Comments on: Beautifully Aging AfroBella: Shirley Bassey

By: ella

ella — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:10:58 +0000

Also black people are a smaller minority in the UK, it is 91% white over here, followed by asians folled by blacks, so people see you as what you are. If you’re from England, you’re English then mixed race, if you’re Northern Irish you are Irish then black etc. I’ve heard Americans talking about in the olden days there was a ‘one drop’ rule. there was never anything like that in this country so you are what you are, nobody over here calls a mixed race person black unless they are very dark-skinned and appear to be. Go into the streets of Cardiff and ask what colour Barack Obama is and 99% will say ‘mixed race’

By: ella

ella — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:04:55 +0000

For someone talking about identity I’d have thought you’d bother to check your facts Shirley Bassey is WELSH, NOT ENGLISH, you want people to appreciate your culture but you don’t bother doing your own research. British does not equal English.
I am mixed race and call myself mixed race, I’ve never met anyone who has referred to me as black because I’m British Mixed. If a person is raised in an all-black community, their parents are seperated and they live with a black parent they will feel more black than white. If a person has bee raised in a predominantly white community such as most of Wales is they will probably connect with that side of their heritage more. Why is that taboo?

By: Ugonna Wosu

Ugonna Wosu — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:04:25 +0000

I don’t think its fair to assume Shirley doesn’t like blacks or whatever. I do find it sad that she doesn’t seem to feel any kinship to blacks, and has basically completely whitewashed her family, but I think she identifies more with white people. She was raised by her white mother, and has been hustled and bustled around by white, male managers since she was discovered as a teen. Please consider these things before demonizing her.

By: readb4uspeak

readb4uspeak — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:46:02 +0000

not sure what filipino pride had to do with anything but im pretty sure you completely missed jaysons point. he wasnt asking for bassey to get on a soapbox and preach. he was pointing out how close minded people place stigmas on others and how his blackness doesn’t outweigh is whiteness or vice versa. you clearly missed that as you only pointed out his black side as if he disregarded his white but maybe you didn’t grasp the concept. point blank period hes saying that biracial people don’t want to be pigeonholed as one ethnicity by some random stranger or society. but i guess you missed that too. i also dont see how him stating his opinion is “taking it personally” if thats the case then everyone in this blog is taking things too personally.

By: RAY ELARMO

RAY ELARMO — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:52:34 +0000

i can appreciate your opinion. look the lady is half black and she is not political. don’t read into it so personally. you are proud of being black, thats fine. i am proud to be a filipino too. who cares if a person is famous or not. i don’t. just because shirley bassey is famous, you think she can do so much for the blacks, whites or who ever. except that not everyone is the same. some people get involved and some don’t. if you do that fine. don’t get upset because everyone thinks like you. carry on and don’t worry about things you can not control. shirley bassey is just fine. leave her alone. her music is her contribution to mankind. not standing on a soap box and brag about how proud she is to be black. monterey ray, a proud filipino.

By: Jayson

Jayson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:04:14 +0000

First of all, I’d just like to say that I know this comment is remarkably tardy and most likely no one will read it, but I’d like to clarify a few things about the whole “biracial” debate. I personally don’t think it’s fair for anyone to place judgement on a biracial or multiracial individual simply because they believe they deserve the right. People who identify with one race have no idea what it’s like to grow up consisting of two racial backgrounds and no, biracial people do not want your pity or sympathy. Secondly, for so many people to pull the “tragic mulatto” bit and not only apply it to the singer of discussion but ALL mulattos is ridiculous. Also, as a biracial individual, I must point out that African-Americans or blacks in general are not the most accepting when it comes to mulattos; no more or less than Caucasians. I’ve been discriminated against more so by black people than white people, and why? Because I speak proper English, I’m not immersed in hip hop culture, or I’d rather listen to Maria Callas than 50 Cent, or my skin isn’t dark enough, my hair is too fine or curly, or whatever else asinine reason they could concoct by means of justifying treating me differently or calling me “uppity,” and “white boy.” I’m not saying ALL black people have been this way, or categorizing them in any way shape or form, a style that several individuals on this site have used when describing biracial people. I’m often mistaken for a Latino and have spent my entire 20 years on earth answering “What are you?” when I say I am not, and not once have I denied my African-American blood; but I’m looking at the topic in all fairness. It’s not fair to place the blame on all white people, as one individual did, when black people are equally as prejudice. Lastly, I don’t feel we should have to choose or identify as one or the other. Why, you ask? Because we’re both. Now, there are some biracial people that do, and that’s fine, but ultimately it’s their choice to make, not society’s. There are just certain examples in this blog, like the woman being upset because the store clerk said she should buy the “black” magazine. ANY “full-blooded” African-American who considered his or herself a conservative or republican would’ve been equally upset. Any human being for that matter is upset when things are assumed about them, so why is it such a big deal for a multiracial person to feel the same? Should we just accept the preconceived notions and pretend we’re not equal because we have to check more than one box on a forms and applications? No, I think not. So before you go calling us confused, or try to paint us in the color of sorrow and tragedy, and shower us in your sympathetic “poor half breed” stares, take a second and think about what we have to go through. And as afore mentioned, keep your commiseration and false understanding to yourself. Maybe then you won’t be so unsure why we adapt to situations or act the way we do; you know, like normal people trying to come full circle in a racist, prejudice, accepting, terribly wonderful world.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:24:57 +0000

