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What is the point of the term MGM (multigenerational mixed)?

LBLogan

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How come only light-skinned African-Americans like Steph Curry and his family, Vanessa Williams, and Angela Davis are referred to as MGM when all African-Americans are no matter what their skin tone is? For instance, Blair Underwood is only 74% African. Don Cheadle is only 81%. Snoop Dogg is only 75%. Yet no one would ever refer to them as MGM because their skin is dark. Tyra Banks is 79% and even though she has more African DNA than both Snoop and Blair, someone would probably refer to her as MGM because her skin is a lighter brown than theirs and she has green eyes.

Wanda Sykes is about the same percentage African as Vanessa Williams (59% and 56%) and I don't see anyone referring to her as MGM. Neither of them have a white parent, grandparent, or even great-grandparent. They aren't even Louisiana Creole.

Michelle Obama hasn't taken a DNA test, but ancestral researchers found white ancestors for her like every other AA. They are distant, though.

Michelle’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, were all black. She has Gullah roots. Michelle also has some European ancestry on her family tree, with distant English, Scottish, and Irish, roots. One of Michelle’s white ancestors was her great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Marion Shields. Charles was the son of Henry Wells Shields and Christianna Payne Patterson.

This term seems to only apply to people with certain features and seems to actually be colorist. It is also redundant because if you consider yourself black and are an ADOS in America, you are multigenerational mixed. Just because you have dark skin does not mean you aren't MGM like every other AA. So what is the point of this term besides division based on features?
I've literally only seen MGM used on LSA.

In looking at genealogy info a family member shared with me recently, there was a lot of genetic admixture in our ancestry long before we were taken from Africa. Probably more mixture back then than that which took place after our people arrived in America. But that's a topic that's rarely, if ever, discussed when these conversations arise.
 

BROWNWOMAN20

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If they say that “MGM” is highly mixed people procreating, then Joe Jackson would actually qualify. There are pictures of his Black ancestors online and they look mixed. But the Jackson family is undeniably Black and not just because of Katherine.

Also, light-skinned/dark-skinned unions were a thing before Civil Rights. Coretta Scott King, Jimi Hendrix, Muhammad Ali, etc. all had parents that were light-skinned/dark-skinned before Civil Rights. Maybe they want to say it happened with even more frequency during and after Civil Rights, but this was always a thing going back to slavery. Ellen Craft and William Craft, the famous couple that escaped slavery, were a “MGM” (Ellen was actually 3/4 European)/dark-skinned couple that went on to create Black schools. Ernest Everett Just was light-skinned/“MGM” and his first wife was dark-skinned.

“MGM,” as in an actual colorist family that intentionally only marries light, is rare and certainly even more so today.

Sonya Curry gets called “MGM” and I found out she has at least two dark-skinned grandparents and a very brown-skinned and unambiguously Black brother. She has one grandmother who looked “white-passing” to me and that likely explains why she has a lot of European DNA

Steph is called “MGM” but his daddy isn’t even one at all. His sister Sydel is also married to a non-“MGM” Black man. Steph and Seth’s choices in wives are typical of all Black men in the NBA and that goes into the colorism we see from Black men across the board.

But ultimately, I shouldn’t have to scope people’s grandparents to see if they are “MGM” or not. People in here saying Tisha is not when like Sonya, she also has a grandmother that looked “white-passing” and Tisha even said herself her grandmother looked white.

Done ranting.
 

BROWNWOMAN20

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Well, ADOS people are very aware of these types of people, from back in the day, and mulatto was used, but I'm not sure how frequently it was used, or more so on documents, rather than actually calling a person one face to face. My older cousin, almost 90 but in great health, described her grandfather, my great, as a mulatto. He was MGM, but apparently his looks stood out. She heard the term as a little girl, but distinctions and colorism, was apparent back then, even Lena Horned talked about it. Apparently Lena was seen as black, but mixed as well in many ways. All of my highly mixed ancestors broke the chain, and married darker skin ADOS people around the early 1900's, literally, then two other branches were highly African, little to no admixture. I am more admixed than my cousins, who had only one known very mixed line. I was surprised by some of their DNA results. I have cousins that are 96 to only 25% African, that identify as African American, first through third cousins! The ones who are 25-50% African, are older cousins, in the 3rd to 2nd cousin once removed range.
 

ambro23

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This Black british uses that term. It was created by FOREIGN fonts on LSA. There's NOTHING ADOS about MGM. I love to prove my point.
 

