Horn african woman here (Somali)🙋🏾♀️. I always get questions like are you mixed with something at least once in a while. I have fine type 4a hair, light brown skin tone keen features (small nose medium sized lips and medium to high cheekbones) . I just want to thank you so much for including us in your movement. I feel at home here anyway.
Yes I knew horn Africans would fit in here because both me and my brother get mistaken for habesha Ethiopian all the time ☠️ I literally have learned about Ethiopian culture because people have mistaken me for that ethnic group so many times. I’ve had people make me injera, invite me to their houses, take me to Ethiopian food places because they assume that’s my ethnicity etc. I love injera btw OMG 😍
@@browniiiithank you 🥺. This means a lot. Unfortunately if you said this you'll be considered a colourist and a featurist. But I've been told several times that I'm very beautiful. Love you 😘 and have a good day.
I definitely can relate. Thank you for this channel. A space that I feel understood and not hurt by others that don't understand dark exoticals. Or how it feels to be made less than because "they" think you're pre7.
@@beavertheteaser Oh I'm sorry... It was no particular reason, it's just some people don't want mixed people to be mixed... it's usually darker complexion people that will act like they don't notice that someone is very light complected or act like that light complected person doesn't seem to be mixed when it's so obvious that they are mixed somewhere not that far down the blood line.🤦♀️
Great vid! I never thought about that with Chloe and Halle, but you have a point. I always thought that Chloe was the “sexy” one and Halle the more “girl next door type” but both are equally beautiful. People sure love to pick women apart when they should examine their own internalized biases.
exactly! the only difference between chloe and halle is halle has smaller features (eyes nose and lips) as well as more endorsements from a "white" brand (disney). if thats not pedestalizing non blackness idk what is.
I'm not even black, i'm latino and it's crazy how so many things are similar. It's either you look white or you're not light, because "light" is only if you're white passing. I've never had lighter people call me brown or dark. However it's always the people usually men who are shades darker than me try to humble me and say i'm not light. When I take care of skin and am low body fat % my own people really get mad and try to bring me down. They say "you think you're white or trying to be" because I use sunscreen an umbrellla/hat with shade, because it gets too 100°f+ where i'm at in the summer and just want to protect my skin. In my pfp i'm actually out in 110f degree weather and you can actually see me starting to tan in some areas from being exposed for hours.
@@m.s9146 Well if that's you in your pfp I can definitely see what you mean and with all due respect you're absolutely gorgeous. Many darker latinos tend to go for lighter women(view them as a status symbol) and lighter latinos usually go for either. I agree with you though about them being more accepting to lighter women with certain features. It's about familiarity and if you resemble some features they're familiar with then they will usually be more comfortable. However, the good ones will be accepting of everyone regardless of features and color.
It is most definitely usually dark male Latinos that have these issues. They will always call women dark if they don't look full European white. They say it like it is a bad thing. They have lots of similarities with the BC.
I am a LBW or MonoCLBW. However my fathers mother was a biracial women. Her mother was caucasian her father was African American. Man oh man I love that I’ve found this channel. Never felt liked I belonged even tho I knew who I was and where I can from. I grew up in black culture and it has been tough I’ve been humbled since I was a little girl. I was told that I was “cocky” as a little girl. Yet I was simply confident. I understand the plight unambiguous women went through and still do today however that is for them to learn from and heal from not for me to take backlash and hazing just to be accepted in my community. I’m currently working on becoming multicultural and teaching my daughters who look like me to be the same. Starting with homeschooling. They will not endure. Thank you! 🙏🏾💕 Also I notice when me and my daughters go out we get lots of compliments by other cultures of people and we almost always have our dinners or personal items paid for by strangers. I love it. 💕
I'm a dark skinned exotical. My ex husband is as well. Today I told him he's a dark skinned exotical (We're still tight friends. ) We have people who want us to get back together because they feel we look so good together based on our similar looks. I locked my hair and now "our" people tell me my locs are different because the texture is silky. People don't understand we come in all phenotypes. 🤷🏾♀️💯
Lol i feel like it depends. And Africa is so diverse. Some west Africans look East African. This is a black American issue cause people don’t go outside. Type kinky 4a hair gets a lot of praise because it can form a larger curl and be easily defined. Aka looks like kinky curly bundles But i think the issue is the women and competition. Attractive black women don’t have any issue with their features from what i see irl.
