Dona Drake the African American who fooled the world.. was it worth it?

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
  • Dona Drake the African American who fooled the world.. was it worth it?
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ความคิดเห็น • 10K

  • @KarineAlourde
    @KarineAlourde  8 หลายเดือนก่อน +966

    Watch my Dorothy Dandridge video next : “Dorothy Dandrige- Dorothy Dandrige - The Black S3X Goddess & Marilyn's Secret Muse!” th-cam.com/video/bT3JZ_ycE3E/w-d-xo.html

    • @Ladybug27Ladies
      @Ladybug27Ladies 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

      Can you do Billie holiday

    • @JHjh88
      @JHjh88 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      ​@@Ladybug27Ladies Yes !!That would be amazing ❤

    • @hilohahoma4107
      @hilohahoma4107 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +41

      I grew up in Hollywood, was even born on Sunset Blvd and you're right about the sinister nature of the film industry. My mother would have been in the middle of all that stuff she looked like Dorothy Lamour when she was young and won many beauty pageants how even my grandmother wouldn't let her do films because the studios wanted to do degrading stereotyped parts so no film career for my mom she had four of us kids instead and raised us.

    • @doreensika837
      @doreensika837 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +36

      I am shocked you keep saying that Dorothy was Marilyn’s muse and honestly feel you should stop saying that cause one it’s not true, two Marilyn based that persona on dumb woman so you saying that is like saying that Dorothy was dumb which she wasn’t nor did Dorothy ever play dumb! Frankly I find it sad to say that cause Dorothy was anything but that! Think this narrative you are pushing is desecrating, Dorothy Dandridge image. This is all love girl trust me I have been subscribed to you for years but I have to keep it real with you.

    • @lisettepillay5482
      @lisettepillay5482 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +22

      Can you do the lady in the imitation of life.please amazing film.❤

  • @therealmoetmonroe
    @therealmoetmonroe 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10540

    Honestly...u can see her black features even though she was able to pass. Just freaking beautiful.

    • @therealmoetmonroe
      @therealmoetmonroe 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @extrashotofespresso_ baby...her cheek bones and eyes are every bit of black. That facial structure is everything. "They" don't have definition like that.

    • @MzSam2U
      @MzSam2U 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +731

      I can see that she is not completely white.

    • @qtallenandrews3715
      @qtallenandrews3715 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +599

      A trained eye will sèe.

    • @mofun5315
      @mofun5315 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      She looks like Beyonce.@@extrashotofespresso_

    • @kimlee399
      @kimlee399 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@extrashotofespresso_don’t tell me your one those that believe all blacks looks like lupita very darkskin nappy hair I hate the fact you guys think when blacks are light we don’t look black

  • @brittanyandria5614
    @brittanyandria5614 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6372

    This woman definitely looks biracial and is gorgeous!

    • @LavendaMonroe
      @LavendaMonroe 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Right. I'm like she gives lightskin black woman. You can for sure tell

    • @odethtoledo4568
      @odethtoledo4568 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +194

      Tbf a lot of mexicans are biracial and even multiracial, so it wasn't so far from the truth. I can understand why she chose Mexico.

    • @wiseguy01
      @wiseguy01 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      she's hideous on the inside

    • @tracyi9152
      @tracyi9152 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@odethtoledo4568Rumor has it that Salma Hayek is a biracial from Louisiana who pretends to be Mexican and Lebanese

    • @fanatik9590
      @fanatik9590 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +134

      Not really, they fixed her to look all white. the only thing that gave it away was the texture of her hair when she wasn't all made up.

  • @yeshuasbeloved549
    @yeshuasbeloved549 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5093

    Passing is not always a matter of being ashamed of your heritage, but a means to make a better life for you, your relatives, and your children/descendents.

    • @ladyteeismegibbs6808
      @ladyteeismegibbs6808 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +603

      My grandmother was mixed and passed to get a job. She was a seamstress and the factories in Philly wouldn't hire black women. And it was piece work, you worked every day and was paid by the number of pieces you completed. My grandmother told me she would rougue her cheeks and lips and wouldn't talk. She had absolutely no shame in it. She was divorced and had two children to feed, my mother and uncle. '❤❤

    • @gigiinspired780
      @gigiinspired780 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +163

      Sad facts

    • @SDC1949
      @SDC1949 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @yeshuasbeloved549. Keep believing that… but it’s not only a lie, but a cowardice. Every time a person authenticates a document or verbally asserts that they are white, and they are not, it is a Lie. Read the final destination of all liars in Revelation 21:8. Surely with a tag like yours , you are somewhat familiar with the Word of God. Case closed.

    • @SDC1949
      @SDC1949 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +101

      @yeshuasbeloved549. Perhaps not always a matter of being ashamed, but certainly in my opinion a cowardice way to provide.. Nevertheless, “pretending “ to be white when one is not .. IS a Lie. The practice of pretense solidifies one as a Liar. And judging from your tag, surely you are familiar with biblical text that declares All liars will have their part in a very hot Lake with others that practice sin. Revelation 21:8. No disrespect to anyone, but I have spoken the Gospel Truth whether people like it or not.

    • @Galaxaplays
      @Galaxaplays 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@SDC1949let god judge her, not you….and any ways she had to provide for her kids to get a JOB, You are acting like she was selling her body?? God gave her a blessing to provide for her kids and you are acting like you knew god personally and he told you to say such negative things! All humans sin, stop acting like you’ve been perfect your whole life you fraud🤨🙄

  • @milesfolley6840
    @milesfolley6840 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +407

    I ain't mad at her. She had to do what she had to do. Much respect.

    • @vp3970
      @vp3970 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Why would you be mad.

    • @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs
      @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      ​@@vp3970 Some in the comments sound outraged

  • @lilchubbers
    @lilchubbers 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +965

    her leading a white band and tricking everyone was lowkey a power move😭

    • @MintRain-b6c
      @MintRain-b6c 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      Good for her 👏

    • @shanequaaustin8908
      @shanequaaustin8908 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      It really was god bless my ancestors soul😂

    • @GoldenAgeCelebrities-jb6hu
      @GoldenAgeCelebrities-jb6hu 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      all because of wanting a better life at that time

    • @ost2790
      @ost2790 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      It's is very common in that time. .. look at Johnny Cash wife.... You telling me no one questioned her.

    • @moshe-yahofzion
      @moshe-yahofzion 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ❤❤❤❤❤

  • @veronicahislop8363
    @veronicahislop8363 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2192

    Marilyn put herself on the line for Ella Fitzgerald refusing to enter a club unless Ella was able to walk through the front door and not through the kitchen.

    • @JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex
      @JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +305

      Marilyn Monroe was such a good person. 😢

    • @franettesparks9949
      @franettesparks9949 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +207

      Humphrey Bogart, I believe went to bat for Lena Horne ,so she could live in Beverly Hills!

    • @JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex
      @JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +102

      @@franettesparks9949 that's really sweet of him. He also went out to bat for artists banned during the McCarthy Era.

    • @mickeymouse2able
      @mickeymouse2able 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +72

      Hollywood and the world has been a better place because Marilyn Monroe was here❤

    • @BlackDoveNYC
      @BlackDoveNYC 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +232

      Marilyn did the same for Black people when weren’t even famous. There is a picture of her laughing with two Black men who were working on one of her films and when the studio saw it they were going to fire them and threatened her career. She told them that if they fired those guys she wouldn’t return to the set and they backed down and left the men and her career alone.

  • @CanePollFishermon
    @CanePollFishermon 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +586

    Hollywood was dark back then and it's still dark.

    • @LaurenC444
      @LaurenC444 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      Arguably its got much darker...

    • @myownlilbubble
      @myownlilbubble 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      And yet Oprah and beyonce are on their side.....as long as they are making 🤑 and yet black folks go....yas qween!🤣🤣

    • @BetterDays2004
      @BetterDays2004 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@LaurenC444ITS THE SAME, ONLY DIFFERENCE IS EVERYTHING IS OUT IN THE OPEN NOW

    • @KharieTheangelwhosin
      @KharieTheangelwhosin 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      @@myownlilbubbledon’t put all of us together I know y’all love to put us all in one basket and wonder why ppl say y’all are the racist stereotypical white ppl

    • @jagbrit3723
      @jagbrit3723 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Hollywood is as dark as its host country. If you think there are nations darker than the U.S., or any single country in the world has more blood in its hands, you are lying to yourself.

  • @crystalblakely5308
    @crystalblakely5308 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +171

    We only ever hear about Dorothy Dandridge. I was given Dorothy's biography by my black mom as a teenager, to reinforce confidence in my mixed heritage as one of only three black girls at an all white high school. To be truthful I was lucky. My classmates considered me one of their own, were uniquely inclusive and never made me feel otherized.
    It's wonderful to know their were many other afro-descended actresses trying to stake their claim in Hollyweird and so, so very sad she had to wear a white mask to do it. Look how beautiful and talented she was.
    I remember it was very, very important to both my black mother and white father (Civil Rights advocates) that my sister and I, NOT try to pass as anything other than exactly who we were. We were made to watch the film "Imitation of Life" many times, I guess to warn us that denial of our racial identity would only lead to regret.

    • @4dyamondx745
      @4dyamondx745 21 วันที่ผ่านมา

      "By your black mom, dear, you are black" sounds like Tamera Mowry, she always says "my mom is black" lol

    • @theroyalrem
      @theroyalrem 16 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@4dyamondx745 you make absolutely no sense and you sound ignorant

    • @shashonda8
      @shashonda8 16 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Dorothy couldn't pass

    • @zibam982
      @zibam982 6 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I think bi-ratial kids that look black, should not forget that they are still half whits. You dna has memory and carries many things which the facial look is just small part of it.

  • @BayouBarbie504
    @BayouBarbie504 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1865

    She looks like the creole ladies in my New Orleanian family🤷🏾‍♀️. I can detect a black person no matter how light they are.

    • @badgirlhollywood9741
      @badgirlhollywood9741 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +128

      I too can when I saw Halsey I thought she was mixed.

