Melyssa Ford (1976- ) was the highest paid video vixen from about 2000 to 2004. With a body better than Marilyn Monroe she appeared in music videos such as Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'”, Sisqo’s “Thong Song Remix” and Mystikal’s “Shake It Fast”. She has appeared in many swimsuit calendars and on the cover of men’s magazines like King, Smooth, Black Men and XXL Eye Candy. She is a sometime television show host on BET.
She has such an amazing body that some call her “Jessica Rabbit”. Her measurements are 34D-22-36 (86-56-91 cm). But she hates it! She used to cry herself to sleep because she did not look like the thin women on television. She cannot even lie flat on her back!
But she modelled in part to help change ideas about beauty: “What I do sends a message to full-figured black women that we are a part of the beauty standard, even though we’re not rail thin and white.”
She is a mix of Barbados, Russia and Norway. Her mother is white, her father, black. She is proud of being mixed.
The videos made her famous mainly among black men in America. She is little known in Canada, where she is from, and even black women in America say, “Who is Melyssa Ford?”
Now that she is studying acting and trying to break into Hollywood, her video girl past is something she has to live down. It keeps her from getting serious parts in television and film.
She grew up in Toronto, Canada. While at York University she worked at a bar. There she met Little X, a music video director. He put her in some music videos. That in turn got her in magazines. She left Canada and moved to New York. All she brought were two suitcases and $25 (three crowns). The rest is history. Now she drives a Mercedes Benz S500.
Despite her example, she tells women to stay in school. The music video industry is not what it used to be: “Now it’s about body parts and how well you can shake them. It’s not about the female. It’s not about appreciating the female.”
The Game informs us about Ford:
She a video vixen, but behind closed doors
She do whatever it take to get to the Grammy Awards
Ford says some video girls are loose like that, but most (like her) have enough self-respect.
For two years Ford wrote the sex advice column in Smooth magazine. She spoke her mind but did not perform any research. Every month about 50 men would ask to marry her.
Her music videos:
- Rascalz: Northern Touch (1998 )
- 112: Anywhere (1998 )
- Choclair: Let’s Ride (1999)
- Jay-Z: Big Pimpin’ (2000)
- Ghostface Killah: Cherchez LaGhost (2000)
- Mystikal: Shake It Fast (2000)
- Sisqo: Thong Song Remix (2000)
- Jadakiss: Knock Yourself Out (2001)
- Alicia Keys: You Don’t Know My Name (2003)
- Usher: Yeah! (2004)
- R. Kelly: Happy People (2004)
See also:
Abagond 
She looks like Karrine “Superhead” Steffans in the face, no?
I don’t think that her mother is white/European. Some of these girls play up past admixture (which every black person in the western world, has) in perhaps an attempt to seem “exotic” or “different”. The internet is not a reliable source for information on a celebrity or anyone, really, for that matter.
LikeLike
I know what you mean, but unless you have facts to the contrary, I tend to believe it in her case given where she is from: Toronto, Canada. And she does look mixed.
LikeLike
How do you look mixed?
She looks like an ordinary diasporic black men …which 9 times out of 10, means mixed.
LikeLike
How exactly does she look “mixed”, is what I meant to type.
LikeLike
She looks like a normal diasporic black woman …which 9 times out of ten means “mixed”.
That’s what I meant to type. Kept messing up!
LikeLike
She seems pretty light to me and her face seems half white, close to Puerto Rican, if you know what I mean.
LikeLike
We all have our perceptions of people …this woman looks like a run-of-mill black woman, in terms of ethnic appearance. (Although, admittedly, the overwhelming majority of sistas are not “light skinned”).
Also, when you encounter a black person whose lighter than your average, you assume recent European ancestry?
What about the pure black Africans who have a similiar skin tone to Ford? (And yes, they do exist …many of them, actually.)
LikeLike
Just because someone is light it does not mean one of his parents was white. Beyonce is the example you give. But given the fact that Ford’s father came from Barbados and that she grew up in Toronto, there is a very good chance her mother is white given how light she is. If her father were from Brazil, say, and she grew up in Lousiana, then it would be different.
LikeLike
I see what you mean.
Although I persist that making quick assumptions and jumping to conclusions isn’t the best way to to observe people.
There are many lighter black Bajans. And darker skinned blacks have lighter kids ALL THE TIME. And vice versa. It’s a play of genetics. Aren’t you black? If so, you’d surely know that, right?.
Beyonce isn’t really all that ‘light’, in my opinion. (Again, those descriptors are very subjective). I mean, Rihanna is lighter than her. (With two black parents from Barbados!) Beyonce looks standard African American. If she wasn’t so Hollywood pretty, people wouldn’t question or challenge that fact. That’s what a lot of this is about, black women are so stigmatized in a racist society that their genetic background has to picked apart to explain their attractiveness. It’s interesting that we live in a society that tells us that race plays a factor in how desirable we are.
