Gwyneth Paltrow can single-handedly heal America’s racial divide! Not really, and I don’t mean to make it sound like Gwyneth is claiming that either. Gwyneth appeared on the HuffPo Black Voices show The Tanning Effect to discuss race in America with host Steve Stoute, author of The Tanning of America, a book that explores how “hip-hop culture” changed the way Americans view race and the economy. So of course, he wanted to speak to Dame Gwyneth, who is America’s Foremost Racial Expert. She’s friends with Beyonce and Jay-Z, after all!
Long before captivating moviegoers across the globe with her award-winning acting skills, Gwyneth Paltrow was front and center of a pivotal cultural shift. While growing up in Santa Monica, California, her father, Bruce Paltrow, created and wrote for the late ’70s CBS drama “The White Shadow,” which examined racial stereotypes in America and exposed the actress to many seminal television “Tanning” moments. As she explains in HuffPost Black Voices latest episode of “The Tanning Effect,” Paltrow witnessed her father’s impact at the time on American society.
“I think the most ‘Tanning’ that I saw during that phase of my life was my dad, [who] created, wrote and directed a TV show called ‘The White Shadow,’ about a white basketball coach teaching basketball in an inner-city school,” she explained. “And that show that he did — I mean, obviously we were there a lot, but it was interesting to see that culturally start to permeate. And he did a lot of ‘firsts’ on that show. He had the first interracial kiss ever. It was a good show.”
“I learned a lot of it through the show, especially since they were using a lot of the stereotypes as a way to exploit them or expose them or to debunk them,” she continued. “And a lot of times obviously in a creative situation, those stereotypes are what causes tension and story lines and plots.”
Having an unbiased viewpoint on multicultural relationships is also a trait that the “Shakespeare in Love” star has shared with her two children. In fact, the 39-year-old admitted that the shift of beauty in America is “long overdue.”
“I don’t want to bemoan the fact that it should’ve happened 50 years ago, because it’s here now,” she added. “And it’s like the way I see it is that I have two little kids who are understanding the world in a time when Rihanna is on the cover of Vogue, and we have a black president. So their eyes are being as if they’re experiencing the world for the first time. All of this stuff is just root — it’s normal stuff for them. And that to me is what’s so incredible.”
“When my daughter understood what a president was, it was a black man. It’s not like me, where I grew up with all of these old white guys one after another … Their perspective on race and everything is completely open and completely different to how it was when I was a kid.”
[From Huffington Post]
I don’t really have a problem with what Gwyneth is saying – she’s just talking about her dad, who really was a ground-breaking television producer, and I don’t have a problem with her comments about Obama and the shifting standards of beauty. She’s right – it is important that all kids see that we have a black president, that African-American women are iconic, celebrated beauties, and that mommy’s BFF is Beyonce.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
hahahaha.
yeah yeah gywneth..we get it.
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She’d be my first choice. *eyeroll*
I agree with everything she said. Kids really are experiencing a better world and having a more positive experience with different races. I am black and when I was growing up my favorite Disney princess was snow white and some people thought that was weird but I liked her because I loved all the songs in the movie and all the dwarves. Now my step daughter loves Ariel because she loves swimming and she thinks she is a mermaid herself. Now I don’t hear people making comments about that. Maybe because there is a black Disney princess- Tiana, it seems to them Ok that she can like a princess of another race because she has the option to choose one of her own race so that acceptance of another race was not forced on her.
Racial conversations fascinate me because growing up in africa, we didn’t relate on that level. Sure we had tribalism, but not racism. So in my house we loved Snow white, Diana Ross, Princess Bagaya, Marilyn Monroe and Madhuri Dixit.
I am dark hispanic growing up in Colombia SouthAmerica, we do not have the racial thinkging like here in America. I never thoguht I was different or I have to like dark skin color dolls because of my skin color.
My husband is a white-jew and we are not much diffent. We are both professionals, looking for a better future for our children. I willl never put in my children’s mind what to like because of my race or my husbands race.
Hmm actually Dame Goop the first interracial kiss was between Captain Kirk and Uhura on star trek in 1968. You lose.