    • @catherinesterling1685
      @catherinesterling1685 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

      Me too

    • @audreyguilbeaucalhoun5713
      @audreyguilbeaucalhoun5713 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +76

      Interesting… because it always come through and you can always tell. Very very beautiful woman.

    • @btsisinyourareaok6087
      @btsisinyourareaok6087 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      @@badgirlhollywood9741how ??

    • @AuthorLHollingsworth
      @AuthorLHollingsworth 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +82

      Me too. Chile, all through our families. We are a very mixed race. Here in Texas, and Louisiana I see folks that look like her. It is, what it is.

  • @tritri0079
    @tritri0079 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2269

    My grandmother told me this was a norm. I remember we went to a family reunion and I was like “mom who these white folks” it tickled her so much!!! She was “Gal these black folks”. Lol fooled the hell out of me 😂😂😂😂

    • @WeknowCoCo
      @WeknowCoCo 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +243

      🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I am cracking up. I'm Bi-racial; I was walking down the street with an old boyfriend and one of his friends called him and said, " who was that white girl you was walking with"? Me: WHITE?? let me go stand in the Sun cause 🤨🤣

    • @MAI-lo6uj
      @MAI-lo6uj 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yall are losers calling white ppl with mixed heritage "black"

    • @jasmineskyy4964
      @jasmineskyy4964 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +69

      This happens in my Haitian family as well. I was shocked to see my aunts and uncles. It was disturbing

    • @christinajennings3826
      @christinajennings3826 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +117

      I had a similar experience. We had a family reunion on my mother’s side of the family and I was seeing all these fair skinned people with green and gray eyes and blonde and sandy brown hair and I asked my mother why these white people were at our family reunion and she said they’re not white they’re your cousins and I was amazed. I learned that day that black people run the gamut from the lightest light to the darkest dark and all are beautiful.

    • @gimmethepinkelephant3685
      @gimmethepinkelephant3685 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +124

      ​@@christinajennings3826actually they are part white. So why are you trying to disrespect that part of their lineage?

  • @missladybug73
    @missladybug73 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1586

    Passing was scary back then. If you were found out, it could mean your life. 😢

    • @awillis244
      @awillis244 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +57

      If I could pass, I think I would’ve tried. Glad I was a wasn’t back then, but my time came later-now.

    • @Hentai-Semite
      @Hentai-Semite 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      It was so scary that J Edgar hoover became for decades one of the most powerful men in USA despite bein bi racial and gay and people being aware of it.

    • @missladybug73
      @missladybug73 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +120

      @awillis244 my great grandpa could have passed, but he didn't want to. He hated them "other" folks!

    • @dontdomeboo81
      @dontdomeboo81 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      Not Could.. Would

    • @dontdomeboo81
      @dontdomeboo81 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      ​@@awillis244so you tried to pass later?

  • @Lotus1111
    @Lotus1111 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +68

    As a Black woman, I see a Black woman in her. She reminds me of women on my mother's side of the family, some of whom did "pass" back in the day. Thank you for another informative piece, Karine. I appreciate the work that you put into this channel.

  • @toliveisChrist70
    @toliveisChrist70 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2133

    It’s a damn shame that she had to “pass” in the first place.

    • @SDC1949
      @SDC1949 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +50

      No one “has” to pass .. it is a choice; Albeit, a shameful one.

    • @pj3770
      @pj3770 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +92

      Some Black men and women still choose to pass in this day and time.

    • @lorimars0
      @lorimars0 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +30

      ​@pj3770 plenty of people who are >/=50% white "passing" as black nowadays. What's the difference?

    • @layamercer4700
      @layamercer4700 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +40

      True it is sad.But people want the benefits of it .Unfortunately, I get why.Especially back then.

    • @elainewalls3563
      @elainewalls3563 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      EXACTLY! And we must not forget about ADAM CLAYTON POWELL JR. HE was assumed to be everything except a black man but he stood on his BLACKNESS,AND WAS VERY PROUD OF WHO HE WAS TOO! I simply loved the man for his boldness and charisma!

  • @rjs2595
    @rjs2595 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +591

    "Hollywood is a movie of it's own". Well said! So true.

    • @VivianFlowers1
      @VivianFlowers1 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      Right

    • @tori9972
      @tori9972 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      There’s a show called Hollywood on Netflix about this

    • @GoldenAgeCelebrities-jb6hu
      @GoldenAgeCelebrities-jb6hu 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      agree

  • @russelldavis6405
    @russelldavis6405 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1117

    What a stunning woman. It is such a shame that she had to hide her true identity to be successful.

    • @darnagutter863
      @darnagutter863 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I for one do not buy into this "racist propaganda" of "passing". She was not hiding herself but reinventing herself.
      Everyone has a God given right to the "pursuit of happiness". Personally as a mixed woman I find someone who would identify me as "passing", equivalent to calling blacks the "N" word. Yes that's just how vulgar it is.
      It's like a slithering snake throughout history to persecute, constrict and cast shame upon people who were simply exercising their dual heritage to pursue their happiness.
      And I truly believe those who continue to perpetrate this persecution will suffer. A day of reckoning is coming.

    • @reahtoni8069
      @reahtoni8069 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

      Freddy Mercury same story. Queen was and still is the bomb

    • @m-cdeslo4868
      @m-cdeslo4868 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      True!

    • @theironbutterfly1104
      @theironbutterfly1104 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +22

      U would too if it meant an easy life.
      Would u tell people u was black back then. Many of them would have abused u

    • @Fa_Qx2
      @Fa_Qx2 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      Today its considered "Selling-out"

  • @Daniellefootie
    @Daniellefootie 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +52

    She was absolutely gorgeous!!!

  • @jazzymoni7750
    @jazzymoni7750 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1515

    Several years ago I auditioned for X-Factor. I made it to the 3rd round of auditions and a few of the staff came into the room where about 300 of us were waiting, and told us that we needed to come up with our back story to impress the judges. They also told us the more emotional we were, the better. People literally started "testing" out fake sad stories with each other and sharing techniques on how to cry. I felt like I was in the Matrix on Mars. When I got in the room with the judges, sang, and then shared by normal life and I was immediately rejected. I sang well but my story didn't grab them. Oh well. 🤷🏽‍♀️😭😭

    • @ashleyshayia8087
      @ashleyshayia8087 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +90

      Right their lost haha 🤎

    • @jdotbunni
      @jdotbunni 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +185

      Yup! Same thing happened when I made it to the next round for America’s Top Model.

    • @KD1ME
      @KD1ME 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +189

      That's how American Idol did me in 2009! Your story is like play-by-play of what happened to me! 😂😅

    • @BPIII71
      @BPIII71 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +47

      Damn shame.

    • @QB42477
      @QB42477 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +124

      Same thing happened to me with X Factor. My back story wasn't sad enough. This mess was CRAZY. I'M SO SORRY that happened to you, I was hoping nobody else went through that, cause it almost broke my heart

  • @esjae2693
    @esjae2693 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +928

    The fact that she had to “fool” the world to be successful is horrifying

    • @nimwayxi175
      @nimwayxi175 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +33

      Is that not what is happening today and is the norm, so nothing horrifying about what she did.

    • @othellox1064
      @othellox1064 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      thats how you can get success tho it's natural

    • @esjae2693
      @esjae2693 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +69

      @@othellox1064 lying about your race to protect your life and career is not ok. Stop it

    • @nimwayxi175
      @nimwayxi175 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@esjae2693 people lie about a lot of things and they get success, we are seeing it almost everywhere across the world and many close their eyes to the truth. The difference is they don't have any reason to unlike this woman who was in a seriously unjust system.

    • @gracetruthandlight
      @gracetruthandlight 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      She didn't have to. She's obviously part caucasian. There were and still are tons of black entertainers and athletes and doctors etc who never lied.

  • @starlooker6612
    @starlooker6612 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1214

    So much beauty back then and the CLOTHES! OMG THE CLOTHES were BEAUTIFUL!

    • @BengtBagels
      @BengtBagels 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +51

      "Beautiful Gowns. Beautiful Gowns."

    • @nickando1734
      @nickando1734 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      @@BengtBagels😭😭

    • @donniebra6490
      @donniebra6490 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      Just classy

    • @PYT.123
      @PYT.123 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Yaaaaaaasss!!!!!! Quality!

    • @heyitsmira17
      @heyitsmira17 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      ​@@BengtBagelscame here to comment that 💀💀

  • @champaigne16
    @champaigne16 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

    I never knew of Dona Drake but she was simply beautiful!!!!! There is a rumor that Dinah Shore was passing as well.

  • @geza955
    @geza955 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +551

    Hollywood is a monster .

    • @meeksluv
      @meeksluv 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +35

      To this day!

    • @lisaellis2593
      @lisaellis2593 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      Agreed!

    • @tantig5923
      @tantig5923 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      ❤❤ You are correct.
      And those in the industry are just as guilty.
      Many black and white artist work together and collaborate on many projects.
      But when the project is over and the light are “down”, the separation is still there .
      And it’s 2024.

    • @mauimedows
      @mauimedows 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Best statement so far 👌👏

    • @pinoyboysandme7251
      @pinoyboysandme7251 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Definitely

  • @AshleyMintz
    @AshleyMintz 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +820

    I know that this is about a woman, but this reminds me of the late artist, Romare Bearden. He was a light skinned black man (pretty sure he was mixed) and he played baseball. He was offered the opportunity to play in the major leagues, but only if he passed for white to play on a specific team. He refused, quit baseball and he eventually became a well-known artist! And his art reflected the everyday lives of African Americans and black musicians, as opposed to the negative narratives we see about black people in media.

    • @pzmoore007
      @pzmoore007 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      I Met him 40 years ago!

    • @AshleyMintz
      @AshleyMintz 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      @@pzmoore007 Wow! That’s so cool 😭 What was he like?

    • @hecutsdown91
      @hecutsdown91 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Is he mixed or black? I thought the one drop rule was dismantled.

    • @texasred2702
      @texasred2702 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I didn't know Bearden as anything but an artist. Interesting story.

    • @carlosio5
      @carlosio5 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@hecutsdown91 He was blue-eyed..... & blonde (as a kid)...but he considered himself 'black', ( that's an American thing..)🤜🏾💥🔥💥🤛🏾.