LikeLike
Good point: you can be lighter (or darker) than either of your parents. And Rihanna is a good counterexample to what I have been saying about Melyssa Ford.
More interesting is what you said about pretty black women and how people try to find a reason for it – as if black cannot be beautiful all on its own.
LikeLike
actually–her features look extremely european to me. her features are thinner (less broad)than 90 percent of all black women I meet. esp. the nose, and her narrow but defined jawline.
how is a woman with a 22 inch waist thick??? she is smalle than most actresses, but just mroe shapely. there is a massive difference btw being thick and curvy. most models are about her size (measurements) but more boyish.
LikeLike
rihanna is fairskinned, but her features are very typical subsaharan west africa. her hair is also more tightly curled than melyssa. that is melyssa’s real hair–all of it.
LikeLike
Kristin, I’m assuming you’re not black …’cause Melyssa got her an expensive lace front!!!! Any black person can see that. I mean, it’s a nice one, a semi-believable one, but it’s only hers because she purchased it! And hair texture isn’t a good indicator of a black person’s true racial background. Considering the facts that many sub-saharan black Africans have a variety of hair textures, from wavy and slick to medium-curly to extremely coarse. Variety ….black folks naturally have it physically and culturally, whether they’re pure or not. When are people going to accept that?
LikeLike
Okay, first of all, I am SO surprised that no one commented on the fact that Ms. Ford claims that she cried herself to sleep b/c she was not thin…Okay. Two things (then I am off to bed b/c reading this stuff is beyond ridiculous).
I. I find it hard to believe that she used to dislike being voluptuous when she opted to make a career out of being an ultra ultra curvaceous video vixen. She basically exploited, or maybe a better term would be, capitalized off of herself by making money off of her body.
II. She openly admitted (in a round-n-about way, b/c I guess she was humiliated by it) that her breast are “enhanced” with silicone, saline whichever. There are magical things called body shapers that will give a woman a 22 inch waist when she has 36+ hips. I COULD BE WRONG (Please, let me know b/c I would like to see the evidence on this one), but there are not too many women who are naturally so curvaceous as to be that thick with a 22 inch waist…even 24 inches.
That’s too much of a waist to hip difference! If there are, it is rare. I say this because how can a woman of let’s say 38in hips be 22 inches in the waist if their body frame is between medium and large. I am sorry, but that is not genetically possible unless you get the help of a man made device known as spanx, a girdle, a waist shrinker (now known as the hourglass device that’s hot right now that you wear to permanently keep your waist small), and possibly a few extra sit-ups to help out the cause.
I want it to go on the record that I actually like Mylessa Ford, she is attractive with a cool shape, be it natural or enhanced. But I don’t like how she presents herself as a victim when clearly; she has chosen to be looked upon as the stereotypical Black booty shaker in the hip hop industry but turn around and claim that she is a victim to her circumstance while cashing in on the very thing she supposedly used to despise.
She claims to be a role model for full figured women b/c she (GASP) doesn’t want to younger girls to feel un-pretty because of their big boobs and butt. I am so sorry ya’ll but this girl is laughable!
So we are supposed to think that Mylessa is helping little girls and women build their self-esteem by telling us that she has used twisted hip hop as a platform to critique White Hollywood’s biases against women with fuller figures. BS.
What even disgust me even more is that not only does she scream victim, but she justifys her reason for being a hip hop honey as a job that helped put her through college. Okay, whoa. To even say that out loud tells you how slow she really is and is offensive to educated Black college women today.
I am a college graduate from U of I and when Black girls needed extra money to pay for books, tuition, food, and other pertinent things, guess what? They didn’t use their “goodies” in a Nelly video to earn a few extra change (b/c what’s even worse about the crazy world of hip hop is that a tradeshow model can make more money standing up and passing out corportate brouchures in a buisness suit (like $1000) for a day than when a video vixen can make (at the very most $500) being treated like cattle on the set of a fiddy video). She coulda took her ass to Starbucks or McDonald’s and applied for a damn job like a struggling student would, enrolled in a work-study program, or took out a loan if she really couldn’t bear to get her dainty hands dirty.
I’m sorry, I am not going to sit up and feel sorry for someone who wants to cry when they walking around with more pocket change than me making money off of their ass. I know how hard it is to be a model because I am one (among many other things). I am not a glamour model or a video vixen. I am a commercial print model (think target, JCPenny’s and print Ads) and I will say as a petite sister, I have just as much hard time finding work as Mylessa would ever would. Being thin has NOTHING TO DO making it in Hollywood or even being looked upon as the standard of beauty, Why? BECAUSE I AM BLACK AND AS LONG AS I AM NOT WHITE, WHETHER I AM THICK OR THIN, IN THEIR WORLD I AM STILL SECOND CLASS AND UNLESS I FIGHT AND DEMAND OTHERWISE, I WILL BE TREATED ACCORDINGLY.
LikeLike
Erica:
Welcome back!
