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8 Mixed-Race People With Black Blood Who Experienced Rejection From Their Other Side

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Halle Berry

Halle Berry

Born to a white mother and a Black father, actress Halle Berry experienced countless instances characterized by racism during her childhood in Ohio. When her father, Jerome Berry, walked out, her mother moved her daughters, Halle and Heidi, to Bedford, Ohio, where Berry was “subjected to discrimination at an early age,” according to biography.com. Yet, she “overcame Hollywood’s racial barriers when she was cast as the first African American to play the Queen of Sheba, in the Showtime movie Solomon & Sheba.” In addition, Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball. During her speech, she “acknowledged the honor of becoming the first African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress by thanking all the performers who came before her.”

 

Photograph: Peter Still/Redferns

Photograph: Peter Still/Redferns

Bob Marley

Reggae star Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley and his father, Norval Sinclair Marley, a white Jamaican, had a troubled relationship. In his book, Bob Marley, Stephen Davis explains that Norval Marley’s family, his mother in particular, pressured him to abandon his new family, which consisted of his wife, Cedella, an African-Jamaican, and their newborn son, Bob. As a result, Norval moved away, and his visits were inconsistent and then, one day, nonexistent. The absence of his father inspired the meaning behind many of Bob Marley’s songs.

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