Billboard: Critics loved Mariah Carey when they thought she was white

[Supersonic 49,376]

Whether critics were right about Carey's style circa 1990 is a matter for discussion, but one prevalent viewpoint espoused by several writers 25 years ago is just plain wrong.

Namely, that Mariah Carey is white.

As (hopefully) everyone knows at this point, Mariah Carey is not white -- or perhaps more specifically, she's not just white. She's African-American and Venezuelan on her father's side and white Irish on her mother's. But publications from Los Angeles Daily News to Playboy to the Herald Sun described her as "white" throughout 1990, an error that at least two publications (New York Post and USA Today) wrote to correct.

...

"Mariah Carey's anger over a racial comment was blown out of proportion, says spokeswoman Judy Womack at Columbia Records," reads the Nov. 20, 1990, USA Today article. "Friday, the New York Post reported that Carey was ready to 'sock [black music critic] Nelson George' because he called her a 'white girl who can sing' in his Playboy review of her self-titled album.... 'My father was very upset,' [Carey said]. 'It seems that most people don't know much about interracial children.' Womack says the quote was taken out of context, and that Carey and George are friends."

Read more: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6699720/mariah-carey-1990-critics-white

[bionic 41,943]

Mariah >>> critics

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

It has nothing to do with race lol.. Beyonce and Rihanna are both black and they are both overrated af

[Supersonic 49,376]

It has nothing to do with race lol.. Beyonce and Rihanna are both black and they are both overrated af

Take your nonsense to somewhere else please.

[Paper Gangsta 6,693]

Did Billboard hire tumblrers to write this nonsense or what? Artist's sucess varies from time to time, depending on many factors and same artist cant br trendy and on the top all the time. Some artist fade faster some slower depending on their acomplishments. 

Sad how stories like these take attention from the real racial issues

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

Take your nonsense to somewhere else please.

It's not nonsense .It's my opinion. You gotta respect it like it or not

[Riot Poof 2,236]

Maybe this explains why it took YEARS for Mariah to win more Grammys after 1991.

Good thing the general public didn't mind what Mariah's race was.