Melyssa hated her figure when she was younger. She grew to accept it later. That is what she says.
Her waist-to-hip ratio is 0.61, which is not out of the question: Deelishis, Bria Myles, Brigitte Bardot and Elizabeth Taylor all had lower ratios.
Also her 22-inch waist is what is reported. Women are not always truthful about their measurements.
I do not know how natural she is. Plenty of girls in the industry are not, not completely. Whatever the truth, she seems far more natural than Angel Lola Luv:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/angel-lola-luv/
LikeLike
Be it Angela or Ford, they both had enhancements so how is one more natural over the other?????
Once again, don’t underestimate the power of a good body shaper :)Just as models are photoshopped and airbrushed in mags, so are models and actresses in tv/film. It’s called make-up, hair extenstions, push-up bras, booty pads, and spanx. For those that can afford it, breast, butt implants (or just lifts). Liposuction. Tummy tuck. I am sure Deelish and Taylor or no stranger to anyone of these items 🙂
LikeLike
Sad but true.
LikeLike
Oh please, I see girls with that waist to hip ratio all the time when I go outside of my house. It is not uncommon and it doesn’t have to be false or fake. Maybe you need to be in more ethnic neighborhoods where you can see it for yourself. Silicone Valley isn’t where you’ll find it hunny.
LikeLike
Erica, baby, you are TOO real!
I couldn’t have said it better. It’s hilarious how so many people actually use these celebrities as real life indicators of various things.
It’s all fake!!! It’s show business. It’s entertainment. It’ pretty much like live-action cartoon figures.
These people do not represent real live in any way, shape, or form. I’m sorry but it’s truth (of how I see it.)
LikeLike
o vosso site é um show
pesso-vos um favor manda-me fotos de varios famosos como da melyssa ford e outros muito obrigado
LikeLike
andre:
If you like Melyssa Ford, you might also like:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/vida-guerra/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/11/10/esther-baxter/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/angel-lola-luv/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/buffie-the-body/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/lizz-robbins/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/bria-myles/
You might also want to look at these pages:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/thick-black-women/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/the-most-beautiful-black-women-models/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/2008/05/07/2007/10/31/2008/04/25/big-bottom-girls/
LikeLike
Brit: What are you talking about???? I GREW UP in an all Black neighborhood all my life (south side Chicago). Sooooo…
LikeLike
i want to say that melyssa is alright but does have a nice body. erica, i do agree with what you’re about how she she an excuse, saying she’s a victim of how people see her as a video girl but she’s half naked in a video. but that doesn’t mean she’s a bad person because there are girls in videos that don’t take their clothes off get the bad reputation for being a hoe. plus i’m pretty sure there are girls who are in college probably becoming video girl or maybe start stripping because they don’t have enough money to pay for books and tuition and working at mcdonalds is not gonna help all the way through school because of minimum wage. that’s not necessarily an excuse because girls these days do what they have to do to support themselves through school or they may have kids. so we can’t sit here and judge someone because of the job they do. yeah it’s not a good one but she got out of the business and is now doing something with her life. i don’t feel sorry for her but she did what she have to do to support herself through college. not all black women would do the same thing because i’m in school myself trying to survive in college and pay my books and like you said it’s hard to find a job but that doesn’t mean i’m gonna become a video girl and just because melyssa did it doesn’t mean i will. so i can’t sit here and judge someone that i don’t know or don’t even care for.
LikeLike
Hot hot hot is all I’m gonna say 😉
LikeLike
well said lil’vina and erica too. But the starting argument over weather melyssa ford is mixed or not (and light skinned/dark skinned) is pathetic. I’ve read that Rihanna’s father is half Irish by the way, so I gues that makes her one quarter white…if its so important. *shakes head*
LikeLike
and by the way, even if most of these woment are enhanced, I’m sure that had to have had something impressive to begin with to even have gotten noticed in the first place.
LikeLike
i am a west indian, and i have seen rhianna’s father and he is just a very fair skinned but brownskinned black man, the media will let us hear what they want us to hear. and it is very unimportant, but why is it “shameful” to be black?
LikeLike
mellysa ford is still on hit, but she is
biracial so is president obama. we still live
in an “ass” backwards world who think of
them just being black.
i wonder because video vixens put they business
out on the street quicker than bad politicians
do. you look at a dumb hip hop video, and thinking this is almost like prostitution.
i hope that the sistahs will have a better
appearance now that we got change in the
whitehouse, hopefully hip hop is affected
in the change as well.
LikeLike
Doubt it, but we shall see.
