I honestly believe the ridicule of not being black enough & the lesbian rumors lead her to Bobby Brown.
Houston was booed on stage and vilified in public for singing "too white." As Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy points out in Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, this phenomenon is very common. Most individuals who are seen as Black and and who also achieve success in the mainstream ("accepted by Whites" as Kennedy puts it) are similarly attacked. This includes Kennedy himself. Kennedy explains the historical roots of this crabs-in-a-bucket tradition. What Kennedy does not stress sufficiently, in my view, is the psychological pressure that it puts on talented, bright, or hard-working people. Many (like Kennedy himself) can shrug it off. But others, who crave love and approval, can be devastated by anxiety. They cannot suddenly become untalented, so it is hard for them to lose their popularity among Whites. Trapped, with no way out, they sometimes engage in self-destructive behavior. For insight into the phenomenon that mere success in mainstream society suffices to draw accusations of "selling out," I recommend Kennedy's book.
It was not her singing she was criticized for, it was her songs (as in the content, etc) and her behavior/attitude.
There have been dozens of blacks in the last 50 years to become quite popular with white audiences and have not been treated like that by black audiences...this new generation, also includes rap artists. I don't think Snoop Dog was ever booed for "being too white" when he had platinum albums. I don't' recall Prince being Booed. When the Thriller album came out, before Michael Jackson started skin bleaching I did not here (admittedly I was in elementary school) taunts and criticism from blacks.
I'm not justifying such behavior, it is repugnant to me, but I'm only seeking to clarify the "cause and effect". It is not "being famous" with whites. It is how one becomes famous and how one acts when famous.
Cuba Goodings Jr is a good example of an actor commonly made fun of by black Americans, who is somewhat famous and been in a lot of "mainstream movies". Taye Diggs gets treated far worse, there are websites almost dedicated to berating him, primarily due to his dating habits (primarily white women, he married a Jewish woman). Taye Diggs is on Private Practice, one of the biggest shows on TV, a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy.
Denzel Washington, on the other hand, is one of the few black actors (Will Smith another) who can headline a movie and get a good amount of white folks to see it. Both are loved in the black community. Both married to black women though and at least speak "pro-black". Will Smith is even rumored to be somewhat best friends with Tom Cruise and a Scientologist, but blacks still respect him (in general) mainly because he is married to a black woman and no one questions his "blackness" in how he acts and talks.
I honestly believe the ridicule of not being black enough & the lesbian rumors lead her to Bobby Brown.
Houston was booed on stage and vilified in public for singing "too white." As Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy points out in Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, this phenomenon is very common. Most individuals who are seen as Black and and who also achieve success in the mainstream ("accepted by Whites" as Kennedy puts it) are similarly attacked. This includes Kennedy himself. Kennedy explains the historical roots of this crabs-in-a-bucket tradition. What Kennedy does not stress sufficiently, in my view, is the psychological pressure that it puts on talented, bright, or hard-working people. Many (like Kennedy himself) can shrug it off. But others, who crave love and approval, can be devastated by anxiety. They cannot suddenly become untalented, so it is hard for them to lose their popularity among Whites. Trapped, with no way out, they sometimes engage in self-destructive behavior. For insight into the phenomenon that mere success in mainstream society suffices to draw accusations of "selling out," I recommend Kennedy's book.
It was not her singing she was criticized for, it was her songs (as in the content, etc) and her behavior/attitude.
There have been dozens of blacks in the last 50 years to become quite popular with white audiences and have not been treated like that by black audiences...this new generation, also includes rap artists. I don't think Snoop Dog was ever booed for "being too white" when he had platinum albums. Then again he portrayed himself as a gang-banging pimp. I don't' recall Prince being booed, despite his appearance and effeminate demeanor. When the Thriller album came out, before Michael Jackson started skin bleaching I did not here (admittedly I was in elementary school) taunts and criticism from blacks.
I'm not justifying such behavior, it is repugnant to me, but I'm only seeking to clarify the "cause and effect". It is not "being famous" with whites. It is how one becomes famous and how one acts when famous.
Cuba Goodings Jr is a good example of an actor commonly made fun of by black Americans, who is somewhat famous and been in a lot of "mainstream movies". Taye Diggs gets treated far worse, there are websites almost dedicated to berating him, primarily due to his dating habits (primarily white women, he married a Jewish woman). Taye Diggs is on Private Practice, one of the biggest shows on TV, a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy.
Denzel Washington, on the other hand, is one of the few black actors (Will Smith another) who can headline a movie and get a good amount of white folks to see it. Both are loved in the black community. Both married to black women though and at least speak "pro-black". Will Smith is even rumored to be somewhat best friends with Tom Cruise and a Scientologist, but blacks still respect him (in general) mainly because he is married to a black woman and no one questions his "blackness" in how he acts and talks.
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I don't' recall Prince being booed, despite his appearance and effeminate demeanor. When the Thriller album came out, before Michael Jackson started skin bleaching I did not here (admittedly I was in elementary school) taunts and criticism from blacks.
