Um, Gwyneth Paltrow is African?

[im10ashus]

The whitest women in the world is of African descent. I guess when it comes down to it, we all are, but, um... :wow: I just think this whole celebrity trendiness is getting a bit transparent.

You are the whitest white girl in the entire wide white world, Paltrow. Cheers to you that you support a very worthy cause. BUT, allow someone else to do the ads. You'd survive about 10 minutes in African bush. And, you just

http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2006/08/right-gwynnie-and-im-martian.html

AS the house lights dim for the second act of each performance of Madonna’s “Confessions” tour, the singer, wearing a crown of thorns, begins her 1986 anthem, “Live to Tell,” while her body hangs in mock crucifixion on a cross glittering with the mirrored tiles of a disco ball.

Madonna has been riffing on crucifix imagery for two decades. What hauls the entire tableau vivant into the present are the images flickering behind her on screens: close-ups of African children, staring with mournful eyes, superimposed over crackling flames and a running ticker, which tallies at 12 million the number of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa.

That Madonna should suddenly be casting an ice-blue eye toward Africa should hardly be surprising. After all, she has always known how to spot a trend.

And much as it may strain the limits of good taste to say it, Africa — rife with disease, famine, poverty and civil war — is suddenly “hot.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/fashion/13AFRICA.html

[RebelOne]

1. You don't have to be black to be from Africa.

Plenty of white people in Africa. I had a friend who was from South Africa and she was Caucasian with a very British accent.

[im10ashus]

2. And Charlize Theron is African.

I have white friends in Africa is well. But Paltrow is not African. This is all just what's trendy in Hollywood now. It's so utterly transparent. But, maybe if our own government did more to help the crisis on that continent, or maybe if Egypt would take more on active role, these celebrities wouldn't have to take up the reins.

[unblock]

the typical white south african accent is more dutch than british

don't know about your friend in particular, but i have met several white south africans (including my current boss). their accent is more dutch than british; afrikaans being of dutch heritage. although, it does certainly sound "british empire" when you hear it at first.

[LostinVA]

7. That's an Afrikaan accent, "British" South Africans have a different

accent than that. That's more like a mixture of English and New Zealand accents.

[elehhhhna]

15. & a Rhodesian is almost Aussie-ish.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. There were stories in 60s- 70s of whites from Africa being denied

membership in the African Students Union at Berkeley and elsewhere. Never researched it, may even be in Snopes, but such bias would not surprise me either. Most people also forget about North Africa is Africa as well. For example, can someone of Libyan decent claim to be African-American?

[globalvillage]

3. Teresa Heinz Kerry was born in Mozambique.

She's pretty white.

[Mabus]

4. Steve Nash was born in South Africa

but is now a citizen of Canada. He currently plays for the Phoenix Suns and, so far, has been named MVP of the NBA.

[beyurslf]

5. Anything that wakes America up to the pandemic in Africa is ok with me

If it needs to be pretty little white Paltrow, then that is fine.

[im10ashus]

6. Good point.

As I said, if only our world would do more to help. If only there was an abundance of oil there.

[LostinVA]

10. AShley Judd has done a huge amount of work re: AIDS in Africa

Especially concerning teenagers. She speaks fluent French, and has went out into the trenches, so to speak, to talk to and educate children and sex workers in French-speaking African countries.

She has also turned to a decently bare bones way of living -- no more $600 purses, etc. She takes the money she used to throw away on junk and gives that amount to charities every month.

I love Ashley.

[tridim]

8. "You are the whitest white girl in the entire wide white world"

What does her lack of melanin have to do with anything? That statement is unfair, pointless and probably a bit racist.

[Eurobabe]

9. We just found out that my husband's grandmother was Congolese

So he's German AND African.

[unblock]

11. my boss and my wife are both white "african-americans"

my boss was born in south african, my wife was born in nigeria. both are paler than my pasty white mug.

[BlooInBloo]

13. It's hilarious how Americans speak as though Africa is a country.

[eachsmallcandle]

16. wow.

happen to notice the irony in your post?

[nealmhughes]

14. Take a look just at Egypt, and one sees every range of "race" from

very light Berbers on the Libyan frontier to Nubians like Sadat to Sudanese in Egypt...duuh, not to mention the Alexandrians who are of Sephardic or Greek descent...and that is one country!