LikeLike
I’m surprised nobody mentioned skin bleach in all this talk about modification/enhancements…
LikeLike
bi racial or not she does have a better body than Jlo , or vida or even kim kardashian she s a tone body but her face isn t pretty
by the way, since when because u don t have the supposed african features or dark skinned u are mixed race, I mean as african woman ,we are so different in my country we do have dark skinned but we also have fair skinned with light eyes or dark one with light eyes and they don t have any white or arabian blood in them
LikeLike
Like I was saying awhile ago, you can Ford on the list alongside Meagan Good as a “black female celeb trying to sound exotic”. For some reason, I don’t buy this “mixed” stuff with her. A lot of models are famous for claiming that they’re mixed with everything under the sound. It’s an attempt to stand apart, sound exotic and prove that they’re not “just (or really) black”. Goes to show you how blackness is perceived in the Western world.
Nubiah, which country are you from?
LikeLike
I totally agree with u (mynameismyname)and
I am from Cameroon and Mali.
LikeLike
Wow, Nubiah. That’s cool. If that is you in the avatar, you are quite beautiful. What are you mixed with? *wink wink* I’m being sarcastic, in case anyone’s wondering!
I made some grammatical mistakes in my previous comments. I meant to type “everything under the sun” not “everything under the sound”. And “you can put Ford on the list…” is what I meant to type.
LikeLike
yes it s me and thanks.
LikeLike
thats right, we are ass backward?
LikeLike
So I’m real late on this convo. In the movie “Good Hair” she says her mother is white (Russian/Norwegian) and says she wondered as a child why she couldn’t look her her mother (long blond hair and blue eyes). So unless she’s telling stories for the hell of it, she is biracial.
Someone mentioned that blacks in the western part of the world are mixed anyways. True, even OPRAH, after testing her genes, is 89% black and the rest is spread to some native american genes etc. So no one can be 100% sure they are 100% black. Unless you are biracial I think ppl should just go with where the majority of their genes come from.
I come from a Caribbean family. Lots of interracial mixing in the Caribbean goes on. I am black (fair skin curly hair)…out of my 4 grandparents, 1 was white (Romanian) out of my 8 great grands some were biracial (black with east inidian, black with native american, black with white, black with chinese)…There is no way I walk around saying “Hey I’m mixed!” I tell people I’m black cause that’s what I am. MOST of my genes are of African ancestry. My kids look JUST like me…My husband is Jamaican and his mother’s side of the family is multi-racial but the common denominator is “black”. I think its like grasping at straws when blacks say “I’m not black, I’m MIXED”. Unless you have a medical reason to get “technical” (family history etc.) I really don’t see the need to grasp at straws and claim genes that go back a few generations. The public doesn’t see that. They see BLACK.
LikeLike
Hot hot hot is all I’m gonna say lisa
LikeLike
This is SOOO true. I only found out about Ford a couple nights ago watching some show on BET. I was like DAYUM, I have to look her up. She is out of this world hot.
LikeLike
Sorry I don’t see how Melyssa Ford ‘looks mixed’. Her skin tone is very similar to that of us pure Africans, well in the South anyway 🙂
I get confused by the Western perception of what black beauty is supposed to mean ie do what degree are you mixed with white or ‘other’ blood are you then considered an attractive black woman.
I’m mixed too. Black and Black;)
LikeLike
MerriMay, of course Melyssa looks mixed. You may say that her skin tone is similar to some south Africans, but African-Americans are of W. African descent so what S. Africans look like doesn’t make any difference to us. S. Africans also have other facial features that differ from W. Africans, just as E. Africans have features that differ from both W and E Africans.
Comparing Melyssa to a pure west African black woman like this she is clearly mixed: http://www.celebrity-parenting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/african_woman_and_child.jpg
This southern African woman has a caramel complexion, but her facial features are totally different from W. Africans and she has eyes similar to Asians and even a somewhat different hair texture. I think southern Africans and western Africans may even be two completely different subgroups, like Thais and Japanese.
LikeLike
She looks totally black. I was couldn’t belive she’s mixed.
LikeLike
Oops, forgot to post the photo of the S. African woman.
LikeLike
Yes Tulio, we do look very different from our West African sisters, that’s for sure.
LikeLike
Tulio’s logic is very misguided.
LOL. You find a photo of the most stereotypical looking W.A. woman you can find to then contrast to photos of Ford to prove that she “looks mixed”.
There’s plenty of W.A. women who share Ford’s features and color and they’re not mixed with anything. LOL. I could easily post pictures of actual W.A.s who I know personally. Then we all can see the striking phenotypical similiarities between someone like Ford, who may or may not have a white parent and a full-blooded West African.
Aside from the obligatory dissection of her African ancestry, I get the feeling that Ford is washed-up. Not too many video hoes have a long shelf life.
LikeLike
Like I was saying awhile ago, you can Ford on the list alongside Meagan Good as a “black female celeb trying to sound exotic”.
I was LMAO when I read her wikipedia: According to Good, her maternal grandmother is “Jewish and African, so I guess that would be considered Creole. My mother’s father was Cherokee and something else. My dad’s mother’s Puerto Rican and African American, and his father was from Barbados.”
She was scrounging. Like Eva Pigford said: “You’re black. Get with it, love it, embrace it… you’re black.”
