Gwyneth Paltrow was being interviewed for a video series called "Black Voices." In the interview she talked about growing up in a lily white environment and never seeing any black people. She then said that her dad did a lot of tanning and was the blackest person she knew. Umm ok. I always thought she said Maya Rudolph was her best friend growing up. Maya's mother is African-American so that is kind of forgetting something right there, and that is not even the point of my post. She started talking about her dad and his time on White Shadow and how he had the first interracial kiss ever on television. Maybe it was the first one she saw, but the first one happened 10 years earlier on Star Trek. Sorry to burst your bubble on that and maybe you should give Maya a call.
Yeah yeah, didn't she grow up between L.A. and New York ? If so she must be blind.
ReplyDeleteWait... I don't get the point of her disclosing this information. I then am pretty sure she must have stepped out of the house with a blind fold on for a good portion of her childhood.
ReplyDeleteIt's official...her head is completely up her own ass.
ReplyDeleteSurely there were some Afro-American, Hispanic, and Asian kids at Spence? Right?
ReplyDeleteComments like hers demonstrate why white folks need to tread VERY carefully while discussing race.
Is there anything good in history that she does not take credit for?
ReplyDeleteIs there anything tragic in history that she does not attach herself to?
And of course, she always has to be at the forefront of pop culture (for the masses) and sophistication (for the elite).
What's with that HAIR?
ReplyDeleteWhy did she get interviewed for a series called Black Voices? There's really NO ONE ELSE? The blackest white girl they could find from California is GOOP?
ReplyDeleteShe is just so helplessly unaware it's pitiful.
ReplyDeletethe OC Weekly Stick a Fork In It blog is going to post around 8:30 about GQ calling her book one of the least influential books of the year.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/
Goop- please do the world a favor and GO AWAY!
And then she says shit like this and wonders why folks hate her, UGHHHHHH
ReplyDeleteAnd I am with Feisty, WTF was BV doing interviewing her lily white ass?!?! Oh cus she is NOW friends with Jay Z and Beyonce???
Having grown up in upper middle class/upper class Orange County, it IS possible to grow up in SoCal without much exposure to blacks. My high school had one African-American in it. Lots of asians and some hispanics, but one black kid. It was probably even more lily white in the Newport Beach area, and in Beverly Hills or wherever she grew up. When you're a kid, your world is very small - it's your school, and whoever your parents socialize with. It doesn't necessarily expand to include the cities next door. And in SoCal, the help is not always a way to interact with blacks. Your gardener, nanny, housekeeper, etc. are more likely to be hispanic or asian or even (gasp!) white.
ReplyDeleteSeachica-i grew up in OC too- went to HS in big-bad Irvine!-lol
ReplyDeletehere it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/12/gq_names_gwyneth_paltrow_and_h.php
@Seachica -- It's my understanding that she was partly raised in NYC. So, unless she lived in a windowless house, traversed the streets in a windowless car, and never walked anywhere -- ever -- it's impossible she grew up without ever seeing a minority.
ReplyDeleteOh, I would like to be there when her good friend Jay-Z reads this. I really, really want to be there.
ReplyDeleteI had always read her parents were liberal activists. I thought it was obligatory for white liberal activists to hang around minority groups. Guess I was misinformed.
ReplyDeleteHarry Belafonte was probably at the Paltrows' house once or twice, but he's a celebrity so he doesn't count. Maya's mother Minnie Riperton died when Maya was quite young, I think, and her father is white, so the household probably appeared white to a young Gwyneth. Servants are invisible to the wealthy, so any service staff of color don't count.
ReplyDeleteTypical ignorant honky.
ReplyDeleteBitch Next Door...completely agree with you that she's ignorant, except for the Honky thing. Ignorance exists in all races despite the color of ones skin.
ReplyDeleteUnknown -- north Tustin gal here, class of 1988. Now living in seattle!
ReplyDeleteGlad someone mentioned the hair, since Goopie knows all...why the hell doesn't she use some conditioner on that bleached fried head of hers.
ReplyDeleteIs this that thing where she is trying on a personality? Like maybe she's trying on what she thinks is an intellectual bitch personality??
ReplyDelete_-_: IF it is she should get some help from Courtney Stodden. She could rilly help her there.
ReplyDeleteI do not doubt that Goop was sheltered I just dont understand why Black Voices was interveiwing her unless it's to show how little white people can care. Here's your proof.
@trollsayer
ReplyDeleteWhy do white people have to watch what they say about other races? Cause something is only racist if white people say it?
Really, everyone should watch what they say when it comes to race/culture unless they *know* what they are talking about.
LMAO at her comment that her dad was the blackest guy she knew. OMG. Who says that?!?
ReplyDeleteI understand growing up sheltered from races. My school literally had like 2 Jews, 5 blacks and maybe 1 or 2 Asians. My town is predominantly Italians and Hispanics, and that's who was in my school. But, really the Goopster is SO unaware of how her deep thoughts can be interpreted.
@Sue Ellen -- because white people don't really know what it's like to be institutionally *marginalized* (well, white women do, to an extent). But I think it's unfathomable for most Caucasians to understand the complicated history of racial oppression. You can read all the books you want on the subject, you can watch Roots over and over, you can claim to have dozens of black friends, and you can sympathize with their struggles until you cry, but you CANNOT comprehend what they, their parents, and their grandparents and so forth endured. So it always icks me out when people like Gwen choose to opine on the subject.
