Tyla Releases A Statement Following An Interview Where She Was Asked to Explain Her Ethnicity

Tyla Releases A Statement Following An Interview Where She Was Asked to Explain Her Ethnicity. Having to address the same issue over and over again can be daunting. Sadly, this is what Tyla goes through, mostly during interviews and on social media.

The Grammy Award-winning, musician has always labeled herself a “proud coloured South African woman.” Tyla celebrates her mixed heritage, which is known here as Coloured. This refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in South Africa who may have ancestry from African, European, and Asian people. The Coloured population is mainly concentrated in the Cape region and are not all culturally or linguistically homogeneous but many from those who identify as Coloured usually speak Afrikaans as a first language.

In the United States though, where Tyla is based, the term Coloured is not so popular. It is among the most offensive words for describing a black person. Historically, the word is associated with segregation, especially in the US, where black people were kept separate from white people.

This is quite tricky though for Tyla. She was recently on The Breakfast Club, when questions about her ethnicity arouse. The host Charlemagne Tha God gave Tyla the floor to explain why she labels herself as Coloured. She however bottled up and her publicist requested the question be struck from the record. This made her trend on social media, with many Americans dragging her.

With the controversy mounting, Tyla released a statement clarifying she never denied her Blackness, she simply chose to embrace her diversity.

“I don’t expect to be identified as Coloured outside of Southa by anyone not comfortable doing so because I understand the weight of that word outside of SA. But, to close this conversation, I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman,” Tyla said.