Nikki2000

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How come only light-skinned African-Americans like Steph Curry and his family, Vanessa Williams, and Angela Davis are referred to as MGM when all African-Americans are no matter what their skin tone is? For instance, Blair Underwood is only 74% African. Don Cheadle is only 81%. Snoop Dogg is only 75%. Yet no one would ever refer to them as MGM because their skin is dark. Tyra Banks is 79% and even though she has more African DNA than both Snoop and Blair, someone would probably refer to her as MGM because her skin is a lighter brown than theirs and she has green eyes.

Wanda Sykes is about the same percentage African as Vanessa Williams (59% and 56%) and I don't see anyone referring to her as MGM. Neither of them have a white parent, grandparent, or even great-grandparent. They aren't even Louisiana Creole.

Michelle Obama hasn't taken a DNA test, but ancestral researchers found white ancestors for her like every other AA. They are distant, though.

Michelle’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, were all black. She has Gullah roots. Michelle also has some European ancestry on her family tree, with distant English, Scottish, and Irish, roots. One of Michelle’s white ancestors was her great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Marion Shields. Charles was the son of Henry Wells Shields and Christianna Payne Patterson.

This term seems to only apply to people with certain features and seems to actually be colorist. It is also redundant because if you consider yourself black and are an ADOS in America, you are multigenerational mixed. Just because you have dark skin does not mean you aren't MGM like every other AA. So what is the point of this term besides division based on features?
This is a new term created by foreigners. Their logic is NEVER consistent especially when it comes to who is "unambiguously" black and who is not. Like how tf is Curry unambiguously lightskin black but zendaya cant call herself black. An example of an unambiguous lightskin black man to me is Giannas Antetokoumpo and hes nigerian. The whole two black parent logic is dumb asf cause we dont know whos parents were biracial identifying as black (ie. Prince, Vanessa Williams, Rosa parks), of course we are going to say prince has two black parents because thats what they identified as ... its clear that if they went to west africa they would be seen as coloured. To that logic, If a biracial person and a black person of 2 black parents have a baby, would the baby also be biracial, since they dont have two "black" parents. If a biracial person cant call themselves black, how can they have black children? Everybody in that lineage would be mixed or MGM and not black. Whole sh!t is dumb to me. Also, not all of us biracial/mixed people grow up in an interracial household, cause i grew up in an all black household so why would i see myself as anything other than african american/black.
 

Kaszilla

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This is a new term created by foreigners. Their logic is NEVER consistent especially when it comes to who is "unambiguously" black and who is not. Like how tf is Curry unambiguously lightskin black but zendaya cant call herself black. An example of an unambiguous lightskin black man to me is Giannas Antetokoumpo and hes nigerian. The whole two black parent logic is dumb asf cause we dont know whos parents were biracial identifying as black (ie. Prince, Vanessa Williams, Rosa parks), of course we are going to say prince has two black parents because thats what they identified as ... its clear that if they went to west africa they would be seen as coloured. To that logic, If a biracial person and a black person of 2 black parents have a baby, would the baby also be biracial, since they dont have two "black" parents. If a biracial person cant call themselves black, how can they have black children? Everybody in that lineage would be mixed or MGM and not black. Whole sh!t is dumb to me. Also, not all of us biracial/mixed people grow up in an interracial household, cause i grew up in an all black household so why would i see myself as anything other than african american/black.
The distinction between "MGM" black people and first gen biracials are relatively new. Historically mulatto referred to anyone who was roughly half black and white regardless of if their parents were different races (black or white) or both were mixed. Today, mullato in America is used to describe first generation biracials and "MGM" are just seen as lightskinned.
 

