The late, Natalie Cole, gave us an honest look at her Mother’s perception of dark skinned people, including her dad, Nat King Cole. After reading more about Natalie’s skin complexion issues within her own family, we respect the body of work that Natalie Cole has graced us with…through it all, she did it with class!

Natalie said her mother, Maria Cole and her family’s ways isolated her from other Blacks during childhood. Natalie recalled growing up in Los Angeles’ exclusive Hancock Park section, where the Coles were the only Black residents.

Natalie on her Mother’s reaction to her playing with other African American children growing up:
[pull_quote_center]“When I got friendly with the Black people who worked for us, MY MOTHER was appalled. She wanted us to interact with a different society-outside the house.”[/pull_quote_center]

Before we go any deeper into this story, we think it’s important to point out that this is not something that Natalie’s Mother and her family, should SOLELY be judged for, because although they are at fault, we all know this is a much more deep rooted issue within the African American culture that goes WAY beyond them. Mrs. Cole and her fam’ were simply just products of that deep rooted issue. So while it’s easy to say “they are wrong for that” and walk away, we have a much bigger battle to fight to overcome the this universal ‘complexion disease.’ This dark skin/ light skin tension is a socio-psychological sickness, not simply just a choice, and many of us have been inflicted by it in various ways, ever since it was embedded within our psyche’s dating back to slavery.

We applaud Natalie for her willingness to openly shed some light on this topic through her own personal experience with it.

Flip the page to see what else Natalie said about this.