As for the appearance of W. Africans, the variety is endless. Yes, you have those that are of a deep chocolate skin complexion, but there are just as many of brown or lightercomplexions. Both of my parents are pure W. African and my mother is lighter than Melyssa with thinner features. My sister is Alicia Keys’ color and we both get the “You can’t be African!” comments, from blacks and whites. A lot of people are extremely ignorant and woefully misinformed in regards to the appearance of W. Africans, so I can’t even blame them. Most of my close relatives are lighter in complexion than many African-Americans. So I’m not buying Melyssa being mixed on account of her appearance alone.
LikeLike
Natasha, what W. African country are your parents from? I’m sorry, I don’t buy it that light-skin is something even remotely common in W. Africa unless there is mixture between former colonizers and/or Arabs to the north. It would be like Irish woman who had semi-black features saying she has nothing but Celtic ancestry. I’d say well maybe she better re-check her ancestry.
Very dark skin of black Africans was an evolutionary adaptation to living under a harsh equatorial sun. So there’s no reason there even SHOULD be light skinned people from that region of Africa unless those genes came in from elsewhere more recently in history.
Sure, there may be a one in a million exception somewhere, but it’s an extreme exception, like seeing a dark black man with blue eyes or something.
LikeLike
^^^
You’re obviously white…and very uneducated.
Sub-saharan Africans naturally come in a multitude of shades of brown with a broad range of features. As you (probably don’t) know, the continent of Africa is “where it all began” for everyone, so why wouldn’t the greatest variety in phenotype naturally exist?
Why does something as simple as a non-jet-black skin color have to be unthinkable for a pure-blooded WA to have? Are you reading how ignorant you sound? Let’s reserve it:
When you see darker-complexioned, full-lipped, kinky haired Italians, Portugeuse, Spainards and other Southern Europeans, what do you think? Do you contrast them to their more Gemanic counterparts in order to prove that they’re “mixed race”? Or do you just accept the variances in European apperance?
Do tell.
P.S.: I have known severa black folks who had light eyes, including blue-colored ones…they were mainly “dark brown”-skinned. Extreme exception, huh? Go travel the world and/or hang around some black folks for an extended amount of time. Then talk to me.
LikeLike
Natasha, what W. African country are your parents from?
I like to remain as incognito as possible online, so I’d rather not reveal that in case I give out any other identifying information (which I think I already have). Just know it is a W. African country.
I’m sorry, I don’t buy it that light-skin is something even remotely common in W. Africa unless there is mixture between former colonizers and/or Arabs to the north.
Everyone is mixed somewhere down the line. But I’ve seen photos of my great grandparents and they are pure W. African, so no mixing has taken place in the past several generations. I can’t do anything about you not believing it, but I wouldn’t lie about something as trivial as this. Like I said, most of my relatives are closer to a caramel complexion, like Melyssa. Some are darker, and some lighter. This never struck me as being anything unusual.
Sure, there may be a one in a million exception somewhere, but it’s an extreme exception, like seeing a dark black man with blue eyes or something.
This comparison — WOW. There are many, many “light skin” (caramel complexion and lighter) W. Africans. It is not at all an anomaly. I think you need to do more research on this topic if you truly believe it is that rare.
LikeLike
Because light skin is an environmental adaptation for people living in less sun-intensive areas. Whites turned white because they had to have less melanin in order to produce vitamin D with a weaker sun. The blacks of S. Africa are lighter than those of central Africa for that reason, because they are farther from the equator.
I didn’t say all W. Africans have to have jet-black skin, but I don’t believe that it is a natural feature of W. Africans to be LIGHT skinned. That is what I said. If I am wrong, then find me some pictures on the net of people in Nigeria and Ghana who like like Mylessa Ford who are unmixed. The people indigenous to that part of the world have evolved there for millions of years and equatorial sun is not kind to light-skinned people.
There are some black genes carried into Southern Europe through the Moors, that could explain some of the full-lips and kinky hair you are mentioning. I have been in Spain, Italy and S. France and most the people are Caucasoids with olive complexions. The olive complexion is due to both to thousands of years of mixing with N. Africans and also living closer to the equator. Keep in mind that N. Spaniards from Galicia, N. French and N. Italians look as white as they come.
Lol, so now you’re trying to tell me blue eyes are natural and normal black phenotype of unmixed Africans too huh? Are you just jesting with me now?
Oh and I am black(dark at that) and I’ve probably been to more countries than you have. So don’t be so presumptuous.
LikeLike
Yes Americans are very ignorant,so forgive them.They have this perception of what people of certain countries,/continents looks like.
Africa has the most diverse group of people on the planet.
While the so-called Whites are minority if the world,they would like you to believed everyone with certain features has to be mixed with Whites.
West Africans don’t all look the same.The sad thing he’s arguing with you,when he probably have never left the U.S. to travel.
I think one of the reason Americans are so ignorant is the fact that majority don’t travel outside of the U.S.
