In the early 1970s, a surge of racial pride swept the United States and soon it found its way to the popular medium of broadcast television, where people of color had been entertaining the public since jazz pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole’s show debuted in 1956. The Civil Rights movement had elevated the status of blacks in this country and the social upheavals of the 60s had led Latinos and Native Americans to follow their public example.
Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian to an Armenian-American father and part-Cherokee mother in 1946) starred with husband Sonny Bono in one of the most popular television shows of the era, “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” (1971-74). An exotic beauty with dark skin, a prominent nose and thick black hair, she was a favorite of both traditional marginalized peoples and assimilated but socially-defined ethnics who regarded her as one of their own. For those of them accustomed to seeing blond and blue-eyed stars on their TV screens each night, Cher was a welcome change.
Cher’s 1973 song “Half-Breed” – her second #1 hit – is an unusual antidote to the era’s familiar expressions of racial pride. It is a statement about the ambiguity of race and a cry of resistance against being defined by its terms. For Cher, racial identity is not something fixed or ultimately even knowable. Her outlook is one of ambivalence that presages a contemporary America with a growing community of interracial children and a president whose father came from Kenya and mother from Kansas.
– Jim Demetre is a Seattle-based writer and the publisher and editor of Artdish.
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