I used to say I like every kind of music except Country. That was until my good friend Steve Abel made me sit down and listen to ‘Johnny Cash at San Quentin’, recorded live at the infamous prison. I was an instant fan.
So when “Walk the Line”, the Johnny Cash biopic, was released in 2005 I was eager to see it. I thought it was a great movie, with some brilliant scenes, like the one where Ma and Pa Carter see off Cash’s dealer with shotguns as he quits cold turkey. They seemed to epitomise the best of White Southern Christian Decency, in contrast to the usual treatment we see of Southern hypocrisy, malice and racist cruelty.
The romance between Johnny Cash and June Carter was of course the main thread of the movie. It winds around his protracted wooing of her and ends with a caption celebrating their 35 year partnership on and off stage after she finally agrees to marry him. His first wife Vivian is portrayed as a woman just never suited to be his wife and who drove him away with her bitterness, jealousy and resentment. I remember idly wondering what she was really like, and whether this was a fair portrayal of her character, as the story moved back to his great love for June.
Watching the movie for a second time the other day I was again swept up in what a nasty, bitter woman Vivian was, even as another part of my mind again questioned the representation. In the garden with my wife the following day, we began deconstructing the movie as we worked. As we talked through different elements of the plot, I began to feel more and more uneasy. Later I decided to google Vivian Cash. I found a review of her book ‘I Walked the Line’, written after the film came out. Not surprisingly it gave a very different story to the film, suggesting that their marriage had been very happy until June stole John away. What WAS surprising, though, was when I looked at photos of Vivian. Turns out that she was a black woman.
You’d never know from reading any of the articles about her.
You’d certainly never know from watching the movie, where she is played by Ginnifer Goodwin.
In fact the only thing I found in my admittedly brief search that referenced her ethnicity was a newspaper headline from when he was busted for drugs that says “ARREST EXPOSES JOHNNY CASH’S NEGRO WIFE”. Presumably exposes her for the sin of being black in the USA.
Interestingly, in contrast to the newspaper article from the time, the film shows him leaving court alone and coming home to her censorious displeasure. It is shortly after this arrest that the chronology of the film shows them separating.
I’d noticed before that there are almost no black people in the film. Two shoe shiners are the sum total are far as I remember. I imagine the director, James Mangold, justifies this by saying that there are no black characters who are important to the story. That is if you don’t include his first wife.
Suddenly the treatment of Vivian makes complete sense. In the world of American Country music, of course the black woman is the villain of the story – even when her husband leaves her and her four daughters for another woman. June and John are considered one of the most iconic couples in country music history, and no black woman is going to undermine that narrative. Her character has to be destroyed. But even that is not enough. Her very identity is robbed from her, made invisible by whitewash.
They say that black is not a colour, it is the absence of light. That certainly seems to be true in Hollywood.
EDIT: I have been asked in some of the comments to withdraw my post because Vivian’s birth certificate and recorded genealogy state that she is white. I will not do so, for two reasons:
1. Regardless of what was written on her documents, it is apparent to many of us (especially those of us of mixed ancestry ourselves) that she is black / mixed (there must be a better word for that). This is an opinion based on every single photo of her to be found. There is a one photo from later in life which some say shows that she is white. I guess if you don’t have elderly multiracial friends or family (and ignore every other photo of her) you might think so but it is not convincing. There are numerous possible explanations for the discrepancy between her official papers and her appearance, many of them outlined in the comments.
2. Given the effort made in the movie to try to cast actors who resembled their characters, casting Ginnifer Goodwin for someone who is at the very least ethnically ambiguous is still whitewashing. Her ethnicity was important to their story, as evidenced by the attacks upon them both.
Ethnicity and racism are very touchy subjects to be sure. I have never had such interest in a post, and almost exclusively from North America. Why? Perhaps the USA needs some kind of national reconciliation process to help it deal with the trauma and shame of its past.
——————————————————————————
As of 13 May 2020 I am closing the comments because a growing number of posters from the USA are getting increasingly abusive of each other.