100% I am light skinned with Black facial features(brown eyes, West African nose and lips) but when I take those which celebrity look a like apps I always get women like Brandy, Gabby Douglas, Gabrielle Union, Viola Davis despite being light skinned. Growing up I was led to believe I was darker than I was I even started wearing darker foundation. I am a Medium foundation in most foundation brands but was wearing "Caramel" foundation. But in Blackistan I'm not Black cause I'm Multigenerationally Mixed. Make it make sense. Also actor/singer Rotimi is 100% Nigerian but because his features are more broad he gets addressed with the brown/dark skinned people despite being caramel complexion.
Yes! Thank you for saying this. They did the same thing to.halle and Chloe Bailey. They are light skin monoracial women but because they have Locs, people.called them.brownskinned and tried to.darken their skin tone because of their hair texture.
Yes and in them debut they were darker / tan sunkissed bc of the Sun they Say in a skincare interview they have deal with hyperpigmentation with grow up
I’m monoracial and I have 2 daughters who are mixed. One has the “hair” but would almost me consider “caramel” and has more afro/ Taino features. The oldest is very fair but has type 4 hair but more Eurocentric features. People will say both children are the same complexion even though they aren’t. I know it’s the hair thing 🙃.
Right. I feel like hair texture and facial features actually are what determines how your skin tone is perceived. For example when I’m not wearing makeup and my freckles are showing, people think I’m way lighter than I am when I’m the exact same color , and don’t even get me started on when I wear highlights or any blonde in my hair ☠️
I am really light with long reddish type 4A hair, freckles, brown eyes and full nose/lips. Two black parents although my mom is super light like me. Black people tend to consider me a light skinned black woman/"redbone," white people often think I am Latina like Dominican or PR and non-white minorities usually think I am mixed. When I was in Korea my friend told me she asked this Korean person if she had seen me and she described me and said I was a light skinned black girl. The Korean lady said "I saw a girl like that but she was mixed not black." It is really weird.
Omg yes ! I’ve also had people comment on my freckles as well. It’s funny how people associate freckles with whiteness or being super light. I am light but not white passing.
@@ExoticalsUnitedyess ppl tweek my freckles too it’s weird n I don’t have that many n guys or ppl act obsessed about it I like my freckles n sometimes I make more “faux” freckles despite having natural freckles 😅
Great video. I'm dark skin but I have very long hair, but even though it's Type 4 people always asked me am I mixed. I think length of hair determines how you're perceived too. Also, could you talk about some of the male celebrities like Prince and 2Pac who have been accused of being colorist? I'd like to hear your input about that
i heard about prince being accused of being colorist but 2pac i have never heard anyone accusing him of colorism like dont he have a song that says the "blacker the berry the sweeter the juice"?
This is so very true and it’s sad people consistently try to fit everyone in their own boxes instead of letting people be what and who they are. It’s sad 😢❤
Remember TIs ex wife Tiny? Everytime a man would state a preference toward light skin women black women would bring her up. They would say "not all light skin women are pretty look at Tiny, TIs ex wife." Then they would say "not all dark skin women are ugly" and name dark skin mls women as beautiful.
right theyll be like :"Some light skins are ugly" and name someone with afrocentric features. then theyll be like "dark skins can be pretty" and name some dark skinned mixed race person like chili from tlc or someone without west african/bantu features.
I love how empowering your channel is we got to discuss the hypocrisy we know the difference between lightskin and unambiguous people me as a lightskin black person with thinner lips and nose is not being championed as or revered because I have too many mixed and thin features I can see how my body is objectified and fetishized for some reason lightskin girls with larger noses are seen as having normalcy because they can connect more with them meanwhile lightskins with keener features are more fantasy and dehumanized 🧚♀️
right and have you ever noticed that when it comes to lips, black people didn't start being ok with big lips until WHITE PEOPLE popularized lip fillers? i remember girls with big lips used to get called "duck lips" and made fun of.
