Bad Boy’s newest talks about getting started and being mixed…
JC
Teen People talks to Cassie about her new single and how it was to grow up mixed.
TEEN PEOPLE: You’re of mixed heritage, Filipino and African-American. Was it difficult growing up in a culturally diverse family?
Cassie: Not for me. I was always so proud. I thought it was cool because I didn’t know anyone like me. But when I was younger I definitely looked awkward. When I was growing up my hair started getting really frizzy — it looked crazy. Luckily, it’s not so bad now.
Phew. Good thing she grew out of the awkwardness. Everyone knows that mixed people shouldn’t be awkward. 
Lyonside wrote:
Or *gasp* have “BAD” hair…
To quote from my preteen years, gag me twice with a chainsaw.
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 7:49 am ¶
brad wrote:
“Frizzy hair”? Meet “Dark & Lovely”! Problem solved.
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 3:05 pm ¶
mtevc wrote:
i was a ready to bop her with the moron stick when i heard her say “bad” hair…that is a loaded phrase
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 4:09 pm ¶
kelly wrote:
wow! people calm down she’s just a kid,haven’t you ever thought that may be she’s just a victim of the european standard of beauty just like all of us are,you have to think about how people of color have been taught to think of themselves,were taught that only “whiteness” or anything close to it is the all and be all,and thats just second nature to most people to think that way,so before you make your comments think about what your saying before you just fly off the handle and just start judging and attacking folks,she’s just starting out give her time to grow,eventually she will know better and not think of herself in that way,by the way if it was not for racism,colorism,lookism,etc we would be able to have love for ourselves don’t you think?
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 6:14 pm ¶
Charlette wrote:
I’m sick. where are the real mixed people who you can’t tell if they are white or not and they have stories to tell, like me.
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 10:02 pm ¶
Merq wrote:
“Real” mixed people?
Posted 20 Jul 2006 at 11:21 pm ¶
eva wrote:
uhm charlette what ???, the real mixed people, are you kidding me ? I did not realize that some of us were real and others were not, merq you took the words straight out of my mouth
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 2:06 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Kelly: Here’s the problem - if you’re any kind of media celebrity and you talk about race, your comments stay with you throughout your career -whether that’s 15 years or Warhol’s proverbial 15 minutes.
There’s no guarantee that her “conciousness” will be raised anytime soon, especially since she’d be in an entertainment segment that falls for that European beauty myth every single time (with a few Badu-esque exceptions).
Besides, if we don’t mouth off now (assuming, of course, she’d even SEE this), then aren’t we CONDONING the belief? Regardless of whether the person in question reads the blog comments, I think it’s good to show OTHERS where the problems lie… otherwise, what’s the point of coming here?
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 7:19 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
good point Lyonside
Charlette - you’ve been on MMW long enough to know better. I suspect someone is using “Charlette” or “her” computer.
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 7:29 am ¶
the joy princess wrote:
We might also want to tell Cassie that she needs to start focusing on looking around for a new label. Who still signs to Bad Boy in 2006? Hasn’t she seen what happens to careers over there?
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 2:48 pm ¶
Merq wrote:
gatamala:
No. If you look at Charlette’s posting history, she’s always spewed illogical, ignorant nonsense.
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 4:11 pm ¶
eva wrote:
I was going to say the same thing to gatamala, i have seen some of her postings and they have not necessarily shown a clear and well thought out pattern of reasoning.
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 7:11 pm ¶
brad wrote:
“Real”? Being mixed isn’t about being white looking. It’s about being of two or more “racial/ethnic” backgrounds. I think Mixed Media Watch has covered mixed folks who “look” white: Wentworth Miller, Keanu Reeves, or Mariah Carey, for instance. However, why should this site limit itself to just that segment of mixed people? A lot of mixed folks don’t look white or have Caucasian ancestry. Should someone who is Native American and black, or Chinese and South Asian, or South Asian and black not be represented? Are their struggles or lives less valuable because they lack Caucasian DNA?
Charlette, if you want more stories on mixed-race people who look more Caucasian, why not send them to Carmen and Jen? They’re very respectful and concerned about all mixed-race issues.
Posted 21 Jul 2006 at 7:30 pm ¶
little mixed girl wrote:
why are ppl jumping on her about the hair comment?
it sounds like what she said: her hair was wild and now she’s got it under control.
if she had long hair, and it was frizzy, curly, whatever then it was probably hard for her to know how to take care of it. and maybe it looked a fright.
she figured out what to do, and now everything’s chill.
damn ppl. i don’t know anyone that’d want to have their hair look a mess.
Posted 22 Jul 2006 at 2:43 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
LMG:
Because “hair” is a volotile issue when it comes to the perception of African-descent hair in America.
If a European-American with curly/frizzy hair bitches about it, I’d say fine, reach for the Pantene.
But the history of African-American hair and how people have “dealt” with it is directly tied to denial/eradication of cultural roots (no pun intended), assimilation, degradation, beauty myths, and conformity.
African-Americans have been told for 300 years that second only to skin, their natural hair brands them as “other,” makes them stand out, makes them subhuman, makes them ugly… it feeds into the ugly racist stories of jungles, beast-like traits, etc….
To counter this, to conform, to blend, to be “successful” (i.e. to look more European), chemicals and hot metal has been historically (and currently) applied. There are still people to talk about “good” and “bad” hair, and some people are branded as having one or the other by well meaning family members AT BIRTH.
Now, backtracking a bit, if someone is aware of that history, and still WANTS a certain look, processes, styled, permed, whatever, then I say, go for it. Some people just feel that they look better in certain ways, and I’m not going to stop them or say that they’re Uncle Tomming it or any such thing. But you HAVE to be aware of the social and political implications of hair and the drama it has caused.
Damn, hair texture has been used to determine who IS or who ISN’T a race. Eugenics had a field day with hair texture. Ignoring history doesn’t make it vanish.
What exactly is a fright? What exactly is a “mess?” See, those are loaded words - what, is poker-straight hair the only ideal?
There are ways to tame frizz (I know personally), without going straight. And regardless of what the particular girl in this article meant, it still falls into the “black hair bad, asian or european hair good” paradigm, which is offensive.
Posted 24 Jul 2006 at 6:28 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
And on the lighter side, check out this site:
http://naturallycurly2.com/home/index.php?PHPSESSID=69e5996a9afb50c39dc580d68172555b
The site promotes curly hair of a variety of people and ethnicities.
This is the best part: the webauthors strike back at media comments downing curly hair.
http://naturallycurly2.com/curlcolumns/articles.php?type=shame
Posted 24 Jul 2006 at 6:32 am ¶
mtevc wrote:
after listening to the lyrics of her new song, i would say self esteem isn’t high on her list…it’s more the do whatever to get ahead thing…but then again, she’s really young, and you would hope she would have better counsel to help her make better choices (mom and dad…let’s holler at them)…her voice is lame and the song is lame…what are we selling here??? the same old…but in a too young form
Posted 25 Jul 2006 at 3:56 pm ¶
J wrote:
I and mixed half black half white and my hair is a mess. and all i want is cute curles but all i get is a frizzy mess and it is ugly and makes me fell bad bout myself. And i kinda with i was lighter and had straighter hair. Cassie is really lucky.n i dnt care wot ppl think.
Posted 16 Aug 2006 at 6:43 pm ¶