Great website! Shirley Bassey on occassion openly refers to herself as “black” during interviews. In earlier years she didn’t seem very conscious of her color, however experience and age should be considered. In one account from a magazine, Bassey tells the story of being the brunt of a racist taunt in New York City. She was in an elevator when a man referred to her as a “nigger”.

She also acknowledges and speaks highly of other talented black artists such as Ella, Billy Eckstine, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston to name a few. Tina Turner and Shirley Bassey are also close friends.

By: Coffy

Coffy — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:22:21 +0000

@ Scott, wow thanks for the other view, we all do things that can be misconstrued or just flat out things we regret, and i’m sure for Miss Bassey to have her entire life for the world to consume is more pressure than any of us can imagine. by the way i agree that, any “insights” from an ex(lover,partner or friend)should be not be taken on face value.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:54:17 +0000

I just found your website and I love it. I will be around alot. I am a huge fan of Shirley Bassey and I think she is a peerless performer. I appreciate the thoughtful comments about the documentary about her. It’s true that Bassey has endeavored to lead a somewhat “colorless” existence, but the documentary posted at YouTube is very lopsided and filled with half-truths and falsehoods.

First, the gentleman in the documentary who makes the comments about Shirley’s disdain for “civil rights” and her unwillingness to be black, is her ex-husband and former manager. Their marriage and business relationship ended badly around 1980 and he has never had a nice thing to say about her since. So we should take any opinion of his with a grain of salt. His comments are calculated to degrade her. Every other indication in Bassey’s history shows that she openly identified as mixed-race or black, depending on the circumstances, and that was the terminology she used to refer to herself. She came along in a time and in a profession where being “black” wasn’t a professional asset; so she had no inclination to play it up. Neither did her contemporaries Nancy Wilson, Diahann Carroll, Diana Ross, Leslie Uggams or Barbara McNair. They were black because they were black and the audiences at the Persian Room or the Cocoanut Grove or the Copacabana wanted them to be as “non-black” as possible — and they all obliged.

Regarding the Sun City thing, Bassey has publicly and profusely apologized for that. Many black entertainers (American and otherwise) performed in Sun City even after the international community declared an anti-apartheid cultural boycott, including Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Johnny Mathis, George Benson and Curtis Mayfield, among others. As you know, audiences in Sun City were integrated and the district didn’t adhere to all of the rigid racial segregation rules of the rest of the country. Many entertainers — of all colors — were just ignorant to the political implications of patronizing the economy of a country that legalized racial terrorism and bigotry. Sun City was a seeming oasis of racial harmony within a larger country of racial hostility and some may have naively believed that one had nothing to do with the other. As well, Sun City payed HUGE amounts of money and while one could argue you cannot place financial gain above morality, principle or integrity, the reality is we all have to eat and pay the rent. Bassey made a dubious choice but it is not necessarily an indication of how she felt about herself or other blacks.

Also, you make a comment that Bassey and Nina Simone must dislike each other. On Bassey’s side that is not true. In the mid-60s Bassey recorded a live album at the Pigalle in London. In a spoken intro to her performance of “The Other Woman” she praises Nina Simone and says that she is a fan of Nina’s. As with all things, when it comes to Bassey things are never just black or white (no pun intended).

By: afrobella » I Am Not A Mutt

afrobella » I Am Not A Mutt — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 18:20:45 +0000

[…] The “One Drop” theory still rules regardless of shade, and that’s part of why I was so surprised to find that someone the skin color of Shirley Bassey could possibly not identify as black. Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind that some black people didn’t think of themselves as anything but what they are. Or that some black people seek long and hard to be something they are not. I read Nella Larsen’s Passing in college, but I really believed those days had ended with the Harlem Renaissance. […]