  • @RandomPersonette
    @RandomPersonette 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +246

    Not all chose to pass. Fredi Washington for example had the opportunity but chose not. She played Peola in Imitation of Life - a film about passing. She told reporters in 1949 that she identified as Black "...because I'm honest, firstly, and secondly, you don't have to be white to be good. I've spent most of my life trying to prove to those who think otherwise ... I am a Negro and I am proud of it." - so people did chose to pass but those with pride and strength of character chose not to.

    • @Drexxaal
      @Drexxaal 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +30

      Fredi Washington is commendable n courageous but in those times I can't say others who pretended 2 b white were any less brave! Life was hard n if u had a chance 2 do something u took it, not just acting, anything! These people did what they had 2 do 2 survive in a world that hated them n the price of being found out could easily have cost them their life! Terrible way 2 have 2 live n deny what u r! 2 day we can stand proud only because black people have fought 4 every single right n broken down so many barriers but even after all we have achieved... things ain't changed cept u don't have 2 pretend 2 b white!

    • @sheenaperez1882
      @sheenaperez1882 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      My family could pass too but they chose not to.

    • @madameshuggadrosenbloom1111
      @madameshuggadrosenbloom1111 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      My favorite movie: Imitation of Life in black and white.

    • @SDC1949
      @SDC1949 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      She certainly played the part in that movie … so well that those images of the character’s treatment of her own mother stayed with me for decades .. and my utter disdain for people like that as well.

    • @gracejohnson789
      @gracejohnson789 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      I myself can pass also. I get treated so much differently when folks think I'm "white". I have to correct people and let them know my father is what we call Afro Latino man and half Nigerian. Personally, I will never try to pass for white because I'm very proud of my Black and African side of my family. My folks had 10 children. We all look different because of our blood lines but we definitely know where we come from and we love it. I have 6 children, their father is Black American and Nigerian. When people who don't know my family see me with my children they automatically think I'm just a friend of theirs. They don't believe I'm their mother(my children are adults now with their own children) and many think that my children have different fathers once they find out they are my actual children. It's really sad how people treat and view Black folks compared to white foks

  • @LoveStarsWorld
    @LoveStarsWorld 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +36

    You get it. You actually get it. I'm glad the internet is here now so we can start to uncover the truth about all of this - but you're also honoring the inherent talent, strength and pioneerism in the arts of Black women who never got their proper flowers while alive.

  • @rodb66
    @rodb66 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +897

    Man, Donna did some deep passing even before the studios fabricated her biography. She was not only acting on screen, she had to act in her real life.

    • @JohnBoyed-fo6fm
      @JohnBoyed-fo6fm 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

      Why are yall hating on a tri-racial woman????? She did what she had to do to survive

    • @rodb66
      @rodb66 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +81

      @@JohnBoyed-fo6fm No, I'm not hating on her. I understand that these people did what they had to do. I was just pointing out that she along with the studios made an entirely different background for her.

    • @virtualwhispers
      @virtualwhispers 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +80

      @@JohnBoyed-fo6fm There was absolutely no hate in that comment! - What the heck did YOU read??

    • @johnfulton4061
      @johnfulton4061 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

      The mask that one has to wear when you're hiding who and what you are gets heavy REAL HEAVY!!!

    • @pedward323
      @pedward323 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ⁠@@JohnBoyed-fo6fmAll these terms like bi racial ,tri was not used back then,you were either black or not especially someone who had 3 generations of grandparents black . Yes obviously they had admixtures which of course most AAs do due to slavery,messa doing what ever he wanted to and with those black women in slavery and after. During Dona’s time slavery was over but we were treated the same mother racism very much intact,actresses black only did maid roles or what they called black movies back then,race movies. Of course they we’re not like what big Hollywood studio’s produced,do major roles,get equal pay. Even black artist who did clubs white ones had to enter the back doors despite their names being on the marquee’s,could not mingle with wte people. Even back then so called race movies were restricted in wte movie ,some had race night,day but you had to sit in the balcony when viewing their movies away from them,a rope reminding you. Many places like the Cotton Club innHarlem had all black entertainers singers,big band greats dancer who performed for all white audiences. They were not allowed on the floor with them,mingle ,had to enter in the back door as with all other places. So what Dona did could have caused her life to be taken,or she beaten until almost unalived. Again I since you are younger,do not get this history,segregation black Americans faced that included where you can go,live,what type you could get and more ,,slavery ending way before this times did not change the mindset of those who did it,ancestors did ,it was just replaced by Jim Crow ,everywhere. Most noticing it more in the south and like now studios wanting to make money would not insult those wte audiences who if they found out could ruin their business.

  • @empresslove2211
    @empresslove2211 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1648

    It’s so interesting how some will try to pass while others will deny their white blood. My grandfather was half Cherokee and half Irish- Scottish he looked like a pure white man but being adopted and raised by a black woman he adapted to black culture and even told people be was black and would actually get annoyed when people called him white which was hilarious to me because he was white 😂 wonderful tribute ❤

    • @lavathesaint
      @lavathesaint 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +66

      Wait .. this is the same story of my great grandmother

    • @empresslove2211
      @empresslove2211 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +40

      @@lavathesaint Oh wow his sister was given up for adoption with him as well her name was Alice.

    • @justdont2378
      @justdont2378 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +76

      ​​​@@empresslove2211 Imagine this is you meeting your long lost cousin

    • @empresslove2211
      @empresslove2211 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +54

      @@justdont2378 that would be amazing and you never know, my family’s story is quite interesting. My great grandmother (Irish-Scottish) wanted to marry a German man whom did not want her mixed breed babies (my grandfather & my great Aunt) the mixed breed being the half Cherokee so they were given up for adoption. My grandfather and his sister actually stayed in contact with the children of their mother and the German man. They moved from Washington and lost contact (60’s) I always laugh about how I have an entire white side of family out there I do not know. 😊

    • @kayla-xd7hi
      @kayla-xd7hi 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Bad parenting she should of taught him

  • @seeleygirl6178
    @seeleygirl6178 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +154

    She’s gorgeous. Some pics she looks white, some black, sometimes Latino exotic, but always beautiful. I never heard of her before.

    • @Queen_EL11
      @Queen_EL11 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@extrashotofespresso_ 😕

    • @virtualwhispers
      @virtualwhispers 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      @@extrashotofespresso_ No, it is not silly - in some of the pictures she did look white and in other pictures she looked other nationalities - Maybe it was because of the lighting in some - so that commenter is not wrong!

    • @tedfebo1741
      @tedfebo1741 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

      Latino exotic 😂😂😂

    • @kaylao.3326
      @kaylao.3326 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Y’all say anything on this app. She doesn’t look black on not a single picture. That’s a white woman

    • @kaylao.3326
      @kaylao.3326 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@virtualwhispersshe looks mixed. You can’t look black, white, Hispanic etc all at once smh

  • @rnick95
    @rnick95 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    Donna Drake and Dorothy Dandridge. My God all shades of black diversity is beautiful. Two of the most beautiful women that ever graced the silver screen regardless of their race and heritage.❤

    • @moshe-yahofzion
      @moshe-yahofzion 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ❤❤❤❤ and vanity princes artist

  • @Goldenretriever-k8m
    @Goldenretriever-k8m 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +625

    I think the blonde hair makes her even more striking because of how unusual it looks with her features. She’s gorge

    • @sarahcarr4294
      @sarahcarr4294 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Maryland Monroe had a Mexixan dad but nobody ever talks about it most people still don't know about it

    • @celina6438
      @celina6438 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      @@sarahcarr4294she didn’t. it was her mom who was a white lady but happened to be born in mexico. her dad was also white.

    • @pinkskyyyy
      @pinkskyyyy 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@celina6438 And you know this to be the absolute truth because?

    • @sarahcarr4294
      @sarahcarr4294 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@celina6438 no her dad was Mexican and nobody knows who he was as to keep that a secret but to me it’s obvious her curves and facial features look it too plus her natural hair color was dark and she dyed it blonde

    • @lionessprincessbear2174
      @lionessprincessbear2174 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      It doesn’t look ‘unusual’ because all the photos & videos are in black & white-so they could all get away with it.

  • @bellepierre24
    @bellepierre24 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +753

    You can be Mexican and white, the two are not mutually exclusive. You can be Mex and Black, etc. Salma Hayak is Mexican and Arab. Just like an American can be any race, ethnicity, race or combination/mix of ethnicity or races, so can Mexicans. To be Mexican is a nationality, and not a racial designation. Lupita Nyong'o is Mexican because she was born there to parents from Kenya. She has Mexican and Kenyan nationality, she's Mao Mao ethnically, being from Sub Saharan Africa, she's also Black.

    • @theessentialforager6658
      @theessentialforager6658 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +51

      This. ❤

    • @pollymars3776
      @pollymars3776 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      Exactly

    • @dorothycrawley1392
      @dorothycrawley1392 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      I see underlying DARK heritage in Marilyn Monroe..

    • @Amy-ps6hf
      @Amy-ps6hf 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +33

      SO TRUE!!! I'm glad that you posted this. Agree, as you wrote, one can be white and Hispanic, etc.

    • @DulceN
      @DulceN 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +65

      Perfectly said. I’m sick of people thinking that being Mexican, Hispanic and even Spanish means having darker skin. The ignorance is apalling!

  • @LorenCognita
    @LorenCognita 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +616

    My grandmother’s cousin passed for white, abandoned her family, and married a politician who went on to become Vice President of the US. I don’t think it ever came out that she was actually black.

    • @amiwhite5514
      @amiwhite5514 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +70

      What was her and her husband’s names?

    • @tiffanycotter9675
      @tiffanycotter9675 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      Interesting

    • @alibalbee2883
      @alibalbee2883 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Happy Rockefeller? She certainly looked like a light skinned black woman.

    • @LachelleAnimaker
      @LachelleAnimaker 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +51

      👀 what year he became VP?

    • @LG-universe
      @LG-universe 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +28

      Can you give the VP's initials?

  • @audreyleejackson3043
    @audreyleejackson3043 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

    You can definitely see that she is passing. She did what she felt she needed to do to get the work she wanted.