Lol, I think the so called White race are descendants of Albinos.It’s no wonder Whites hate darker skinned people,dark skin people are not kind to them now or then.
Ok I’m joking about Whites being descendants of Albinos,but they do have some things in common.
Any way these youtube videos is for people who assumed to dark skinned people can’t have light skinned children.
Pale skin is a mutatation and it’s not healthy,sientists are finally telling the truth now.
Yes I do find the torture of Albinos in Africa sad.
This is a very interesting vi
LikeLike
If I am wrong, then find me some pictures on the net of people in Nigeria and Ghana who like like Mylessa Ford who are unmixed.
I know MANY people from both countries that are close to her color; if only I could post photos of them. Melyssa isn’t even very lightskinned. Many black celebrities appear to be lighter with makeup and lighting.
I don’t know, I find it hard to believe that this is odd to you. I’m tempted to think you are joking, especially since you’ve stated you are black and have traveled to many countries. Very unbelievable, actually.
LikeLike
Tulio, I hate to say this but you are ignorant. Just because you haven’t been exposed to something doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong. I have been around Nigerians most of my life. I am African American but my mother dated a Nigerian for four years when I was a child. I remember going to my mother’s boyfriend’s family picnic. I was four at the time and I was amazed at the different skin colors the Nigerian’s possessed. Some of his cousins were light skinned. In fact, I would say that 1/4 of all the Nigerians I have met are lightbrowned skinned or lighter. And I have been exposed to quite a few Nigerians. I went to a Nigerian church for a while and I have worked with quite a few Nigerians. Now, I am not saying rather I believe they are mixed or not. I really don’t know. But I do believe people have a very narrow minded attitude about what West Africans look like. I also think that just because an West African looks different from what YOU think they should look doesn’t mean they are necessarily mixed. I’m talking about a person having a narrow nose or long hair ect. I have met quite a few Africans who had very very long hair and they were not mixed. When I asked how their hair grew so long, they explained to me that in the school they went to in Nigeria, they were not allowed to perm their hair, only braid it. Because their hair wasn’t exposed to chemicals, it was healthy and it grew long. I also didn’t perm my hair when I was young and my hair was extremely long and thick. People would always compliment it. My hair is still long but unfortunately I have permed it too frequently and It isn’t quite as thick. Anyway, the point I am making is that West Africans come in all shades and vary in terms of features. Many Africans and African-Americans have straight noses, but that doesn’t mean they are mixed neither. Who says that a long nose has to be an European feature. Bare in mind, racist whites came up with this belief that unmixed Blacks all have broad noses, etc. There is probrably way more variation in Africans than people realize. And I agree, Melyssa Ford does not look mixed to me. She looks like the typical African or African American. But I disagree with some people that she can’t be mixed. Maybe her father is extremely dark. You never know.
LikeLike
Here is a picture from a party in Lagos, Nigeria:
Nigerians come in all shades, not just very dark skin. Are we to believe that the different shades in this picture come from white people? If I said this picture came from New York that might be believable, but not in the case of Lagos.
LikeLike
Here are just a few pictures of Light skinned West Africans who are not mixed. For those people who think it is impossible.
http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20080315081165
http://www.onlinenigeria.com/member/content.asp?contentid=798
LikeLike
Thanks!
LikeLike
Thanks abagond and yaz. Truth is but a Google search away…
And Munachi Abii is gorgeous. A natural beauty.
Jeri, yes, anyone who has spent any period of time amongst W. Africans knows that they come in a variety of colors.
LikeLike
Pale skin is a mutatation and it’s not healthy,sientists are finally telling the truth now.
Yaaaahg!
MUTANTS!
Unclean! Unclean! 😉
LikeLike
It’s hard to know anyone’s ancestry just looking at a photo online without knowing who their parents were, who their grandparents were and so forth. So nothing can be proved one way or the other on this topic. Sade was born in Nigeria and I’d hardly say her skin color is representative of Nigerians. There has been decades of colonialism and migrations, some degree of intermixing in sub-saharan Africa by both whites and Arabs as well as lighter-skinned African-Americans repatriating to W. Africa, so sorting out where someone’s light skin came from is a tall order. Only way to know is with a DNA test.
I’m just saying that light-skin is NOT *representative* of West African phenotype and I don’t think that’s a controversial statement at all. I’m done with this topic.
LikeLike
It’s hard to know anyone’s ancestry just looking at a photo online without knowing who their parents were, who their grandparents were and so forth.
I’m familiar with the background of some of those posted by yaz. They are popular in W. African culture. Munachi Abii, Miss Nigeria ’07, is an Igbo from Nigeria with black Igbo parents. I can only assume her grandparents were also black Igbos, judging from her parents.
Sade was born in Nigeria and I’d hardly say her skin color is representative of Nigerians.
Sade is hardly representative of Nigerians, period, since she grew up in London. And I thought we were contending the issue of there being many W. Africans the color of Melyssa Ford, not Sade. Sade is clearly much paler in color than Melyssa.