@@ExoticalsUnited it’s the fact they be bowing for yts they just need to get over those mind sets get rid of they fear they follow and believe these yt standards it’s doing nothing but hurting them
@@ExoticalsUnited they want you light but not too white hince them wanting us to deny our admixture or heritage it’s just like they want you light enough to be pretty but not white to the point that they envy these women be so lost
OMG you so right i never thought about it not just limited to skintone even facial feature also affected how someone is being perceived to be mixed or biracial. So when i see certain dark skin exotical like ryan destiny or monoracial dark skin woman who don't have certain feature like azealia banks i wonder why did they have different facial feature? Even monoracial southeast asian have feature that is similar to east asian so some people mistaking them to be east asian
Love them or hate them -- TLC were blessed (as was the case with contemporaries En Vogue) with the internet being largely in its infancy thirty years ago, was more than could be said for Beyonce when she and the rest of the original lineup of Destiny's Child.
I never thought about features before I have type 4a hair when I let my hair grow out its extremely curly. I have amber brown eyes I get asked if I'm Ethiopian but I'm American but I am multi racial having biracial grandparents paternal and maternal. I think my look is unique and It took me along time to embrace my beauty loving the bump in my nose too.
Yeah blacks people don’t care how big your nose is as long as it doesn’t look west African . I’ve noticed if a person has a west African nose people are more likely to call them average or ugly. Meanwhile they themselves have the same nose and lips
@ExoticalsUnited true its weird though having people criticize your facial features your hair and complexion. I have my undergraduate degree in Sociology and I took a class about race and color in Brazil and my professor was afro Brazilian and very dark skinned. In class she made statement about the brown race and because here we have the one drop rule you're either black or white. I didn't pay much attention but I can see that we do have a brown race. Growing up I always made myself seem small around darker girls as not to draw too much attention to myself because that meant being bullied learning this early as preschool but not knowing why at such a young age. We uniting now.
@@Prima_Alit is not just an American thing, people have different categories to describe people. You are a nice looking woman regardless of your color, it doesn’t matter.
My mum looks like Chilli, same eye shape (like the indigenous Kalinago people from her island of Dominica) 🇩🇲 similar hair texture, dark reddish brown skin tone and face shape.
😍I love this channel. I remember literally being asked about my origins. Growing up, I never knew where I came from or who I am. I would just say that I have a mix of African and European being light skin until people point out my facial features. I would deny having Asian roots such as Chinese and Japanese. Now, I do accept my Asian roots because it's a part of my heritage. Funny enough, I had a guy asked me if I had another name and yet he started pointing out his facial features such as having a Native American nose. I didn't asked him what tribe he is. My cousin who is biracial was called white girl by her classmates in a all black school because she is the one with keener features (her father is Norwegian). One time, my aunt decided to do me and my cousin's hair, she notice that when she straightens our hair, mines would stay straight for a long time and my cousin would curl right back. Ironically, while I growing up, my cousin once said that I was 100% black, which is not true because I am a very light complexion with brown undertones and a Asiatic features that makes me look very young despite the fact that I am 7 months older than her. I suspect because her father is white and hence I am raised by a brown sugar mom and a dark skin stepfather. I don't even talk to her anymore because of what she said about me numerous times and even avoid her (sad because she is also a biracial but raised in a hood environment). I am learning about my culture so that I can teach my future kids to be proud of their roots. 😊😇
Nice video but I wouldn't classify Willow Smith as having an ethnic nose IMHO, I mean her nose is more like her mothers then it is to Will Smith, same as Jaden. Their noses are basically straight, projected outwards, not flat, etc
South African Bantu here and as far as I know I am 100% pure black from the continent however my grandmother had light skin, 3c to 4 A hair and a narrow nose and she became the BEAUTY STANDARD FOR OUR ENTIRE FAMILY, a lot of my cousins have narrow noses and thinner lips and they always get asked where they are from. I am extremely dark but because I have 1, just one ambiguous feature South Africans have questioned why I look the way I do and I've never understood it growing up. I have one cousin who has my grandmother and aunts complexation but because her nose is broader and fuller lips she was never really considered light in our family
I have a button nose, small lips and wavy/curly hair, but caramel skin. I've been mistaken for several different ethnicities. In far too many people's eyes, anything other than passing for white is black as tar.
right! ive noticed that whenever someone says "you dont look look mixed" what they really mean is "you dont look WHITE" . theyre making whiteness the standard for mixed race when there are more non white passing mixed people of color as opposed to mixed people who look like a mono white person.