    • @madamedellaporte4214
      @madamedellaporte4214 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      What if that is what she felt?

    • @audreyleejackson3043
      @audreyleejackson3043 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@madamedellaporte4214 Two of my great aunts passed for white for years. They had black husbands, but did not "come out" in the white community until they retired. They embraced their blackness in the black community, but made passing work to their advantage as far as employment and other opportunities. One of them had a black grandson who became a concert pianist.

  • @islandgirlruby2750
    @islandgirlruby2750 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +458

    My best friend is white passing and I tell her don’t let know any better. She confirms the different treatment she gets if they think she white as opposed to mixed, and this is 2024 people!

    • @Saffron-sugar
      @Saffron-sugar 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +92

      It is SO different. I live in the UK right now, but when I’m in the US mixed me vs white me are treated completely different.
      Conservative and liberal people are condescending and patronising to me when I’m mixed. If they think I’m white, they treat me with much more respect and have a much less limiting narrative in their heads, for me when they think I am White. When I’m mixed they tend to assume I don’t know who my father was, I grew up with poverty, I am uneducated etc etc. People are so ignorant 😂
      I really enjoy telling them “ I am half black“. Let’s me know a lot about them. Some have literally never spoken to me again after that. Others just look 🫨.

    • @amEAGLEBABY5
      @amEAGLEBABY5 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Your poor friend has succumbed to yt supremacy programming...so sorry to hear that... but let's be honest her mom is most likely not black

    • @MarMar-pg2ey
      @MarMar-pg2ey 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yeah. I have a friend who passes. I mean she acknowledges who she is, but to me it's only when it's a convenience to her. I didn't even know that she was black until she mentioned it. She has a lot of Amish clients. They are very particular who they deal with, and trust me, she hides that she's part black because she knows that if they knew, she would not be able to work with them. She said the things that they say about us is horrible, yet she'll sit there and listen without saying anything, because she looks so white smh

    • @Gisada033012
      @Gisada033012 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      So sad

    • @natashka1982
      @natashka1982 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      She is white, not passing. That means white is dominant in her genetics.

  • @MariaHernandez-yg9md
    @MariaHernandez-yg9md 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +469

    She reminds me of Vanessa Williams.

    • @EnchantedAnn
      @EnchantedAnn 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +35

      💯 as well as that lady Giselle Bryant from Potomac

    • @kimberlybates6261
      @kimberlybates6261 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      I thought the same thing.

    • @mortimerbrewster3671
      @mortimerbrewster3671 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      Most of the angles she looked like Shirley Temple in her early 20s.

    • @ricky15494
      @ricky15494 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yeh she does too ✨

    • @Cocoa-9985
      @Cocoa-9985 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      I see Michael Michelle more than anyone else.

  • @aurragriffith5054
    @aurragriffith5054 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +468

    It looked like she lived everyday in pain, under that talent and smile. Hollywood is a Beast.

    • @soursop1972
      @soursop1972 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I doubt it. She enjoyed every minute under her white lovers.

    • @phillisdillon3348
      @phillisdillon3348 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Ur right

    • @jj1106
      @jj1106 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Hollywood is just a product of society.

    • @aatiti2011
      @aatiti2011 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      💯💯💯

    • @AdrienSamuel-d7q
      @AdrienSamuel-d7q 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes. I. Knew. But. Folks. Don't. Want. Mercy. On. Goidlooing. Blacks. They. Want. Folks. Too. Have. No. Mercy. Because. She. Has. Those. Looks. So. When. U. Look. This. Good. Everybody. Wants. U. Too. Sufuur. Suffur. Suffur. So. That's. Nothing. We. Can. Do. About. Theses. Powerful people. But. This. Young. Lady. Is. Definitely. Redeeming. The. People. That. Cause. Goidlooing. Blacks. So. Much. Pain. N. Suffering. Shout. Out. Too. The. New. Generation. N. Shout. Out. Too. You. Tube.

  • @vincentshadetree
    @vincentshadetree 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

    You said it in the end, she disassociated, she never stopped being in character, so her true identity was buried so deeply she never got to be herself. Great video, I'm subscribing to hear more stories ❤️🌹🌸💐

    • @madamedellaporte4214
      @madamedellaporte4214 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Wtf are all you yanks saying? You are bonkers.

  • @lauren1937
    @lauren1937 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +692

    A person can be Hispanic of any race. There are white Hispanics, Black Hispanics, mestizo Hispanics, etc. However, in this case, being born in Mexico only makes Marilyn’s mom’s nationality Mexican, not her ethnicity.

    • @limonesycafe8898
      @limonesycafe8898 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Hispanics, regardless of appearance, are all multiracial. Descended from European, Africans and Indigenous people. It's 2023, we have DNA results delivered to our emails and you all are still allowing yourselves to be manipulated by non factual ideas from the 1700 and 1800s. MIMS.

    • @Gkg__sfgh__-fghf
      @Gkg__sfgh__-fghf 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes, however most Mexicans are mestizos.😂

    • @rebeccaskylar8430
      @rebeccaskylar8430 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

      You see Marilyn's body? She's mexican😂 that woman had curves

    • @lauren1937
      @lauren1937 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +229

      ⁠@@rebeccaskylar8430she was a white American woman who’s White American mom just so happened to be born in Mexico. My friend is mestizo Mexican and doesn’t have curves at all. Curves don’t belong to only one certain group of women.

    • @rebeccaskylar8430
      @rebeccaskylar8430 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      @@lauren1937 she was Mexican.

  • @mariposa8149
    @mariposa8149 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +314

    Stunning! 🤩 Dona reminds me of Vanessa Williams, Eartha Kitt & Rihanna wrapped into one.

    • @Rob774
      @Rob774 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      Certain pictures she looks exactly like Williams.

    • @jameshhenderson8243
      @jameshhenderson8243 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      You are totally correct.

    • @HoneySwtDrms
      @HoneySwtDrms 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      Funny that you say that cuz I think she looks like Andra Day who people say also looks like a mix of Eartha Kitt and Rihanna!

    • @mariposa8149
      @mariposa8149 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@Rob774 absolutely

    • @mariposa8149
      @mariposa8149 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@HoneySwtDrms yesss…I see the resemblance too. Stunning ladies!

  • @LaDonnaMcKinney
    @LaDonnaMcKinney 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +234

    I have never heard of Dona Drake. She is Beautiful. Thank you for putting this together. Specially by it being black history. 365 BLACK ❤

  • @dinaturmataroc2486
    @dinaturmataroc2486 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

    I honor her for persevering & Chasing her dreams as such a beautiful & talented young lady who worked hard & earned every penny,God.Bless her Soul

  • @paulajones114
    @paulajones114 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +245

    No matter what she was made of IDK. What she was IS STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

    • @tierraellerbe1802
      @tierraellerbe1802 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I mean she's blk 🤷🏽

    • @renewilson2540
      @renewilson2540 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Not the point. RACE is a made up concept anyway to promote racism. The fact she had to do it in this country is pathetic and wrong. Our history is a cruel.

    • @JohnBoyed-fo6fm
      @JohnBoyed-fo6fm 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      Thank you that's why I don't understand why people are hating on her. All because she was multiracial she didn't ask to be born white or black

    • @synaptik111
      @synaptik111 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Facts

    • @yougotgamesonyourphone6947
      @yougotgamesonyourphone6947 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      @@JohnBoyed-fo6fmnobody’s hating on her? Y’all throw this word around way too loosely

  • @danavixen6274
    @danavixen6274 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +635

    WOW! Never heard of her. Thank you for shedding light on the lesser known starlets! ❤

    • @KarineAlourde
      @KarineAlourde  8 หลายเดือนก่อน +42

      You are so welcome! Her story is definitely worth knowing ❤

    • @GoddessOfLove-pr7ek
      @GoddessOfLove-pr7ek 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      First time I'm hearing about her too. Beautiful lady.

    • @danavixen6274
      @danavixen6274 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      @@GoddessOfLove-pr7ek She was a beauty yet her life was way too TUMULTUOUS! May Dona Drake and her only child Nia rest in peace. 😔🙏🏾❤️🕊️

    • @GoddessOfLove-pr7ek
      @GoddessOfLove-pr7ek 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      @@danavixen6274 Yes definitely 💯 In loving memory of Dona and her daughter Nia remain together in afterlife and rest peacefully. 🙏👑🕊️🌷🌹💐🌺

    • @m-cdeslo4868
      @m-cdeslo4868 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Right!

  • @LibbyEdwards100
    @LibbyEdwards100 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4559

    My grandmother had an opportunity to passed for white but she loved being a black woman and wanted to live in her truth! I salute her for telling me never be ashamed of who you’re.

    • @pierrerochon7271
      @pierrerochon7271 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +80

      EVERYONE LIVES THEIR TRUTH - I PASS to support MY PARENTS AND FAMILY -I do not care if someone does not approve-CEST LA VIE

    • @brachiator1
      @brachiator1 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +234

      Life is complicated. I can't condemn people who chose to pass rather than be limited or accept discrimination because of bigotry.

    • @johnfulton4061
      @johnfulton4061 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +130

      @@pierrerochon7271 it's your life but in this day and age?I could understand it yrs ago when black people could not get good jobs but it's your life and I hope that if you're exposed that you can handle the consequences I know of a situation back in the seventies where a woman's white husband divorced her when he found out she was black and then you could have a child that looks undeniably black genes are unpredictable good luck with your masquerade I will include you in my prayers

    • @johnfulton4061
      @johnfulton4061 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      That's because your grandmother loved and respected herself to each his own but I don't think anyone with a drop of self respect would pass for white when you deny who and what you are whatever it is black Jewish latino gay etc you are committing a form of suicide the mask that you have to wear as you masquerade gets HEAVY!!!!

    • @dmoneytrees
      @dmoneytrees 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Sorry, but if you pass for white then you are white. So weird how we call mixed race people black with only one black relative. I have a white relative 7 generations ago… and Im I a white person that can pass black?! Very silly concept. Race is based on phenotype

  • @JustBreathe-fe2fd
    @JustBreathe-fe2fd 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

    I'm half black, half white. always ❤being who I am. growing up, my black sistas in my school would ask 'which side do you choose?' and I would say 'don't have to. im both. that's a fact. cant change it'. never had any problems with my race. never found it awkward to fit in anywhere. always been comfortable in my own skin. never had issues getting a job/apartment. my race has never been a hamper.