Nikki2000

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The distinction between "MGM" black people and first gen biracials are relatively new. Historically mulatto referred to anyone who was roughly half black and white regardless of if their parents were different races (black or white) or both were mixed. Today, mullato in America is used to describe first generation biracials and "MGM" are just seen as lightskinned.
I agree. Someone that looked like prince and even his parents and grandparents would be marked as mulatto. Theres ppl out there that are genetically biracial but not ethnically with two of the same race parents. But Prince is always going to be a black man for sure. Maybe not in Africa, but in the U.S.
 

seven7pato

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In the United States, the ONLY term ADOS use for lighter skinned people in our community is LIGHT skinned, NOT MGM. The only people who are very racially ambiguous in our community are called CREOLE, but NOT MGM. Never heard the term MGM in my life until I came on LSA. That's NOT our term because MGM implies that there are purely Black people and mixed people in our community. Anybody in our community knows that native Black americans have in average 20/30% of White blood. Nobody is 100% PURE Black unless you're an African. That's why that term makes no sense.
 

Nikki2000

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In the United States, the ONLY term ADOS use for lighter skinned people in our community is LIGHT skinned, NOT MGM. The only people who are very racially ambiguous in our community are called CREOLE, but NOT MGM. Never heard the term MGM in my life until I came on LSA. That's NOT our term because MGM implies that there are purely Black people and mixed people in our community. Anybody in our community knows that native Black americans have in average 20/30% of White blood. Nobody is 100% PURE Black unless you're an African. That's why that term makes no sense.
I never heard of this term until coming on here either lol. Seems like only indigenous Africans from the motherland can call themselves "black" from the logic lsa be spewing.
 

EyezWideShut

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I use MultiGenerational Mixed- MGM when talking about people like Zoe or heavily Mixed families. I think it came from the Mixed race movement in America not the Caribbean. I think Multigenerational Mixed was just shortened to just "Mixed race".

I noticed America prefers Mixed race, Multiracial or Multiethnic moreso than Biracial. Guess because its a way to include all Mixed people ..even the "We're All Mixed" crew lol no.
 

CaliOrange

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To basically label black people of a lighter shade as non black.
Aw I never thought of it like that…
I always thought of it as a way to explain that they are in fact black. Like culturally black, but this is why their features may seem mixed. For example, some people may look at black people like Vanessa Williams, Zoe Kravitz, or even Robyn and Gizelle and assume they’re immediately biracial or have a whole non black parent, but I thought MGM was just a way to explain why you’re light. Like “no they’re African American, they’re just MGM”.

Idk maybe I’m wrong.
 

BrownSkin_Girl

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Aw I never thought of it like that…
I always thought of it as a way to explain that they are in fact black. Like culturally black, but this is why their features may seem mixed. For example, some people may look at black people like Vanessa Williams, Zoe Kravitz, or even Robyn and Gizelle and assume they’re immediately biracial or have a whole non black parent, but I thought MGM was just a way to explain why you’re light. Like “no they’re African American, they’re just MGM”.

Idk maybe I’m wrong.
I think a lot of people look to phenotype but it’s important to highlight not all light skinned people come from MGM families. For instance, Henry Louis Gates, the historian comes from an MGM family and by all accounts if people saw him walking down the street I don’t think people would assume he is MGM.
 

peachblossom

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Turning the USA into South America.

Over-complicating established norms in the American Black community regarding phenotypes and proper recognition of them, to our detriment.

White people ensuring their grandchildren who don't look like them are considered "white" or "white-adjacent"/anything other than "black" or "POC" for white longevity and benefit--same way they did w/ every other "honorary white" group.

Retconning established high-achieving Black Americans and other peoples of the African Diaspora who held themselves out as their day's version of "Black" as "Great Whites of History" like they already did to Beethoven (who was, yes, a Moor, and thus not white--one of the most successful retcons of an historical figure), are trying to do to Pushkin and Dumas, have already done to Degas, too many to name.

So white people can take credit for the current nonwhite trending beauty societal preferences to keep repeating the lie of a "white beauty standard" even tho such a thing has never existed and the social preferences based on unmixed "white features" haven't even been a thing as far back as the 1800's.
 
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