I’m just saying that light-skin is NOT *representative* of West African phenotype and I don’t think that’s a controversial statement at all.
It’s not so much controversial as it is wrong. You must have been exposed to a limited group of W. Africans. There are numerous tribes in W. African countries and amongst them the people vary in skin shade. Some groups are darker than others. In Ghana, the Ashanti are much lighter than other tribes. In Nigeria, the Igbo are much lighter than the Yoruba, who are mainly of a darker complexion. A darker (deep brown or darker) skin tone amongst Igbos is actually much less common than a caramel complexion. You can do a Google search on “Igbo women” and see for yourself. But I’ll save you time and post some of the results here:
Colonialism doesn’t explain this because the reality is that British settlers were in all parts of Ghana and Nigeria. The tribes are just distinct groups, brought together in large part by colonialism.
LikeLike
I’m late on this post. But I want to say 3 things.
1. I do not want to knock anyone’s hustle. If Melyssa can make money off her looks, then so be it. I just hope she has something to fall back on because looks fade. I hate to call these women video hoes, because if you do not know them how do you know if she’s a ho or not?
2. I think (at least in regards to females) that more people in the entertainment industry have had surgical and cosmetic enhancements, than people who have not had them. If you are going to make money off looks you will do anything to gain that edge. And…let’s face it, most of your so called “beauties” in the entertainment industry are average looking without the make-up and enhancements.
3. Genetics are a funny thing. At first I thought she did not look “mixed”. ( A “mixed” look to me is an equal combination of features from both parents that present a phenotype that is a perfect blend) However it is as common for mixed race people to have a phenotype that is indistinguishable from most “Black” Americans/Canadians. Blacks come in a variety of skin colors, facial structures, and hair types, as do White people. So when you mix the two, you can get the “mix look” of both or look mostly Black or mostly White.
Of my four grandparents 2 where the offspring of Black American women and Scottish/Irish men (maternal side), one was a product of a Chinese father and Black mother, and one was Black (dad’s side). None of my biracial grandparents (who had to identify as Black after 1930 in the US when mulatto was removed from our census) had a Black phenotype. So as a result my siblings and I get the constant “what are you?”. Then I realized since I identify as Black but do not like it when people say I do NOT look Black, Melyssa may not like it when she identifies as mixed, but people say she does NOT look mixed.
LikeLike
Well, I am West African – politically Ghanaian and ethnically Nigerian (of Hausa tradition). I think the issue regarding posting a single picture to use it as a defacto in building a point as to what the skin shade(s) of West Africans is, I think that strategy is totally erroneous.
Many things have been said from the past by the colonial masters (the imperialists) in their quest to conquer the African continent in order to entrench their dominance politically, culturally, economically, spiritually, and intellectually.
To cut the story short, I would also like to post a link of other Nigerian group (the Hausa-Fulani which not only occupied the larger part of Nigeria, but almost 60% of the entire landmas of West African region : from Senegal to Sudan). The fact of the matter is that since predominatly the W. Africans are Muslims and traditionalists before the European envation, hence the scheme orchestrated by colonialist is to alliaeniate that part of illustrious history of W. Africa together with its makers so that they could have a freeway to brainwash and dominate the W. African (both in human & resources). Therefore, a typical black African by the colonialist definiton is “an ANGRY, HUNGRY, BIG NOSE, BIG LIPS, KINCKY HAIR, DARK person” (So any person without those attributes, he or she is considered as non-Black (W.) African or insulted as “Black Arab” by the Western definition.
Anyway, I would like to rest the judgment in the hands of the audience, who will visit the link (below) to see the other W. AFRICANS and then draw your conclusion whether MELYSSA FORD is soo extra ordinary that she can not be equated to Blacks and in that matter West Africans or the whole story of W. African complexions as being told by the West is grossly misrepresented.
NB: There are many prominent African-Americans who have traced their origing to the Hause-Fulani tradition (Just Google).
Thank You.
(Traditional Hausa Wedding – Pics)
http://www2.ku.edu/~hausa/materials/celeb/page01.shtml
(Where did African Americans come from? “Prince Among slaves” )
LikeLike
i feel that all the pple are arguing on this womans race when everyone knows she is african american and there is such things as curvy or thick light skinned black women and i feel ashamed at what pple are saying would u want pple to question your race so dont do it let her be beautiful let her be black because u lok at any black model or singer actress or actor some look jus like her and arent mixed
LikeLike
i agree, alot of people create their background to make it look exotic…
basically its competitive. the more exotic the better…
the girl is popular in the african american community… she is in hip hop videos… so who does she represent… duh.. (african american women)
the women is african american.. she looks african american.. so what , if she never mention that her mother is from russia, would any of you people still be arguing about her ethnicity…
give me a break, the girl looks black.. she has a big booty, big breast.. that what majority of african amerians, and people of african descent (hispanics) have….
the chick is popular in the minority community… so what is she? lol… she’s black… lol.. you can’t call her caucasian… are you serious?
