In class we discussed Gloria Anzaldua’s theory of border crossers and border crossing. Although Anzaldua' theory was address the Mexican community, it can be applied to other communities of color such as the African American celebrities who have not declared an ethnicity. One of the celebrities discussed in class was Mariah Carey. Although Carey is mixed with Black and White, she is publicly seen to have closer affiliation with the African American community because of her music and ethnicity of her husband.
Using a cultural perspective, it is easy to see that Mariah Carey has crossed the borders of ethnicity. This crossing is seen in her choice of music genre. In the beginning of her career, Carey produced music of the pop genre (a known European genre of music). However, after her first album the music she produced was of the R&B genre. R&B music is rooted from the Black community. Her change of music genre was her was of crossing the borders of the European American community to the African American community.
Mariah Carey can also be seen as crossing the ethnicity borders using a social perspective. Mariah crossed the borders of ethnicity in her choice of spouses. Mariah’s first husband was her manager, Tommy Mottola. The fact that her husband was white made Carey seem closer to the European American community than the African American community. However, Mottola and Carey divorced and Carey remarried Nick Cannon (an African American). Carey’s two marriages show that she is attracted to both European American and African American and illustrates her border crossing.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Santiago, Roberto. "Black and Latino." Ress, Teresa and Carolyn
Shuttlesworth. Revelations. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 1989.
189-190.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI like how you incorporated Mariah Carey into your reflection. I wanted to add that Teena Marie is another example of a border-crosser. Though she is white, he voice is so soulful that it transcends the borders of R&B music. She also has had a relationship with African American singer Rick James which again shows how your crosses the borders of racial relations. It seems that it is generally easier for celebrities, particularly singers, to cross borders. Unfortunately, border-crossing seems to be conventionally unexcepted in today's society.
I believed that this was a very well written blog post about the concept of borders that we talked about in class. I like how you used the example of Mariah Carey that we briefly discussed in class. By elaborating more on this subject matter we see how she is seen in our society as an individual that "crossed the borders".
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