    • @Tia-8120
      @Tia-8120 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I guess that’s a blessing that You never had those negative experiences.

  • @ebonyeyes4122
    @ebonyeyes4122 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +413

    Marilyn Monroe had no Mexican heritage whatsoever. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, was born in Mexico because her parents happened to be there. Her father was a railway worker from Minneapolis and her mother was from Arkansas, and they relocated to Los Angeles when Gladys was a child.

    • @새-e6j
      @새-e6j 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +61

      lol its funny cuz the people think she really is mexican but there is no found mexican in her 😭

    • @sosakima
      @sosakima 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      @@새-e6jWell, how you suppose to find Mexican in her if she’s dead

    • @_BOUYE
      @_BOUYE 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      Look up "Define Mexican." Since her mother was born in Mexico and she was born in the United States, she would be considered a white U.S. American of half Mexican descent.

    • @knightmother3d
      @knightmother3d 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      not decent, nationality.

    • @drmarquisgrant4
      @drmarquisgrant4 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

      ​@@_BOUYEMexican is a person from Mexico or a citizen of the USA who has both Mexican parents.
      Marilyn was NOT Mexican.

  • @p.martin974
    @p.martin974 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +439

    I’d never heard of Dona…she was beyond beautiful!!!!

    • @deannajoseph708
      @deannajoseph708 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yeah that's what I'm saying she was beautiful. But not in the sense of an Afrocentric way that people present. Like we know like Afrocentric beauty. But she doesn't really make that cut

    • @lionessprincessbear2174
      @lionessprincessbear2174 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Me too, I’ve never heard of her either, but yes-Beautiful!!!

  • @Listening4n0w
    @Listening4n0w 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +202

    Her life made me think of the movie The Imitation of Life. 💐

    • @aissathompson8804
      @aissathompson8804 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Yes it does

    • @ashleyshayia8087
      @ashleyshayia8087 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Never heard of it I’ll have to watch it ☺️

    • @ashleewilliams7802
      @ashleewilliams7802 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@ashleyshayia8087watch the one with Juanita Moore and Lana Turner. Much better than the first one.

    • @ingridcarr4689
      @ingridcarr4689 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      The movie crossed my mind too!💕

    • @Shugar212
      @Shugar212 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      ​@@ashleyshayia8087Get some tissues. There are two versions. I like the one from I think 1959.

  • @bladyblahblah8072
    @bladyblahblah8072 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Girl, you were rambling. 😂You didn’t even get into the story of about Dona until 9:57. Thanks for the info!

    • @samanthaserrano8168
      @samanthaserrano8168 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Definitely rambling thanks for the time

  • @Rocioslane
    @Rocioslane 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +855

    People have no idea how mentally taxing it is navigating this world as black and brown people 💔

    • @williammartinez840
      @williammartinez840 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      I love it.

    • @summersojourner
      @summersojourner 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +80

      It’s taxing because you most likely let it be taxing. Stop letting what others think if you dictate how you feel. I’m not saying you don’t face discrimination at times, I’m just saying Its up to you to decide how much you’re going to let it affect you. Because people can dislike/hate you for any reason, not just your heritage. And that’s on them. Feelings can and do change, so you might not be able to change how someone acts towards you, but you can change how you perceive it and how much energy it takes from you.

    • @lynnjames6629
      @lynnjames6629 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@summersojourner💯🙏💪🛡️🕊️

    • @kinky.hair.academy3641
      @kinky.hair.academy3641 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      It’s even more sad that it’s unnecessarily taxing. Simply due to people choosing to be ignorant.

    • @kinky.hair.academy3641
      @kinky.hair.academy3641 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@summersojournerit also teaches you that most people are dumb and to not trust anyone. You just spewed a word salad for no reason. We can work on trying to make people see how stupid they are the same way racist need to see how stupid they are. We can ignore how people can feel. You can’t ignore how stupid people behave.

  • @KRstar78
    @KRstar78 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +234

    She was a knockout 🤩 I always say Hollywood is smoke and mirrors nothing is what it seems but I see how people get involved in drugs and alcohol. A lot of people passed it’s heart breaking 💔

  • @GabriellahItaly
    @GabriellahItaly 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +331

    I've never heard of Dona Drake. She was beautiful. I often wonder how many modern day actors/actresses and entertainers are passing.

    • @JustinJohn-j4r
      @JustinJohn-j4r 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Ellen Degeneres.

    • @diwi5823
      @diwi5823 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@user-yv9fq5ym9w Huh? What could she possibly be passing as? The only thing she passed as was straight in her early career.

    • @halo2d
      @halo2d 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      I had seen her pictures before but had no idea who she was. No one does a deep dive on Hollywood like Miss Alourde

    • @lilliesinthegard32
      @lilliesinthegard32 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

      Someone said Vin Diesel

    • @coreylevine8095
      @coreylevine8095 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

      ​@@lilliesinthegard32His Mother is Italian and Father is Black

  • @Watersart___
    @Watersart___ 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +137

    Dandrige was STUNNING!

  • @Kaylove372
    @Kaylove372 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +266

    One of my great grandfather's passed as white but still married my beautiful dark skinned great grandma and gave her a nice life. One of my cousins looks a lot like this lady. We have lots of light eyed kids in my family even though both parents are African American on both sides of my family.

    • @trxphywaif
      @trxphywaif 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      That’s the beauty of genes, you never know what you’re gonna get. My white boyfriend is mostly italian, Irish and French genetically but some of his family members look vastly different from him, as in different races. and both his parents are white.
      Edit: Obviously some people here are brain dead. I quite literally stated that he’s WHITE of French, Italian and Irish ancestry. What’s so confusing?

    • @lettiegrant9447
      @lettiegrant9447 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      Italian. Irish and French is not a race it’s a nationality. If he’s white then that’s his race. Race is what you are. Nationality is where you’re from. People really need to understand that.

    • @trxphywaif
      @trxphywaif 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@lettiegrant9447 he is white. If I didn’t say anything abt his nationality why are you bringing it up? His ancestry DNA results said “Irish, French, Italian” and more. Go argue w somebody who cares

    • @trxphywaif
      @trxphywaif 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@lettiegrant9447 “if he’s white then what’s his race” girl wtf drugs are you on? Caucasian, European, white who gives af? My point is that he’s a white man😂

    • @TheSocratease
      @TheSocratease 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @lettiegrant9447 And then there's ethnicity to further muddy the water as you can tell from the comments in this thread. So sorry someone got so defensive about your comment. Understood you were only adding clarification so the people in the back could understand. 😍

  • @ronjones8981
    @ronjones8981 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +194

    The stress she had to live with had to be overwhelming.

  • @dionnemosier3324
    @dionnemosier3324 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    I just stumbled upon your page today, and I'm a new follower! Your intro was everything and more... nothing in Hollywood is real! Sadly, those that "make it", sell their souls to do so. As far as the background stories and deciet about race is sad. It wasn't just in Hollywood back in the 40's and 50's where people lied about their race to pass as something "more acceptable". I have a Mexican great-uncle who lied, telling my great-grandparents he was Spanish (it was more regal and higher class), so that he could date and marry my great-aunt. Crazy!

  • @HoneyBunches100
    @HoneyBunches100 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +59

    If she hadn’t passed, we wouldn’t even have these movie images to look at her and talk about her. She did what she had to do at that time to become the star she was born to be. ✨✨✨

    • @MAI-lo6uj
      @MAI-lo6uj 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Get s grip

    • @HoneyBunches100
      @HoneyBunches100 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@MAI-lo6uj Dumb comment. Get a brain.

    • @Purpledawg-d9s
      @Purpledawg-d9s 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      It’s easy to sit here today and say what you would, or would not, do if you had been in the same position. Some would have taken Ms Drake’s path and others the path of Ms Freddie Washington. Ms Washington, who played in the original Imitation of Life movie, could have passed but chose not to. Both had their reasons and both should not have to be side eyed for their choices.

    • @HoneyBunches100
      @HoneyBunches100 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Purpledawg-d9s Exactly. And that one drop rule was created so the most people as possible would qualify to be slaves - for economic reasons - and it was not based on science. If you’re 80% white DNA and look like a white person then 💡you ARE majority white and have the genetic instructions encoded in the DNA of a white person. Duh. A Blk person thinking they can tell that white looking person that they’re still black is actually laughable. They’re just repeating the one-drop rule like a mind-programmed bot, without thinking for themselves. The biology of a person - the DNA - doesn’t lie. 💯

  • @TLove-zc3dm
    @TLove-zc3dm 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +126

    She kind of looks like Steph Curry’s wife to me. And it’s crazy because my mother was also passing. When my mother and father were dating people would ask him what he was doing with that white woman? At that time interracial relationships were frowned upon. He would always have to explain that she wasn’t white. Then when I was about six years old I asked my mother, “Are you really my mother?” I thought she was white too. She looked down at me and said, “Of course I’m your Mommy and you’re my baby”. I get it! Great post! Thank you for doing it.

    • @kashataylor6430
      @kashataylor6430 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      That is so sad that you had to ask your mom if you her child. I could never imagine as a mother. Your mother is a very strong woman and thanks for sharing.

    • @beefstew4698
      @beefstew4698 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      Genetics be like that sometimes 😂

    • @takayasweeney
      @takayasweeney 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I get it…I used to tell everyone my dad and cousins were white. 😂
      I didn’t know any better I was so young.😂

    • @TLove-zc3dm
      @TLove-zc3dm 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      @@kashataylor6430 Thank you, she was strong and beautiful. I miss her everyday. My mother passed away when I was 8 years old. It was very devastating and it traumatized me. You never quite get over it. Thank you again! God bless!❤️🙏🏽

    • @TLove-zc3dm
      @TLove-zc3dm 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      @@takayasweeney Yes, my Grandmother told me that one of my uncles was almost taken from her because they thought that he was a white baby. My Grandmother was my complexion, and most of her children came out looking white. It amazes me how God created us to produce all different colors.