Monkey Business 
……well I be damn, never knew this before, not even after taking american music history in college!
You didn’t know because it’s not true. The woman in those photos is not Cash’s wife.
I looked it up on the internet and discovered that it was her picture. She looks more like partially black. Either way, she was beautiful!
Who cares but a racist person? He loved her at one time. Yes, God forbid a country icon married a black woman! Have things changed this little in race relations? Face it racists she’s black! SHAME on you!
Google her name,…go to images.. and you will see it is her. She is CLEARLY bi-racial. Beautiful. Shame on the producer for misleading folks.
Yes she was
Where are their children now?
Roseanne Cash is their eldest daughter. Country singer song writer. Pretty famous in her own right. Not sure about the other 3…
and when you see roseanne and compare her image to her parents then you know the photos in this article are her mother.
I believe Roseanne lives in NYC and one lives in TN one lived in Ca and I am not sure about the other one
She was a Latina from San Antonio, Texas!
You can be both Black and Latina.
She was Italian
I just looked up her family history in census records from the early 1900s. She is not “Latina”. Her mother and maternal grandparents were Robinsons – all white and from Texas. Her “father” (Liberto) is a white American from Texas. His parents were white and born in Italy. She is NOT Italian. Born in Texas.
The Robinsons were supposedly white and possibly mulatto.
That woman is black whether she is American black or of Hispanic descent. Does making her a Latina make you feel better about Johnny being with her.
Either way African blood definitely is in her blood.
Her mother’s last name was Robinson, a common African American name not Latina. Her dad was a well known Italian business man. The research of the family is easy to find.
She was Italian
Dumb as rocks…I am a fair skinned african american creole woman and there is no question that this woman was BLACK. Dumb a$$
Should we change her ethnicity to ‘one drop’ to shut everyone up?
Yes indeed! Tell it!
Lol. She’s much darker than I am. And I am happily proud 100% Black…
💜💜💜
She was NOT born in ITALY. Both “parents” are listed as White in the Texas censuses, both of her parents were born in Texas. Her maternal grandparents were white and from Texas. Her “father’s” parents -Libertos- were white and they are the only people born in Italy. Italian is not a race.
If that is true someone was definitely cheating with a black man, ijs.
It is to me. I hate Caucasian as a race or description of my heritage. Half my Italian heritage is Sicilian the other half from Naples. Sicily was once invaded by a great African warrior. So who is to say. Don’t put me in a category anyway.
either one of her maternal parents or grandparents could have had black DNA with one being able to pass as white hence the listing…. but… we can only make suppositions. The family can have DNA testing done if they really want to know. Don’t seem like they do and they are happy with who they are.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/12/entertainment/la-et-ms-johnny-cash-calif/4
Apparently she wasn’t black.
We all can agree that Italian is not a color? Yes Vivian can be mixed with African blood, even with ancestors from Italy. There are black Italians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, English, Australian people (see where im going here). The times article gives evidence to the hateful, bigoted, disfunctional mind set of the citizens in the US. They went out of their way to cause such a ruckus over her beautiful skin AND features that this poor family was forced to pass for anything other than black. I used to only imagine the type of hate black people endured in those days. Sadly today its easy to understand their plight. With all of our advancement, education and technology Americans are still so gullible. God bless America, our text books, our minds and our ability to think outside the racist box that this country was founded on. Lord knows We sure need it.
Well said. As a historian, the injury is in making assumptions that end up entering the historic narrative- with no credibility other than the editorializing of a Jim Crow-era, non-cited newspaper article. This could be from the KKK Weekly.
Hateful, bigoted came honestly with the colonists that came from where? Think of the way the indigenous peoples are treated to this day in Australia, by whom? South Africa, let us not overlook. Bigotry is a human failure. Think of how deadly it became in Germany and Rwanda. Your comment reveals bigotry in you. There are bigots everywhere. We are not all bigots over here in America. Ask Barack Obama, who served two terms as our president. His mother was white, his father hailed from Kenya.