LikeLike
i find it so funny people are trying so hard to make them look less african descent.. when the fact of the matter … the body structure… the money maker… (her body) is
derived of africans…lol
she so far from being of african… but yet her body, her big botty, her big but. which helped make a whole lot of money.. is the nothing but derived from africans…
lol…the facial features arent african.. but surely the body is.. cant deny that..
people are missing the point here.
if she didnt have that body, she would be left nowhere..
people neeed to embrace their african roots…
the women is african american… oh wait she’s from canada.. so she is a black women…
she needs to accept it.. your black honey..!!!
LikeLike
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular post! It’s the little changes that make the most important changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!
LikeLike
Melyssa Ford is somewhat light skinned and has light eyes, as a biracial woman I feel the need to comment on this contradiction that seems to pop up within the community. When you are a light skinned biracial Black woman if you identify yourself as Black you are constantly bombarded with the fact that you do not “represent what is thought of as a full blooded Black women.” But then when you identify yourself as a Black/biracial Black woman in order to not offend others the way you would by identifying yourself as just “Black,” you are then accused of embarrassing yourself by acknowledging that.
We should all get together and decide once and for all exactly what you would like for us to do. You can tell us exactly what we should say so as not to offend anyone and then perhaps we would appease everyone.
On another note, I find it interesting that there is skepticism over the fact that Melyssa said she felt she used to cry herself to sleep because her body was so different to the women she saw in the media who were considered beautiful. From Melyssa’s age, it is clear that she grew up in the “supermodel era,” so it is not hard to imagine her feeling that her body type was not beautiful.
Many studies have found that Black women produce more estrogen than any other racial group and Black men produce more testosterone, but that is neither here nor there. But all the talk of Black women’s hip to waist ratios on this blog, being “bizarre,” “grotesque,” “weird,” or something that is automatically the result of cosmetic surgery by non Black commenters with sistas chiming in in agreement, is interesting to say the least. You should look up Sarah Baartman, she certainly comes to mind. My mother is a woman of color and she has a 24 inch waist and 38 inch hips, I’m a Black woman and I have similar porportions, but of course I’ve had surgery, I’m a freak. Lol
Did you know that illusion of an enormous derriere that was constructed into the dresses of Victorian White women was actually as a result of White men travelling to Africa and becoming fascinated with the natural shape of Black women?
No one on the Vida Guerra site came in and began saying Vida was fake or a disgrace. I don’t agree with what they do for a living but I certainly don’t feel the need to mock any of these Black female glamor models.
And I would like to ask both non Black and Black’s slandering the Black glamour models on Abagond’s blog, from Buffie Carruth, to Melyssa Ford and pointing out any flaw that can be found in them, from their hair to their sound bites, and going on and on about how they’re bad influences and what they do/did is disgusting; do you ever go over to any playboy blogs or forums and trash White women who do this for a living? You do know that White women are the number one participators of porn right?
Interesting.
LikeLike
I meant to say “both non Black and Blacks.” I’ll have to get used to not being able to edit.
LikeLike
I disagree. Full blooded native Sub-Saharan Africans are dark-skinned, with kinky hair. Period. I’m not denying that there are extreme exceptions, nor am I denying that Sub-Saharan Africans come in all shades. But naturally, they don’t come in what we’d consider to be “light-skinned”. This is just my opinion, mainly from what I’ve observed of the people around me. Also, the pictures of these “light-skinned” people from Africa are obviously people with some degree of Caucasian admixture. You can tell by their nose bridge and hair texture. There’s only one tribe from South Africa (the Khoisans) who are light skinned, but even they have kinky hair, large lips, and a flat nose bridge.
Like the other guy/girl said, stereotyping West Africa as being some kind of homogeneous region is wrong. There has been colonisation going on there for hundreds of years, and yes, sometimes there would be relationships. Even with the white people.
I remember being shocked when I heard Reggie Yates (Black British radio personality & presenter) was African, specifically Ghanaian, and not Afro-Caribbean, because his skin was so light. Then I watched a documentary about him, and it turns out he had a white grandfather (English), who had a relationship with his Ghanaian grandmother during the colonial era. It’s not as far-fetched as you may think.
Afro-Asiatic people (i.e. Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans etc.) have some degree of Caucasian admixture. Some of the people in the pictures below look like Afro-Asiatic people.
Also, in my opinion, there’s no such thing as “full black” or “half black”. Black is a race, not an ethnicity. You can’t be a % of a race category. For an example 80% Sub-Saharan African, 11% European, and 9% Native American may be your ethnicity, but your race is black. There’s a difference in my opinion. I think it’s wrong to look at these so-called “biracials” as “less black”, because all African Americans have some degree of non-Sub-Saharan admixture. It seems like cherry picking to me.
LikeLike