  • @Yellow-Rose
    @Yellow-Rose 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +381

    Your channel isn't just about dissecting entertainers, but it's also a nice study in sociology and history. Really good stuff; thank you so much for your hard work!

    • @Dhruv_Dogra
      @Dhruv_Dogra 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yes. I realised this too.

  • @yavetteturner_berry4772
    @yavetteturner_berry4772 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    This just goes to show, nobody is pure anything,slavery messed that up. Everyone is mixed with something,and I don't believe in choosing one way or the other!

    • @chasb3234
      @chasb3234 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Amen! I have very close ancestors from every continent.

    • @user-he4lj5wl7w
      @user-he4lj5wl7w 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      💯 yes!

  • @riamoreland7738
    @riamoreland7738 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +224

    I understand, my grandmother on my mother’s side was half black/half white.
    Back when they had colored and white restroom at filling stations(gas station) with my grandmother we went in to use the bathroom and my grandmother stopped and pause as if not knowing which bathroom to go to and the white man ask her what was wrong she said I am trying to figure out which one to go to. The white man behind the counter told my grandmother that she could go to either one of the bathrooms she wanted to go to. I will never forget that I am 77 years old now . A lot of things happen that was kept hinden back in those days. I did a DNA with African ancestry and found out that I am 100% match to a maternal woman of indigenous ancestry on my mother side who would not talk to me about it b4 she died. SECRETS I am going to find out my heritage.

    • @chlofene
      @chlofene 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      I know how you feel about the 'SECRETS' I have been doing family history and the roadblocks and just general lies, and, of course, the "MIND YOUR BUSINESS" statement throw-in hasn't helped or stopped me.

    • @lisajones8074
      @lisajones8074 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I hope you find all the answers that you’re looking for. I haven’t gone or been through any of that but if you saw me clearly, lol I’m straight black but I have people in my family this high yellow, freckles, red hair, albinos questions and it is what it is butit is what it is like I said, but I hope you find all your answers

    • @shells500tutubo
      @shells500tutubo 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      @@lisajones8074 You might be fooled by going by color. I have a friend who is a Sam Jackson lookalike, and when his kids got his DNA done he was 40% Irish and 60% Sub-Saharan (Wolof I think). He is from the Caribbean and the island he is from had Irish settlers as the only white people and the rest Africans.

    • @angelasmith3967
      @angelasmith3967 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Further back around the 1700s, the Wolof people are from West Africa.
      ​@shells500tutubo

    • @YHui-xj7zb
      @YHui-xj7zb 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Once I saw a black said that in his life, only the white help him.

  • @TheRedDivaTv
    @TheRedDivaTv 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +113

    I'm a Latina, born in Argentina and moved to the US at age 9. I didn't speak English until i moved there. I hung out with mostly white and African American friends that i met in school. My English was pretty much void of an accent, and with my pale freckled skin and blue eyes, I've always been seen as a white American. I'm proud of my Latin roots but also recognize that looking "non hispanic" has afforded me opportunities that i might not have gotten if i looked more ethnic. But instead of just taking advantage of all that for personal gain, I've used that as a platform to raise awareness of discrimination and biases in the work force and a platform to call out against racism in general.
    Dona Drake reminds me of a mixture between Andra Day and Chrissy Teigen. She was so beautiful. So tragic, having to deny her full self to the world. 😢

    • @omegasprinter
      @omegasprinter 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      Latin and Hispanic are ethnic labels not a race, most Mexicans for example or mixed with Native American/Native Mexican which is why most don't look European. They can range between from full Native to mixed, to full European.

    • @BlackDoveNYC
      @BlackDoveNYC 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      @@omegasprinter
      And Sub-Saharan African particularly in the Vera Cruz region.

    • @deed2157
      @deed2157 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      I'm not surprised since Argentina has the most highest population of people of European descent.

    • @Tammy1hembrow
      @Tammy1hembrow 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@@deed2157that's fauls😂😂half of Argentina population has native ancestry they just like to count both mestizos and white as the same to give the impression that they are a white country which is not true 😂😂😂 Uruguay is the whitest country in Latin America and it's 88%

    • @AllisonChains64
      @AllisonChains64 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@@BlackDoveNYCHello! I just wanted to let you know that Veracruz is one word!

  • @leonaking287
    @leonaking287 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +87

    Her dancing was exceptional. Wow!

    • @HoneySwtDrms
      @HoneySwtDrms 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Her Black American heritage was apparent alone through her dancing!

  • @kingcrab9557
    @kingcrab9557 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I don't blame Donna. Girl had to do what she had to do ❤

  • @brenniquahill9898
    @brenniquahill9898 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +91

    Coming from a Black woman, Dona looked like a light skinned black woman, even with the wigs on. She was so beautiful.

    • @JAForeignMind
      @JAForeignMind 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      My family is from Louisiana and she looks like a black woman to me. I've had family members who could and did pass but I can tell. Her nose tells the story.

    • @Junglist5
      @Junglist5 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      she looked MIXED to me. MAYBE I'M BLIND..

    • @jennyjones4875
      @jennyjones4875 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      ​@@Junglist5you are sane with perfect vision

    • @rayraynxtbigthing
      @rayraynxtbigthing 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@Junglist5 to us that's black! Our grandparents and great grandparents where only black unless you ran away and chose to pass.They lived as black and only black . And to be mixed during this time meant your black ! 😮 So when we say she looks black we mean black American like some of our family members! We know it, we can see it.

    • @sparklesp9304
      @sparklesp9304 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ​@@Junglist5In the US, that was black and they were the grandparents of today's present day African Americans.

  • @TonyaMarion-fh5ds
    @TonyaMarion-fh5ds 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +312

    If we think about it, we do the same thing today as we stay in character for our jobs, professions and careers. We do want we have to do to be successful but I think in Dona's era, it was even more important and more serious consequences. This would definitely take a toll mentally over time. She was beautiful and so graceful and talented. I love her name. Millions of 🌹 🌺 🌹 to you Dona.

    • @naturalista74
      @naturalista74 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      In the work place double consciousness is used. I think that's different from passing. A person can leave the professional etiquette at work, and be more casual outside of work. Passing is something that's done 24/7.

    • @aprillee2593
      @aprillee2593 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      We don’t do sh*t! Thats y’all 🦝

    • @Isthisjoebiden
      @Isthisjoebiden 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      I don't. I'm not ratchet, but I'm nothing other than myself at work.

    • @pagethreemodel
      @pagethreemodel 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Being professional doesn't equal being white. You need to actually sit down with yourself and question why you believe that acting otherwise is default black behaviour.

    • @BetterDays2004
      @BetterDays2004 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@aprillee2593okay Sharquisha

  • @baldwinhillzbrattt
    @baldwinhillzbrattt 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +267

    My grandfather could have passed. He told me soooo many stories ... but he stayed true!!! I will always love and respect my papa for that... RIP Granpa! 🫶🏾

    • @happygolucky9004
      @happygolucky9004 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Was your grandpa mixed?

    • @kristinaroberts8604
      @kristinaroberts8604 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      How did he stay true of je was both black and white? Why is black always the truth? So confusing!

    • @adorimonroe1
      @adorimonroe1 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      @@kristinaroberts8604I mean… Legally… 1/16 is what they considered. Not a matter of truth. It was a standard they created.

    • @takeshiagore981
      @takeshiagore981 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      this is not about you or papa though!

    • @TeutonicTribe
      @TeutonicTribe 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@kristinaroberts8604 Because they’re racist!

  • @kittieredd8164
    @kittieredd8164 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I love old Hollywood stories & biographies since I was 10!( I’m in my forties now) and this lady I was so fascinated about ! There are so many others … great covering for this story!

  • @cuppablanca
    @cuppablanca 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +287

    Thank you for your comprehensive biography. My father-in-law met her at the Paramount Studios in March 1943 and obtained her autograph along with others. She signed herself Doña Drake so it is very possible that her assumed name was meant to be pronounced with a Latin inflection (Don-ya!). She was filming 'Let's Face It' along with Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, Marjorie Weaver, Zasu Pitts and others and they all signed his autograph book which we still have.
    She also appeared in a promotional 'short' - 'Hollywood Victory Caravan' which was a showcase made to promote the sale of War Bonds. She appeared in that along with Betty Hutton, Marjorie Weaver and a chorus line in an energetic singing and tap-dancing number 'Plain Jane Doe'. This was realeased in 1945 but I suspect it was also filmed in 1943 when they were all together with Bob Hope on the set of 'Let's Face It''.
    It is also worth noting that in her various films around that time she was was seen to be kissing many of her leading male actors (including Bob Hope). Had her true ethnicity been admitted this would never have been allowed. In fact, these amatory episodes predate the first 'official' Hollywood interacial kiss by around ten years. For what it is worth, I believe the studios did know her ethnicity and made up the Latino/European heritage story to suit their own ends.
    So what was my wife's father doing there in 1943? Frank Oakley was a British air cadet who visited Hollywood in March of that year, on leave from Falcon Field Airfield in Mesa, Arizona, where he was a Royal Air Force cadet training to be a pilot. He graduated and later flew Spitfires in operations against the enemy in occupied Europe in 1944-5. He died in 2005 but left behind many mementoes of his time in the USA, including his autograph book with the 'Doña Drake' signature.

    • @Nunnyuh
      @Nunnyuh 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading this. ❤

    • @ZoraNealesStudent
      @ZoraNealesStudent 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      A great story. Ty.

    • @laurymo2163
      @laurymo2163 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      I am sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing.

    • @saxon1014
      @saxon1014 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Amazing!!!❤

    • @meelee280
      @meelee280 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Very cool👍

  • @tiffanykimble9465
    @tiffanykimble9465 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +143

    Thank You for shining a light on Dona. I've heard of her and I consider myself a Classic old Hollywood enthusiast. I had no idea about her past. This was my Black History moment of the day.