Yes ! I remember in college they used to call this one girl light skinned and she was Chili’s color. She was mixed and ambiguous looking, so they conflated her phenotype and hair texture with her skin tone
yes! ive noticed when some people say ambiguous they really just mean white looking. and its like uhhhh there are way more people of color in the world than white people so who's REALLY the more "ambiguous" one? its the non white passing people. halsey is not ambiguous to me. she is a mono white passing mixed woman (which is fine) however, chili from tlc actually IS ambiguous to me. she looks indian, mixed with black, islander, part asian etc.
We horn africans have around 50% non african admixture on average. With North Sudanese having around 60%, Ethiopians& Eritreans around 50% and Somalis around 40%. Its preneolithic ancient admixture. Monoracial? Not really.
Well if that’s true that would explain why me and my brother get mistaken for habesha Ethiopians all the time when we are not Ethiopian. My bf also got mistaken as Ethiopian and he is mixed as well
@@secularjihadi of course i agree. Also a big chunk of that nonafrican admixture could be explained in future with localized ancient northeastafrican populations once we have enough ancient DNA from northeastafrica. In terms of ancient dna, africa is the most undersampled place.
I think this is subjective. I don’t think I saw anyone in this video I personally would call light skin. I don’t consider myself light skin and for reference my complexion is Fenty 330. I see myself as a brown person. What other people see me as depends on where I am. In my family I’m in the middle complexion wise. I spent my childhood in SoCal suburbs and my skin tone was never a topic of conversation because nobody cared. I never heard I was supposedly light until I moved to the South. People in SoCal did mention my mom and some of her side’s complexions because they are pale AF and without brown or golden undertones like the people in this video. They aren’t biracial. For reference look up the owner of Hair Rules and that’s similar to their complexion. My mom and some of her side relatives sometimes actively tan using lotions probably but if you saw a pic of just their legs in the winter you would think they are white. Their other features vary person to person but no wide nose or kinky hair ever causes a debate if they are light skin. They are as We say light bright damn near white. Most of us on that side are freckled. One of my mom’s brothers is Whitney Houston’s shade and our family considers him as dark skin. Some of my cousins have loose curls and we see them as dark skin if they are dark. Also as someone who grew up in diverse areas, travels internationally and has lived outside the USA my concept about skin complexion isn’t confined to racially black people. I have been called brown by people from other countries especially from some places in Asia. I have met plenty of people who are my same complexion who aren’t black or even partially black by race. It’s not my world view that we are the same shade but I am light and they are brown.
You’ve explained it extremely well. As a dark skinned mixed horn African, the featurism I experience can come from anyone. My features are racially ambiguous but not Eurocentric enough as other Horner. I’m told my skin is too dark but my hair is silky and has a slight wave. There have been people bold enough to say the most ridiculous things. I’ve been accused of lying about my race/ethnicity until seeing my mother is in fact a Middle Eastern Jew. My siblings range in skin tone and features, people have questioned my connection to them. When starting a new school my black tutor outright said, “you are your fathers child, wow I wouldn’t ever put the two of you together”. I never understood it until I became more aware of my appearance and now I embrace it. Their confusion and internalised issues won’t be projected onto me. My identity shouldn’t have people doing mental gymnastics. It surprises me till this day when it’s envy coming from a white/Caucasian person but hurts when it someone I would consider similar to me as I am dark skinned.
Horn Africans are definitely historically mixed. Their mix goes back hundreds of years to when the black people of the region were held in slavery by the Arabs. The Arabs castrated the male slaves and raped the female slaves and todays horn African population is the direct result. Also, I think ambiguity is logically linked to finer features and looser hair textures. Because if there are “light skinned black people”, then skintone alone can’t be the determinant. Then it falls onto features and hair texture. If one has all three-light skin, fine features and loose hair texture, then the ambiguous look is sealed among popular opinion. Even just having 2 of those-for example, light skin with loose hair and broad features or light skin with fine features and kinky hair would be also seen as ambiguous. Same with dark skin with fine features and loose hair texture. There’s really no difference between the ambiguous mixed-race phenotype and the black phenotype otherwise. Genotype, of course is what it is regardless, but if we’re talking about social acceptance under the label of ambiguous, then one must have one of those aforementioned combinations.