Well said! !! May God bless you!
Liked your comments on Johnny Cash and america.
Heather uses Barak as a good example. Yeah, he’s bi-racial. And in his book he stated he hated his mother for being white. Hello? Good example of not being racist?
Let us hope that you aren’t held up for criticism for admitting feelings you had as a child, influenced by the behavior of those around you. Your nick would suggest you not be judgmental.
Amen!!!
Wow! Is it really any surprise to folks that “Hollywood” would present a racially fueled relationship in this way? Especially with it being connected to southern Christianity. There have been enough books written on the subject of Hollywood and race/Christianity/sex/etc. They have done this with plenty of movies. It’s called artistic liberty. And it is done with intent. Do any of us really think that media corporations are going to just make entertainment without an agenda? Of course not. There’s more news and money to be made with violence and hate. They don’t have to worry about the fallout, it isn’t their neighborhoods getting hit during riots. Just some food for thought.
Having bi-racial family members (8 of them)….she is clearly bi-racial. Period. What a hack of crap. She was a very beautiful woman.
Trust me her family was “passing”
Thank you. This whole thing is going viral and it is a load of fake hooey.
The remarks regarding Hollywood playing fast and with historical accuracy apply to the Disney-made melodrama What’s Love Got to Do With It, which portrayed Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship in a manner at odds with accounts if those who were close to them. Their long-term keyboardist defends Ike against the perhaps baseless allegations that he was an evil brute:
http://www.sl-prokeys.com/ike/iketurner.htm
Black is the presence of Life and Light!!!
Yes! It lets it IN!! Bravo!
Reminds me of our current relations. The Pilot of the Airline that crashed on the way to the White House on 9-11 was …….. BLACK!! Where was he in the movie? The more things change the more they remain the same .. in Hollywood!!
Re Do the story so the truth would be told!
Cash not only walked the line… he also tiptoed though the hood
Hillarious
Great comment😂😂😂😂
Good one😂
Yeah, Cuz all blacks are from the hood, right? You suck as a human.
Exactly! The ‘hood’ can very well be your neighborhood as well!
lol good one Bern
funny lol
Someone posted that Vivian was Italian. Let’s confirm before we go further. The press may have been wrong as well.
Oh my! The worse thing in the world…
Ooo let’s confirm!
Trust me back in the day white news paper reporters knew the difference because the researched her family.
You exposed yourself.
Vivian was half-Italian. Her father was Thomas Libreto, son of Italian immigrants. I did a genealogical search on my own and confirmed it.
According to census records Vivian’s mother is Irene Robinson Liberto, Irene’s parents are Dora Minnie Kornmeyer Robinson and George Edgar Robinson. Per the 1920/30/40 census Dora’s parents were born in Germany so she has German roots and her father George Edgar Robinson is listed as white, born in TX to a French/German mother and White father. Vivian’s father was Thomas Peter Liberto who’s parents were born in Italy. Census records and other research can be done for free at familysearch.org
Ok…but you are talking about Nationality…not race. That is different. There are Black people in all these countries. Look at her pictures…they are very clear. And Robinson…that is a black name if I ever heard one. The article is saying that she was passing…clearly looking at her pictures you can see that the family was too.
Black Americans have no true names. Robinson is not a Black name. We carry the name of ex masters, rivers, plantations or whatever was picked at the end of slavery. Free blacks picked as well in this country when they were brought over. So there are no true black names for us. We carry other people ancestral names.
No Robinson isn’t just a black name! I have a friend who’s maiden name is Robinson and she isn’t black.
Wrong parents… her grandparents were born in Texas and were not of German descent.
Her maternal grandmother was of German descent. She was born in Texas but her parents were born in Germany. It’s the right parents. I looked it up myself.