  • @valbankz292
    @valbankz292 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +177

    I feel so sad for her, I can't imagine how she felt & what mental issues it cost, RIP TO THIS BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ❤🕊️🌹

  • @Kindred04
    @Kindred04 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Hollywood was not/is not "modern day slavery." I really wish people would stop using that phrase so loosely. If the person is getting a paycheck (no matter how small nor how strict the contract), and if they can walk away whenever they choose without fear of bodily harm or death (regardless of the negative impact to their career) then it is not slavery. Having a job that treats you like garbage is not the same as slavery.

    • @queenrhianna6131
      @queenrhianna6131 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You have NEVER worked in Hollywood.

  • @capricornqueen90
    @capricornqueen90 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +93

    Wow I never heard of this lady before but she’s definitely beautiful 😍 💯

  • @jennieclark
    @jennieclark 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +119

    Thank you for your analysis. It perhaps helps me understand my mother. When she found out I am part Native American she said, “ You are not pure.” Later she said interracial children just shouldn’t be born. When I reminded her that I am interracial, she said “But you can pass.” I responded, “I am what I am.” We hadn’t spoken in decades when she passed. I do not agree with my mother. I have nothing to hide and I support loving whomever one loves across racial boundaries. I can see my mother represented the thoughts of her era, even though I disagree.

    • @VCD512
      @VCD512 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      We as blacks need to start embracing our Native American culture…i know that I have..so you did what was best for you and stood you ground. My Mom was very selective with me and my brothers. She favored my little brother who is very light skinned. She had issues with color

    • @chaunee74
      @chaunee74 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

    • @liveyourlifetothefullest7666
      @liveyourlifetothefullest7666 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ​@@VCD512yes..Colorism forsure...

  • @tetherball34
    @tetherball34 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +149

    Dona Drake did her hustle and that should be respected and even honored, regardless of her race.

    • @marlak4203
      @marlak4203 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Yep. I mean people talk this and that about that era and there are good points with it but lets be real. If any of us were light and it was good enough to make it then we'd use it too. Even if a relative or friend was "presentable" or even passible then yes a lot of us would encourage them to go ahead and do better. Make it. Do it carefully but go and get some success, despite how it is out here. Put on that blonde wig and get it for the family. Lol.

    • @KimberlyLetsGo
      @KimberlyLetsGo 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      To say it was slavery for her is disrespectful for all the people who actually were slaves; not paid for their work, unable to live and leave on their own accord, etc. Dona was not in slavery.

    • @BegodeEx30
      @BegodeEx30 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@KimberlyLetsGo Fool, we're in slavery now!
      Many forms or rather methods of enslaving people has always existed, it's not limited to whips, chains & tight restrictions on what the enslaved can do. To be in debt is to be enslaved. To be poorly educated &/or have valued knowledge hidden from you is enslavement. To be heavily burden with taxes & high cost of living that basically force you to work like a slave to stay ahead, that is slavery!

    • @ellaveldje7125
      @ellaveldje7125 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@marlak4203no not everybody would do this !! Please speak for your self and not others!! There were many lightskinpassing people that did not do this to them self !! 🙄

    • @Angelfire62311
      @Angelfire62311 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Right she choose her path. Maybe not necessarily knowing everything that comes with it. Nevertheless, she’s not that much different from humanity today. People choose paths, good or evil , right or wrong and that is the power of freewill but that does not necessarily amount to freedom.

  • @Davedkc
    @Davedkc 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    You do some great video's @KarineAlourde. It so sad the level of ignorance that existed and still exists. Unfortunately, I've seen this all too close up. My grandmother and mother where very light-skinned and were mistaken for being White. And sometimes, they would have to play the part. I can't imagine the mental stress doing so full-time. Well done, young, lady! Keep it up.

  • @Miss79er
    @Miss79er 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +108

    Wow she's absolutely "Beautifully Stunning", and her dancing is off the hook 😎

  • @AuthorLHollingsworth
    @AuthorLHollingsworth 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +69

    She was so beautiful, and people had to survive back in that day. My heart goes out to many of our ancestors that had so many secrets, but without them many of us may not have existed.😢

  • @leongardner710
    @leongardner710 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +79

    She looks like Shirley Tempe in some of the pictures. She was very talented.

    • @neferbey9902
      @neferbey9902 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      maybe shirley temple was passing too?😁😆😅😃😍

    • @reneezancewoman
      @reneezancewoman 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I saw that, too

    • @susanpetropoulos1039
      @susanpetropoulos1039 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      And she looks about the same size. She’s so tiny!

    • @ladanehaten4283
      @ladanehaten4283 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      She sure does look like an older Shirley Temple in some of het pictures.

    • @Applecider-Poetry
      @Applecider-Poetry 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Shirley Temple had African blood from the African slave diaspora in the West Indies. the African children of slave masters were able to buy passage on the tall ships to the British Isles during the slave trade. they escaped to Ireland where they were raped and mis-treated and had lots of Irish mixed babies ---- that is where the Irish Afros and dances and big noses-round butts came from.. too distilled culturally to be called black....the Irish usually lie about their black heritage from escaped slaves from the West Indies saying they have a very ancient black heritage from pre-history. not true, just escaped slaves -----

  • @johnwebb2442
    @johnwebb2442 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Love and respect for Dona Drake. It was rough during the Jim Crow/Segregation Era for people of color whether you were a famous celebrity or a regular citizen.

  • @Condoblewisher
    @Condoblewisher 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +120

    My parents were Black Kansans. My mom had friends that’s looked like Dona. My mother said some made the decision to pass. When my mom passed, this woman who we thought was white came to her funeral and said she and my mom were best buddies when they were young. My dad kinda laughed and said “she’s not white, she’s Black. Both of her parents were Black. Genetics and American society have messed up a lot of folks in this country.

    • @sunnymane
      @sunnymane 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      I think we often forget that a lot of people have mixed ancestry.

    • @jadesmith7983
      @jadesmith7983 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      The one drop rule has also messed us up. Most people would say they were black because of it even if they were mixed race or predominantly European.

    • @Junglist5
      @Junglist5 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      u can't be fully black and pass as no white... STOP THE LIES...

    • @sheenaperez1882
      @sheenaperez1882 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      ​@jadesmith7983 but also, some that were half and passing could look white as well. My grandmother's family weren't majority white, they were half and still looked more white. Some even had green eyes and blondish colored hair. Genetics is a funny thing.

    • @jadesmith7983
      @jadesmith7983 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      @sheenaperez1882 That's cool. But do you know for sure (genetically) if they weren't majority European? Most African Americans aren't 100% black (African) and tend to have 20% or less European. So even if they were biracial they could still have more European DNA.

  • @sohobooksunlimited
    @sohobooksunlimited 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +162

    Her dance moves alone gave credence to her ethnicity!. Thanks for the video, keep up the good work!

    • @jagbrit3723
      @jagbrit3723 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      The first thing I noticed, she didn't have the inherently insipid Becky moves

    • @Twtgod
      @Twtgod 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You are all dumb​@@jagbrit3723

    • @alexforest1
      @alexforest1 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Anyone in can tell by her physical dancing that she’s learned from Katherine Dunham.

    • @madamedellaporte4214
      @madamedellaporte4214 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Blackness is ethnicity now?

    • @donaldbrown8346
      @donaldbrown8346 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Very true.

  • @Colorbrush21
    @Colorbrush21 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +154

    Ava Gardner herself later admitted she was part Black. Of course the white media would never print it. Also Marilyn's mother was born in Mexico which made her Mexican by nationality. But she was of white European ancestry. Dona reminds me of actress Gene Tierney because of her smoky blue-green eyes, cheekbones and smile. She looks like a beautiful lightskinned Black woman to me.

    • @Firespawnable
      @Firespawnable 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      Do you have any proof Ava Gardner was part black? 👀 I'm curious because I've never heard that before and did the industry know this or no lol 🤣

    • @sheluvssmokedupeyes1
      @sheluvssmokedupeyes1 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      I believe that gene Tierney had African ancestry

    • @doreensika837
      @doreensika837 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      That’s not true! Marilyn’s mother was born in Mexico but has zero Mexican blood her parents was there for holiday and gave birth there. Ava has zero black in her. Not everything on the internet is true. I was born in Mexico myself does that make me Mexican? No.

    • @Firespawnable
      @Firespawnable 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

      @@doreensika837 Yeah that's true just because you're born somewhere does not make you that ethnicity like a white baby can be born in China but it does not make them Chinese they are still white lol 🤣

    • @doreensika837
      @doreensika837 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      @@Firespawnable exactly. I can’t believe how people took just that line and run with it. It clearly said in the article that her mother was just born there. And personally I have NEVER heard Ava was black so my thing is if it was never printed where did she learn that from? Cause even if she told someone in confidence the person must have said for it be out there in print. So where?

  • @RGeorgia_peachR
    @RGeorgia_peachR 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    It doesn't matter most got away with it even today. We darker people couldn't.

    • @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs
      @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs หลายเดือนก่อน

      Dark ones pass, too. One of Quincy Jones's daughters was asked during an interview where she vacationed to have gotten her tan, and she had to let the interviewer know, on camera, that she's not White 😅. And I'm Hershey milk chocolate dark, and I passed for South Asian in London, England. With all the Bangladeshi folks in the UK, all us Blacks would pass, there if most of us kept our heads covered. Lol

    • @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs
      @The_Office_Of_Eternal_Affairs หลายเดือนก่อน

      Also, there was a dark skinned minstrel performer who passed for White because of his features and hair texture. I forgot his name, though

  • @nenala7684
    @nenala7684 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +171

    Not many black women were as STRONG as lena horne who was given the privilege to PASS but she CHOSE NOT TO! i am saddened what our people to do just to have a better life and be seen as HUMAN-BEINGS! i cant imagine the feeling. I just hope at night when the cameras are gone and the lights werent flashing, they praid for our Darker skin brothers and sisters who did NOT have this privilege

    • @lettiegrant9447
      @lettiegrant9447 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +23

      That's not a privilege.