I was about to post the same thing. Lol. I doubt she’s ever seen an episode of Star Trek. It’s probably too peasanty for her.
i was thinking the same thing. only nerdy peasants would deign to watch something as classless as star trek:)
Finally someone who knows how to correctly use the word “deign”. Good job, scotchy!
I immediately thought that too!
Doesn’t count! Those were aliens ;o)
ha!! good one….
I was going to say that also but it was spock who was supposed to kiss by shatner always needs that spotlight. They brought this issue to light in the revamped star trek movie. Gwyneth, here is the deal although it’s nice that she feels that racial dividers are parting it’s still a strong hold in this country. Also let me be honest, you would not be friends with Beyonce or Jay-Z twenty years ago. Which I still find strange since he is a know drug dealer. Now since they are in your social circle and have the means to pay to be in the status they are in. You can consider them friends. However if that fell apart would she still be friends with them afterwards? Money can get you a lot of friends but are they fair weather or steadfast. Gwyneth seems like a fair weather person to me.
Now since they are in your social circle and have the means to pay to be in the status they are in. You can consider them friends. However if that fell apart would she still be friends with them afterwards?
i dk author lets ask Winona Ryder lmao
First interracial kiss? Nope, pretty sure that was Star Trek back in the sixties.
My favourite comment about the kiss ever went something along the lines of “Well, I don’t agree with the mixing of the races but, when a red-blooded man like Jim Kirk gets a looker like that Uhura in his arms, what do you expect him to do?”
Yes. I think you are right. I knee her comment sounded wrong.
Eh, I don’t really have a problem with her, never did. She just indifferent to me. She pretty much harmless.
My goodness … are her legs (in the bottom picture) really that thin???
“When my daughter understood what a president was, it was a black man. It’s not like me, where I grew up with all of these old white guys one after another
I have a problem with the above statement that she made. Trying to elevate black doesn’t mean you have to denigrate white. All these old white guys…hmmmm.
^^^This. I was just about to comment on that same statement.
Agreed. I had the same thought as well.
She really is kind of an idiot, isn’t she?
If the shift of beauty is really long overdue in America, then why does she dye her hair that exaggerated shade of yellow-blonde? Surely she, with her bully pulpit, could persuade America that she’d be just as pretty with her natural dishwater locks.
Because “blonde” sells. Even amongst black celebrities it’s easier to rise to the top if you’re lighter-skinned like Halle Berry, Rihanna, Beyonce & Zoe Saldana, at least two of whom have had rhinoplasty surgery to get more “caucasian” features.
Why that particular brassy colour on Gwynnie I couldn’t tell you!
Rhianna almost certainly has not had plastic surgery on her nose. It doesn’t look European at all. I don’t think Zoe Saldana has had rhinoplasty, either. Beyonce definitely has, and there’s a good argument that Halle has, too, but no need to declaim the other two women.
The favoring of light-skinned women is definitely a race thing, but the nose stuff is more a Hollywood thing than race thing. It’s more that black actresses are not exempted from the general pressure to have a Hollywood nose, or as close to it as feasible. The Hollywood generic nose a very specific type of nose that many white people don’t even have. Look at how many white actresses get nose jobs; almost all of them. It’s at the point where Lea Michele constantly gets asked why she DOESN’T have a nose job. There’s an ethnic dimension to this, too; people of Southern European and Jewish decent are somewhat less likely to naturally have the Hollywood nose. I think the rhinoplasty pressure might have its roots in old-school inter-white prejudice.
Hopefully as we have more diversity, and more poptarts like Rhianna and Lea Michele that don’t bend to the pressure to conform, we can move away from this nonsense.
I remember a skit she took part in on SNL a few years back that seemed pretty racially insensitive to me. Maybe because it was “this bitch” doing it and I can’t stand her ass anyway that the joke, if you can call it that because it wasn’t funny no matter who did it, was lost on me but it was a parody of a Mexican talk show host ditzily discussing current events in Afghanistan. Other than not being funny, it just came off as rather wrong. And not in a good way.
