Mariah Carey is opening up about her family's encounters with racism.
During a Thursday appearance on Watch What Happens Live, the music icon discussed her recent memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and shared that her 9-year-old son, Moroccan, was recently bullied by a white supremacist.
“Rocky just got bullied the other day by a white supremacist person that he thought was his friend,” Carey, 50, told host Andy Cohen. “It's like, insane. This is the world we live in.”
Though her memoir was completed prior to the current Black Lives Matter movement, Carey, who is biracial, said the book ended up being “so timely.”
The “Hero” singer is even reading the chapters that touch on race to Moroccan and his twin sister, Monroe, whom Carey shares with ex Nick Cannon.
“I'm reading chapters to them that are helping to illustrate my encounters with racism, and how they can then have a greater understanding, and ultimately a greater reservoir with which to deal with the situation itself,” Carey explained.
The superstar singer went on to detail a few of those encounters to Cohen, including an instance in which she was “traumatized” as a young girl by teachers who insisted she was using the wrong color crayon in a drawing of her father, who is Black. In another incident, Carey said a friend of hers “burst into tears” after meeting her father.
“It's been a struggle for me since I was aware that there was such a thing as race,” she said. “And the only reason I was aware so early on was because it became a subject of humiliation for me as a child.”
Further in the book, Carey also recalled another “traumatic moment” with girls she thought were her friends, explaining that she read that chapter to her daughter to discuss the experience. After, the 9-year-old had the sweetest response.
“I let her hear that and it was really sweet, she goes, ‘Mommy, those girls, they feel so bad now. I bet they wish they could be your friend,’” Carey said.
To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations:
• Campaign Zero works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies.
• ColorofChange.org works to make the government more responsive to racial disparities.
• National Cares Mentoring Movement provides social and academic support to help Black youth succeed in college and beyond.
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