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MARIAH CAREY to play southern slave Hattie Pearl in movie "The Butler" (pic inside)

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royalan

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*Picture, if you will, Mariah Carey as a slave. A field slave named Hattie Pearl at that.

Actually you don’t have to wrap your brain around that thought at all ’cause the photo above is all you need to reference.

But really, what are we talking about? Once again, Carey is hooking up with Director Lee Daniels “The Butler,” for a part that, at first glance, makes one go, “huh?”

But then again if you’ve followed her film career, Carey, a high maintenance glamor queen in real life, seems to go for gritty, down to earth characters on film. And when you work for Daniels that’s pretty much what you’re going to play.

As we’ve reported, “The Butler” tells the story Eugene Allen, a longtime White House service worker starring Forest Whitaker

In addition to Whitaker playing the lead role, the highly anticipated production’s cast also includes high profile names like Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, John Cusack, Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alan Rickman and Terrence Howard, among others.

Daniels has cast music stars in his other films. If you recall, “Precious” featured both Lenny Kravitz and Carey in supporting roles, which were the complete opposite of their off-screen personas.

Carey is teaming up with Daniels again for The Butler, in a part that is against type to say the least.

As you can see from the photo above, which recently surfaced, Mariah Carey plays what appears to be the role of a slave named Hattie Pearl in the film.

According to IMDB, “The Butler” is scheduled to be released on August 16, 2013.
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Is this even realistic? Were there light-skinned slaves back then? Because in those days, it was a blessing in disguise to be able to pass for white.
 
Really? Some do think there were light skin slaves? You might as well also fool yourself into thinking no rapes took place.
 
If she was in black face people would be in an uproar. So they're not putting her in black face and people are still in an uproar. What do people want exactly? Next dudes will be saying that Carey shouldn't be cast as a slave at all.

Being serious, is this a good time to bring up Carey's super-tasteless (and sad) All I Want For Christmas is Jews?
 
I don't think they put the high yellow slaves in the field. I think they were allowed to serve Mr. Charlie his lemonade on the porch
 
She has to be playing a second generation slave, right? I can see a white plantation owner disowning a slave born child and that child being sold into slavery.

Even still, she's the whitest person I've ever seen portray a slave. Especially in the fields.
 
royalan said:
Don't get me wrong, sis: I'm rooting for her.

I just can't get over that image Mimi playing a slave.


And yeah, it wasn't common for "high yellow" slaves to be put out in the fields, right?
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It did happen. Was not common, as they were often rape-children of slave owners. Hence the more common special treatment.
 
I just hope someone films her after a take when she goes completely out of character into a high maintenance movie star persona.
 
MIMIC said:
Is this even realistic? Were there light-skinned slaves back then? Because in those days, it was a blessing in disguise to be able to pass for white.
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Yes it was realistic to have light-skinned slaves. Just cause you had an eighth of negro in you didn't mean you got a pass.

The off part is seeing Mariah Carey playing a role working in the field. As some have already alluded to, someone of her complexion would likely be working in the house rather than the field. But that doesn't mean that it was a hard fast rule. No matter what, slaves were doing the work that white people in America were prospering from. So while it was a preference, if they had a need for another field hand, you were doing the manual labor, almost-whiteness be damned.
 
Vice said:
Mariah's dad is black. African and Venezuelan.
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This is true.

I've seen this story pop up in my facebook feed since my sisters in PopGAF posted about it, and a lot of people seem shocked by the idea of Mimi playing a slave.

But, if you think about it, it makes sense. Slave masters did like taking advantage of their female slaves. It stands to reason that there must have been a sizable population of "high yellow slaves" as the generations wore on.

Lee Daniels has the opportunity to tell a good story from a surprisingly underrepresented perspective, if he plays his cards right.
 
Natural skin tone aside, she doesn't look like she's been out in the sun all day every day in that picture.

Put her on a beach so she can get some tan.
 
Aright, I'm game. I want to see what she can do as an actor again. This could be interesting.
 
It's interesting that some people don't realize how prevalent slave rape and mixed race children were, and how it lead to the entire issue of skin tone and desirability/status in the black community afterwards.

Most of us in the black community have some white blood somewhere in the family.
 
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