ReplyDeleteBut, like others have noted, I don't get why SHE, of all people, was interviewed to begin with.
for being so "cultured" and all knowing (especially to grace us with her "knowledge" every week via her site), this interview makes her look like a complete pendeja-babosa-etc...
ReplyDeleteSince I am older then most posters I grew up in a middle class comm. Blacks in school. Of course I was from the only Native American family in town, so it was a little difficult. My brothers only dated black girls after being harassed by White boys. My Mother dressed in Native dress and this caused problems. Luckly, we had the greatest parents, College educated, and involved in everything Boy scouts, girl scouts, sports at school. My father was also a Sports editor for the big city paper nearby and the White Boys were very polite to him. I cann't see how she goes thru life thinking she is the beall and endall.
ReplyDelete@trollslayer
ReplyDeleteWhat you just said might be part of them problem I think. Educating and culturally enriching yourself does result in comprehension/understanding of what marginalized people go through. The only thing it doesn't do is give people the ability to walk around in the skin of said marginalized peoples.
We might have to agree to disagree here.
That's fine, Sue Ellen.
ReplyDeleteI think it's wise to educate yourself about other cultures, but I still strongly think that it's arrogant to assume you can *understand* what those cultures have experienced.
How is it arrogant to think you can educate yourself to understand things? Isn't that the whole point of education?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we are using a different definition of "understand"?
As much as I can't stand Goop EXACTLY because of shit like this, I'm almost finding her cluelessness comical these days. Because she is so fucking oblivious.
ReplyDeleteSue Ellen, I understood (ahem) that we were going to agree to disagree?
ReplyDeleteYou've stated your point, and I've stated mine.
Onward.
Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI just like to know the in's and out's of things. :)
I totally understand and agree with what point you are trying to make trollslayer.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think with all thoses cleanses she does, she'd be less full of shit.
ReplyDeleteLMAO @ardleigh!!! Touché!
ReplyDeleteSusan: "Jewish" is not a race.
ReplyDeleteSo many things about this thread and post make me want to punch myself in the face.
ReplyDelete@Ruse: try living in Irvine!
ReplyDeletetrollslayer: well said thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteShut the hell up, Goopie. Nichelle Nichols was the most important early black TV pioneer ever and Gene Rodenberry did more to further the "united colors" cause (to steal Benneton's slogan) than your late dad ever did. Uhuru inspired Dr. Mae Jemison to pursue a life as an astronaut and gave early inspiration to Whoopi Goldberg. Two heavy hitters who are black women, right there.
ReplyDeleteThough it is a good point that she probably didn't get much exposure to black people in her everyday life. It would make sense that the super-affluent would live in practically lily-white communities and go to exclusive private schools. Which is why I have to laugh when these same people turn around and lambaste you if you say anything bad about public schools. It's, like, dude, it's not like your privileged ass would've ever spent more than a millisecond inside a public school.
BTW, it's important to make a distinction here and point out I attended Catholic schools from pre-k to 12th grade, and my single gender high school was one where girls of all socioeconomic backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and from all over the city were my classmates. I got a whole lot more exposure to a varied mixture of people than had I gone to my assigned public high school, where I would've seen the same blue collar/approaching middle class kids I was exposed to already in my neighborhood. And I saw plenty of black people, Indian-Americans (as in their relations were from India), Asians, and white people, along with the majority Hispanic population so indicative of my city.
Anyway. Goopie's an idiot, as per usual. OH!! And I nearly forgot about the tap dancer off "The Lawrence Welk Show"! He's the one a young Gregory Hines would race home from school to watch, and was also the first black person to be a featured performer on a variety program. And this happened roughly at the same time Nichelle Nichols was co-starring on "Star Trek".
Trollslayer...you are just plain ignorant, ignorant, ignorant. If you go to Morocco or any other country that does not have white people, you'll get the same predjudice. It's not limited to white people. Stop making yourself a victim. Being 1/2 American Indian, I would never blame white people for anything. It's unfortunately your insecurity and upbringing that has poisoned your mind.
ReplyDelete@crila16 -- "Stop making yourself a victim. Being 1/2 American Indian, I would never blame white people for anything. It's unfortunately your insecurity and upbringing that has poisoned your mind."
ReplyDeleteWhat in the HELL are you talking about? First of all, I'm primarily Scottish and Dutch, and that's about as honkified as it gets. I've also got some Indian blood, too, but I know how lame it is to claim it in arguments like this, so I won't give you my exact percentage. *eyeroll*
My point is merely that a privileged race cannot possibly fathom what an unprivileged race may have experienced. I've grown up knowing that I can't possibly COMPREHEND what kind of struggles an Afro-American person my age has endured. What makes that "ignorant, ignorant, ignorant"?
I'm speaking from an American standpoint. That's what I know. And guess what? In *this* ethnodiverse melting pot of a country, white people are *still* the most affluent demographic, and always have been, and that's largely because we've enjoyed the perks that have come from belonging to a race that's found it largely easy to obtain work, education, and housing because people AREN'T PREJUDICED against us and don't want to deny us those things -- and if they are, who cares, because they lack the power and resources to take away our rights and civil liberties. White people have done a bang-up job messing with other minorities' rights, though. And I don't give a shit if I sound like a liberal here -- I AM a liberal, and I also know how easy white people have it.
Before you call someone ignorant, dear, you should really measure your own words. You come across as a hyperbolic, uninformed fool who isn't able to parse language very well.