*South African singer Tyla is not backing down over her controversial line of identity, which has irritated a section of the Black community who thinks it’s “offensive” and “outdated.”
A 2020 TikTok video in which she described her race as a “colored South African” resurfaced in 2023, drawing the attention of the Black community, who educated her on how not to identify herself in this generation.
In a recent interview with British Vogue, the “Water” singer also managed to educate her educators. She said she understands the problematic past the Black community in America has been through, but also wants the world to understand who she is.
“I understand that word is a sensitive word to people,” she stated. “So I don’t blame people for being touched about it. I just would have wanted an opportunity for people to actually truly listen and learn.”
South Africa, her motherland, is much like America when it comes to racism. During the unforgettable apartheid era in South Africa, Blacks were discriminated against, especially following the Population Registration Act of 1950 that forced Africans to register themselves as either white, native, or colored.
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@tyla_ #celebratemzansi let’s see you guys join the challenge? #african #heritageday #heritagemonth #africa ♬ Pata Pata – Miriam Makeba
Tyla said she can’t stop identifying herself as “colored because it was all she knew growing up as a South African. That’s what the system taught her. Being told to stop only confused her, she added.
“It was bad for a lot of us. They just classified us. And that just so happens to be the name that the white people called us, Tyla said about South African apartheid. “They chose to call people that were mixed ‘colored‘. And I’m not gonna lie, it was hard because all my life, obviously I knew ‘I’m Black’ but also knew that ‘I’m colored‘. So when I went to America and people were like, ‘You can’t say that!’ I was in a position where I was like, ‘Oh, so what do I do? What am I then?’”
The 23-year-old added that she is not parting from the norms of her South African culture because, after all, she is at a point where she knows who she is.
“I know I’m a Black woman,” she stated. “And I know I’m a colored woman as well, and you can be both. And the people that care to learn, they understand now. And that’s enough for me.”
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