Another pet peeve of mine is why do race discussions frequently come down to just black and white? There are so many different ethnicities out there who’ve had it horribly for so long.
I loathe her so much I couldn’t even read the whole article. Bitch knows everything doesn’t she!?
hahahahahahahaha.
Oooh, phuleeaze …… This woman is clueless and using her celebrity to push her faux personal attitudes. Living in and her children isolated in a rich white world and friend’s with Beyonce hardly qualifies this hypocritical clowness as a expert on race relations or for that manner any real life social commentary. Leave all your isolated white exclusive trappings and bring your children and move to Cabrini Green or South Chicago and send your kids to public school. Then we’ll see what you have to say then….. What idiot !!!!!.
Hear, hear!
Hypocritical Clowness…too funny.
No way she’d send her kids to a public school. I’d love to see her on Graham Norton’s “Would You Rather”
Graham: Would you rather eat canned cheese, or send your kids to an American public school?
I can see what she is saying here.
Racial conversations are complex but interesting.
I just wish prejudice and bigotry didn’t exist. It’s a waste of energy and time.
You don’t give Britain enough credit. The British treated black American soldiers extremely well during WWII; way better than America itself treated them. Maybe Prince William might not have married a black girl, but white British girls were dating Black American soldiers decades before you could do that here.
Actually there are several black and Asian peers in the house of lords. Several politicians are in mixed race marriages eg Boris Johnson, as are several white peers eg the Duke of Marlborough…
Also, Princess Alexandra of Denmark is part Chinese. Her ex-husband is fourth in line to the throne, which makes her children 5th and 6th in line.
Her lack of a well-rounded education and dearth of life experiences is showing.
The first interracial kiss was Star Trek’s Uhura and Captain Kirk, not daddy’s tv show.
And the whole ‘white person cominginto save the po’ black people’ schtick that so many people who lean to the left claim is seriously making me consider giving up my 20 year long Democrat card to join the GOP. This woman DOESN’T have any regular friends of any ethnicity – Asian, Latino, Native American – that she frequents ther press with except Beyonce who is so up her ass probably bc she feels Gwyneth gives her some upper crust sheen.
She made stupid comments in Talk magazine years ago about reparations, she makes stupid comments now.
I agree with autumndaze :”Her lack of a well-rounded education and dearth of life experiences is showing.”
(Also, my Korean side is still annoyed with how she massacred bibimbop for Goop. Anything to feel above everyone, this bitch!)
Nothing she said was really problematic (though the “old white guys” comment was poorly worded), but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why she was invited to discuss this topic.
I agree with her statements. The trouble I have, like someone said, is how she bleaches her hair to look more “white” and for that matter, how Beyonce does too.
Shouldn’t part of racial acceptance be being allowed to look black and that’s ok?
this is the best guest he could get to comment on this subject???? is this a bloody joke??? there is not a celebrity more white bread than her.
She could make a case for why the sky is actually blue, and I wouldn’t want to hear it. The idea that every time she farts out a thought, she’s given this grand stage for it is gross to me. I know 4 year olds with more profound ideas.
And by going so far overboard (“All my presidents have been old white guys!”) she seems to make a ridiculous point: all black people would make far superior presidents to old white people. Um, I remember back in the 90s when most of Hollywood would have gladly lined up to shake the hand of President Clinton in a heartbeat — and he was a SOUTHERN old white guy. Now all of a sudden he’s lumped in (by her standards) with, like, LBJ, Reagan and Poppy Bush. Funny.
She’s such a vapid twat. I wish she didn’t have vocal chords.
“…born on third base and acts like she hit a triple…”
Best quote about Gwyneth EVER.
Why’s hip-hop culture in parentheses?
So her claim to having multiculturalism in her upbringing is, “my dad produced a tv show with an interracial kiss”? That’s his experience, not hers. I’m betting she had a rather lily white youth.
Why is she relevant? I only liked her in that movie she played the big fat girl, anyway.
what is that dress. that hair. omg. i was just about to nominate uma as the perpetual worst dresser but gwynnie once again outdid herself and snatched that crown.
GO….AWAY…!!!