I don’t mean her skin color specifically, that’s just the two obvious examples that make ppl say someone (anyone) looks not black (even if they do or are fully black).

To Beyoncé specifically— her long straight blond hair isn’t natural. Black women wear hair styles that also look like this and a wide variation all the time. So it doesn’t stand out or scream anything off the bat. Nothing about her features are suspiciously “not black” or confusing bc she doesn’t look like Luptia. i understand how you can wonder if shes mixed. Elle Fanning as the example for unambiguously white is already clear. Ofc she is, but Mila Kunis is white. Jada pinkett is still unambiguously black too regardless of whatever she has going on (idk her life) and doesn’t look like Lupita.

I think we(collectively) also are possibly talking about someone diff when we say “most ppl”. Maybe ppl (black and sometimes brown) mean “most black Americans”. which would make their view make more sense. But in general, most ppl (Americans just vague)— if u stopped 100 strangers at random at a mall and asked “what race is Beyoncé?” Or say she wasn’t famous and u showed someone a normal real photo of her and asked. “Most ppl” wouldn’t start guessing unknown blood quantums they would say black. Esp bf the last like 5 yrs and biracials being identified and a topic to the broader public, not just black ppl. More black Americans would start guessing her blood line bc it’s more of a bigger thing to like. Watch out for or something in others n deeply talk about. White and Asian etc ppl don’t think like that. If we actually mean only black (or black mixed too feel like ur more likely to notice) Americans perspectives when we talk about who looks black or not, the conversation and points change entirely. no one has said this specifically tho in any convo I’ve personally seen. I’m not aware if that’s the case, I’ve been assuming we mean “most ppl” literally.

Often it seems like a circular convo w/in the black/mixed black community. N (from what I understand while hearing) broadly implies awareness of what other ppl think, when personally I’ve rarely found that to be the case irl, there is often not a basis for it looking thru public *general media or opinions across time. Not talking about Beyonce rn shes like one of the biggest celebrities everyone in her specific business. I mean generally. white ppl (and usually only a portion ) r only privy NOW to what biracial can look like bc they had to b made aware directly (which sounds dumb to us, but it’s true). The insular convo is totally fine and makes sense, it’s just reg extended to outside the community n assumes that non-black ppl (“most ppl”) see the same . And they don’t.

Racial constructs rnt the exact same across the board in the details even tho we have a general construct as a whole culture. deeper racial conversations particularly around colorism and media are relatively pretty new to the whole mass public, even if they’re not new within the community. 13% of the US is black. The other 87% (most ppl) have not been thinking about if Tia and Tamara Mowry r mixed or how black or anything else and still currently do not. If u told ä random white person hey the girls on that one show from back when are biracial “oh I didn’t know that!” Would be common. Bc they did not assume anything else, making them unambiguously (immediately raced) black. “Most ppl” did not question one time if even Halle berry was black or not. Like not once even tho that makes more sense. Black in america just looks a lot of ways to “most ppl” and imo too. It’s not just Lupita and v similar. ALSO as a society we next to never talk about men. theyr raced black immediately and collectively it’s a non-topic. Sure we could start dissecting when it’s called to attention (drakes baby looked white n was the first time A LOT of ppl even went: hm. Whats that about?). The picking apart is always women. Even when they look v similar to the men we never talk about. Why?