    • @lanishajackson2677
      @lanishajackson2677 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    • @nenala7684
      @nenala7684 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      @lettiegrant9447 please get a LIFE! and then read my comment again! She was privileged for her skin tone and features among other black women who had LIGHTSKIN PARENTS! omg our community is seriously doomed with ignorance

    • @nenala7684
      @nenala7684 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@lanishajackson2677 💋 😘 😗 sis

    • @catherinesterling1685
      @catherinesterling1685 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +28

      Lena Horne could not pass

  • @ismaelcruz2148
    @ismaelcruz2148 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +41

    Monroe's mom was born in Mexico to Anglo parents. Her grandparents went to Mexico for work and had their babies there

    • @fanatik9590
      @fanatik9590 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Are you trying to say Europeans or Whites never colonized Mexico? because you sound ignorant-af...Mexican is not a race

  • @aundreapassley6758
    @aundreapassley6758 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +68

    She is absolutely stunning 🤩

  • @carlajohnson379
    @carlajohnson379 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    💐🌺🌷To you Dona Drake. She died the year I graduated high school. What an amazing woman. I couldn’t imagine having to give up my heritage to escape poverty and the discrimination of being black in America. Rest in Power!

  • @keithbuchanan8588
    @keithbuchanan8588 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +50

    She is like the girl in imitation of life.

    • @ChoyGosu
      @ChoyGosu 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Freddie Washington

    • @traceylennon1204
      @traceylennon1204 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I LOVED that movie...proud owner of the DVD!! Both versions..😌

    • @keithbuchanan8588
      @keithbuchanan8588 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@traceylennon1204 imitation of life has been made 3 times. My favorite version is the last 1 with Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, & John Gavin.

    • @Tangie_J
      @Tangie_J 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The movie pinky was good to

  • @renettacorn7522
    @renettacorn7522 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +128

    I'm interracial and it's a fact that I've never been ashamed of nor tried to hide. If you can't accept me the way God made me, then I don't need you in my life. But I can't imagine how hard it would be to hide in plain site like this. My family is everything to me and I couldn't ignore them and pretend they don't exist.

    • @sunnymane
      @sunnymane 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

      It was a different time 😢

    • @VelvetPanther
      @VelvetPanther 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      Those were different times many felt they had to do it to be given the basic civil rights ee all have today, starting with using clean toilets, eating quality food, living in decent homes and neighborhoods, not being R’d with no right to justice, etc. etc. Let’s not say how we would’ve behaved or compare to present day behavior because one just doesn’t know.

    • @cheesecakelasagna
      @cheesecakelasagna 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +30

      You have the capability to exercise that free mentality because of the people that came before that fought for it.

    • @filmgirlLisa
      @filmgirlLisa 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      @@cheesecakelasagna Absolutely! There is no way someone alive today can comprehend what it would take to have separate bathrooms and water fountains and seating in food restaurants and all the rest of it enough to say "I would've done [this or that]."

    • @diamcole
      @diamcole 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      With respect and in my very humble opinion, what our elders dealt with isn't to be taken lightly or compared to our current plight. It was a very different time and people survived how they could. The only issue I have is with the systems created that forced them to have to make such a choice in the first place.

  • @adelia6537
    @adelia6537 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +143

    marilyn isn’t latina!!! her moms parents are white and her parents are white. her mom was just born in mexico

    • @azul93gt38
      @azul93gt38 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      I noticed a few factual inaccuracies in the video. The content creator says that IR marriages were illegal in the USA. Each state had it's own anti-miscegenation laws or not. For example, California's anti-miscegenation laws were overturned in 48'.

    • @White_winged_dove
      @White_winged_dove 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      ​@@azul93gt38More than a few inaccuracies, it was more a lot of wishful thinking. Most of those actresses were not black.

    • @TIFFISFABULOUSITY
      @TIFFISFABULOUSITY 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I thought she said most likely Mexican. Most likely means maybe, maybe not. A maybe can’t be a fabrication

    • @White_winged_dove
      @White_winged_dove 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @TIFFISFABULOUSITY Marilyn's mother was wyte, there's a difference between race and nationality. Just like not all people from the United States are wyte. See what I mean?

    • @TIFFISFABULOUSITY
      @TIFFISFABULOUSITY 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@White_winged_dove I understand that and I am not arguing because that’s a fact. All I’m saying is when she said maybe I took it as she wasn’t sure and it’s left up to us look into it if we want to know.

  • @Fred.Carpenter
    @Fred.Carpenter 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I was watching an episode of Here Come the Brides and found myself really attracted to one of the woman, so I looked her up. Her name was Cynthia Hull and she was half black. One of my girlfriends was black and two were half Mexican. The one who was black told me that when she was a girl, people thought she was white and that as she got older, her skin turned darker. There was often an attraction between myself and black women.
    "Shadows is a 1959 American independent drama film directed by John Cassavetes about race relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City."
    The reason I watched it was because I thought she was beautiful although I didn't know what it was about and at first thought she was Jewish. I've never understood racism, which back then was called prejudice. These days, people have becoming increasingly insane and I pretty much avoid everyone.

  • @kellywoodwardcore5360
    @kellywoodwardcore5360 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +264

    I'm glad you mentioned the dark parts of Hollywood and the blackmail and control. I've had a few friends working in hollywood (not to this level of fame) but they all have terrible PTSD. Some of the stories are so terrifying.

    • @fourleaf8055
      @fourleaf8055 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      Can you tell us a story

    • @Motivated_Beauty_24
      @Motivated_Beauty_24 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      I'd also love for you to share some of their stories

    • @cocosnow-rv2np
      @cocosnow-rv2np 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      oh like what?

    • @cindylou3524
      @cindylou3524 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Can you tell us a story

    • @parading_panda1210
      @parading_panda1210 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      Not shocking. And its too bad we're letting them get away with being on Epstiens list, just by merely laughing it off, and acting like it's a joke from conspiracy theorists, and not an actual document that existed.

  • @crystalball82
    @crystalball82 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +47

    First time i see her and my jaw literally dropped, she's so beautiful and would have deserved way better in the industry. She gives me Gene Tierney vibes, am i the only one?

  • @kelleennordquist5697
    @kelleennordquist5697 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +63

    I'm so happy that you have these videos...I'm 61 and NEVER heard about these ladies. Such sad stories.!

  • @hazelgarcia2851
    @hazelgarcia2851 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    sooooo sad what she had to go through just for her talent to be recognised.

  • @takayasweeney
    @takayasweeney 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +53

    I always laugh at these because HOW can they not tell?!?😂🤣
    Maybe because my family and best friend look like this I can ALWAYS tell when I see us, no matter how light the skin/hair/eyes are.
    I can even tell Africans from us…people just don’t pay enough attention.😂

    • @lulubird8636
      @lulubird8636 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Agreed, I'm Louisiana Creole, and I've seen so many genetic possibilities even within my own family. I'm very rarely shocked to find out someone's ethnicity... usually, I'm confused as to how people believe the lies of their grandmother.

    • @itsjussms825
      @itsjussms825 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      ALL FACT!! as soon as i seen this i was like.. pass for white?!? How? i have a neighbor who is half black/ his wife is all white/ their son has the same skin as his mom white but STILL i can tell that he is black!! 😂😂 its just something we can see

    • @sparklesp9304
      @sparklesp9304 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      Agreed, but I don't think a lot of people actually SEE African Americans and know our facial features. They just see dark skin and kinky hair and not the face shapes, undertones, nose and eye shapes that are common to our ethnicity, regardless of our skin tone and hair texture. They don't see usm

    • @thetruthisthelight0910
      @thetruthisthelight0910 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Exactly

    • @AmberVivicide
      @AmberVivicide 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I mean, I bet a lot of African Americans wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a bunch of Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Korean people just by the way they look as well as Asian people could. Or the same way White people see different features in German, Polish and Ukranian people. Its simply Other Race Effect, every race does it, not maliciously, its just natural phenomenon.

  • @cdmbooks1493
    @cdmbooks1493 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +91

    I have watched many bios Karine, you outdid yourself with this one. Excellent background research, you hit this one out the park! I had no hint that Dona Drake was Black of Mexican. I thought she was white. Your incredible insight following Katt William's revelations about truth and lies is brilliant. Thank you.

    • @PsychicMedium4747
      @PsychicMedium4747 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Hold on...she was mixed race is who she was. She had some black ancestry. However, West Africans that came here on slave ships were extremely dark, dark eyes, and 4c hair. How was she a black woman???? Black African women never looked like her. Do you know your history? Also, Mexicans are known to be Meztizo which is half indigenous and half Spanish(which are WHITE people from Spain). Dorothy Dandridge was a MULTIGENERATIONAL mixed race woman. She was black AND white...both parents were MIXED.

  • @moonyfruit
    @moonyfruit 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +322

    How humans treated other humans in the past was so depressingly tragic. We've come a long way! Even compared to just 30 years ago. I knew a lot of prejudiced people as a kid (of all skin colors). My mom's 2 best friends are/were (one of her friends sadly passed away) black women. I'm so glad her friends were around me as a kid. They're beautiful women, inside and out, and helped develop my early years. ❤

    • @pinky-ud1rt
      @pinky-ud1rt 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +61

      There still treating humans the same worse now

    • @NikkiJayArtistry
      @NikkiJayArtistry 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +41

      not humans treating other humans....sadly its how white people treated ppl of color and ANYONE that doesnt look like them....i agree alot of white ppl are admitting the horrible reality, though i understand that it is hard to admit..but history doesnt lie, and bc alot of selfawareness is happening we are all getting better...

    • @QueenQuinise
      @QueenQuinise 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@pinky-ud1rtThank you!!! Biggg Facts! Racism will NEVER die!

    • @QueenQuinise
      @QueenQuinise 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@NikkiJayArtistryThank you because Whites are the ONLY race that belittes EVERY OTHER RACE, AND I MEAN EVERY!!! FACTSSSS!!

    • @KoreaMojo
      @KoreaMojo 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@NikkiJayArtistryunfortunately it's more than white people or else there'd be a country free from this mess. But yeah in the West that's the albatross.

  • @joannchiles158
    @joannchiles158 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    She did what she gad to do. How can anyone judge her. Times were different then. No one was going to come to her defense and there were no platforms for her to take a stand as a black person in the industry. I am sure it took a toll on her physically. RIP sister🙏🏽🙏🏽❤️❤️❤️