@@secularjihadi I’m not gonna argue how wrong you are when simple google will disprove you. “Genetic studies have identified substantial non-African admixture in the Horn of Africa (HOA). In the most recent genomic studies, this non-African ancestry has been attributed to admixture with Middle Eastern populations during the last few thousand years. “ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055572/#:~:text=Genetic%20studies%20have%20identified%20substantial,the%20last%20few%20thousand%20years.
"The Arabs castrated the male slaves and raped the female slaves and todays horn African population is the direct result." There is literally no source for this. In reality very few Somalis were enslaved by Arabs, and were more likely to buy Bantu slaves from Arabs.
Exotical means different from the norm. ALL blk women are exotic. Having curly hair from type 3 to 4 is automatically considered exotic because only a small population of the world has curly hair. Ive been meaning to tell u this but I keep forgetting.
When did I say black women weren’t exotic ? Every single woman on this channel has blackness in her so I’m not sure what your point is of making that comment . Everyone is exotic to Simeon including mixed race people. I’m not implying that others are “not exotic”, I’m simply using the phenotype I have to create a good life for myself and I’m creating a safe space of validation for others who share my sentiment. If this channel is offensive to you or you dislike it, please feel free to block me because this is a safe space for uplifting, not a place for nit picking or being the content creator police. Thanks
We're not talking about ALL Black Women. We're specifically talking about LIGHT and or Mixed. Get over it. Because your version of 'exotic' BW love calling US out and not letting them in their clubs because we look MORE exotic than they do. Get over it.
Whew. They love gaslighting us and claiming we're in their spaces when we want to be called Black Women but come over here claiming exotical like they didn't brand us with that themselves. She wishes. @@meiko2164
Unambiguous black people didn't create these standards. European beauty standrds effects all races. The closer you are to European features the prettier you are viewed in society. Some Asians have big nose like fillipino, Vietnamese , Koreans etc... But have other features like straight hair, and light skin so they are closer to the beauty standards. Some even get surgery to get a thinner nose and lighten their skin. As well as some Indians have dark skin but have straight hair and keen features so they are not far from the beauty standrds. Ask any non-black person ( even black people )who the most beautiful black people in Africa are. Most people will say east africans (ethopian ,somali ,etc....) unambiguous black people differ compared to other races the most .To fit the beauty standards you must have 2 feautures out of this list (thinner nose, light skin , thinner lips, straight or lose curly hair type 2-3 )
Unambiguous black people didn’t create them, they just fight to uphold them. I don’t see white people on the internet arguing about which black people are “not that light skinned”. I’ve only seen black people doing that.
The problem is, it's not Europeans, imposing the One Drop Rule anymore. It's mainly Griffes👨🏾👩🏾 and Black People👨🏿👩🏿 doing that. Chrissie👩🏿 is the one calling Beyonce👩🏽 a Black Woman. "Cause she likes her". Margot Robbie👩🏼 is not.
When Hollywood was going to cast the movie about the life of black actress Dorothy Dandridge Janet Jackson was considered for the part..However the role went to Halle Berry who is biracial..I said back then that it should had been given to Janet who is more negroid than Halle which Dorothy Dandridge was..
I thought the same thing too! Always thought Janet should have had that part! Now sources are saying that Dorothy Dandridge wasn’t fully Blck.They sited her Mexican heritage. Always thought Halle looked more like Marpessa Dawn!
Oh no I thought Halle was a perfect casting for Dorothy-looks like her twin in some pictures from the movie! Janet wouldn’t have looked right, Dorothy was truly more ambiguous than her. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one 😆
@@ravenrebel3183 When Dorothy Dandridge was singing the song "That's Love" in the movie "Carmen Jones" I did see glimpses of Janet in her ..Although Dorothy was light brown you could still see more negroid features in her.. the same as you see in Blue Ivy and Jayz..Yes we can peacefully disagree..
