and an Anglo parent?
I am sure he was loved by his immediate family but wonder were there impacts along the way that may have given him an alternate view of people, and the world, because of how he was treated?
I bet if you put your ear against hers, you can hear the ocean!
Seriously, it is possible that all her talent is not just below her neck. I would like to assume that she just caught a load of crap from La Raza types for just wanting to be an American, and had to suck up before it affected her career.
It is sad how racist the so called anti racists are, how intolerant the so called tolerant are, how anti American the so called Americans are.
I’m pretty sure I’m white, but I volunteer to help her try to awaken a perhaps recessive gene in my contribution to her quest. Or she could simply move to sunny Hawaii, where her keiki would grow up kinda brown and happy.
Observations:
1) Doesn’t “Alba” mean “white” in Spanish?
2) What is it with these mixed-race celebs denying their white half? Alba? Halle Berry? Obama? Since in all 3 cases their WHITE families are the ones who raised and nurtured them while their “BROWN” fathers took off! That must make their families feel really great.
3) When I heard Jessica Alba was pregnant with no plans to marry, I immediately wrote her off as just another Hollywood bimbo.
4) Cudos to Anjelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for doing it right. Getting married, THEN having lots of babies. How refreshing!
Would it be problematic if I was a public figure and said “Thankfully, my son was born with blond hair and blue eyes”? Oh nevermind, only if I was a politically conservative public figure.
I think what you’re hearing is that rattling sound she’s making by jumping on the same identity politics bandwagon many other people are doing right now. It’s trendy, you know, and celebrities just love trends!
If she was is so proud of being dark, why does she dye her hair blonde.
#72 - Common Sense.
Very good points, but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt aren’t married. They’re another couple who says that their relationship works the way it is, why would they want to get married.
And white in Spanish is blanco
But I do agree with the other things you pointed out. I’ve often thought the same thing. If I were her mother, I’d be very hurt right now.
#72 common sense
1) Blanco is spanish for white
2) It is called miscegenation and is another deeply rooted thread in American history. No matter what you looked like, if you had one drop of black blood, you were considered black. It was even codified into law.
3) OK
4) Umm, OK
My bad, meant to also say that no one is denying their white half. When America looks at them, we do not see white, we see black. I guess they just got used to having people see them and calling them black.
I call Pickler-Burnett all the way, and she out Picklers Pickler, and she way out Burnetts Burnett.
For those who are strangers to HotAir - this translates as: she’s way, way too hot to be found guilty of stupidity.
Stupidity is a given, and irrelevent.
ALL “Chicks” are hot! Some on the outside and some on the inside! As for me I like’em brilliant and beautiful!
Errrr who is she ? is she famous ? If no one accepts her but “Brown Skin” people she must have a hell of a mouth , attitude
Jessica Alba is mucho hot!
Just noticed this thread. I am sure nobody will read this at this late date, but in light of the Cyrus thing, and Spears, Lohann, Duff, et al., I need to vent. I got granddaughters…
Since Alba’s already named the baby Ca$h, Alba — not being the brightest bulb in the Hollyweird constellation — must be using the name as a reminder. She knows — since she’s not completely lacking in brains — that during the discomfort of late-term pregnancy she’ll need that reminder to prevent aborting dear little brown $.
She’s probably got her exploitation plan for Ca$h in place by now. And, as has been previously mentioned, in Hollywierd, hiss-spandex & other psuedo-races are in the “in thing”… so that’ll bump the exploitation bucks up more figures.
Why, it might even make the difference between a 8-figure and a 9-figure payoff on her baby-factory years.
In my youth we didn’t call Ms Alba’s sort “actressess”… we called them “$luts”.
And to those guys who blather the standard: “Well, who cares if she’s loose & stoopid? I’d bed her anyway…! She’s smokin’ HOT!”; remember raincoats have a 22% failure rate for disease control.
Let me ask: would it still be fun if a week later it “turned green & fell off”?
- martin.musculus