Some of the census records have my family listed as White , Mulatto and Black. You can not depend of them as being 100% accurate
That’s always the case in this country and colour. Hollywood just protests it in the movie as he wanted it. Just like our white people before him use us and throw us away. No-one knows the wiser.Why didn’t she come forth with the truth or her kids, they didn’t want to hurt him out his career? Either way they did what they wanted to do, keep the sister hid and Johnny still the great white music man, no wonder I never liked him OR music.
Presumably exposes her for the sin of being black in the USA……….this is what you say when you think you’re right about what you are saying……….sin of being black, that makes God an idiot, really reporter, really……….sin of being black.
It was meant to be an ironic comment on institutional racism in the USA. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear enough.
I’m shocked that this was covered up! Just as Black History supposedly didn’t exist, I find erasing her presence to be so pre 1954! I wonder what his kids think.👎🏽
There are a lot of things about America that would shock you, I’m sure. There is a tsunami of political shocks right now, for instance. As for the cover ups, it’s the American way. I, myself, was shocked to see that my father’s birth certificate showed his father’s information, but his mother’s information was blank. Imagine no mother information on a newborn’s birth certificate. My father was upset when I asked about it. It turns out his mother was not white-she was a Native American of the Creek tribe. My father angrily asked, “Are you satisfied, now?” I said, “Oh, wow! That is so cool.” Then, he was shocked.
Please research this further and correct your post if you agree this is a hoax. Here is a link to Cash’ first wife’s obit. She’s Italian. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=sh&GRid=11025335
Here is a link to Vivian Cash’s Wikipedia page. A shame to obliterate the real accomplishments of a back woman who founded her own record company all to sully the reputation of a great singer who tried to be a good man. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Carter
who is Vivian Carter?
A record executive. The whole story about Johnny Cash’s supposedly black wife was a very early example of fake news put forth by the far right press. They took advantage of a photo or two of Cash with a black woman. No doubt they found the idea of a black woman owning her own recording company hard to stomach. So they took advantage of photos to put forth a story that Cash had a black wife. He didn’t his first wife was white, of Italian extraction.
What is Italian extraction? Either you are born in Italy or you aren’t. Italian is not a race. Police don’t put out an APB looking for an Italian person.
Italian is not a race I know blonde blue eyed italians.The Moors invaded Italy. That woman is a black woman period. She might have some white in her like Obama. Definitely black.
True, President Obama identified as black. He is also an amazing, intelligent, sensitive, patriotic, and extremely classy gentleman.
The woman in the photo with Cash in the newspaper is black. The thing is, she’s not Cash’s wife.
You should go back and read the Wikipedia link you posted here; this is NOT the Vivian Carter that was married to Johnny Cash.
Wrong person
She was not born in Italy. Look at the census records. She was born in Texas. Italian is a nationality, not a race.
Some of country music is but i can’t embrace it, because it’s the music most white supremacist seem to prefer, to hear some of the racist things some of the country music say put it in the category of trash and i really like some of it, but i equate it as racist
Walk the Line is one of my all time favorite movies. I don’t think the color of her skin had anything to do with him falling in love with June Carter. He was deeply in love with that woman and he would have left a white, Asian, or Chinese woman for her. They were soulmates. And my understanding is he never left his children or stopped caring for them. I am very surprised and disappointed that the movie did not depict her as black or bi-racial if she actually indeed was!! That’s a travesty!!
Wow!!!! Shame on Hollywood!
Wow This is a story that needs to be told.
Very good summation.
Thank you.
Why was Johnny played by a white person and not Cherokee like, the film is, and remains false, made to make money .
Since I wrote Vivian’s autobiography (“I Walked the Line”) for her, I can tell you with all certainty she was not black. She was Italian. And, she was one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met. She was pure of heart, gracious, smart, funny, and entirely devoted to Johnny and her children.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/12/entertainment/la-et-ms-johnny-cash-calif/4
This is such a lie. Do you have google?
A well written piece that provides food for thought. Ironically, in pigmentation, black is the presence of all color. I am Latino and my birth certificate states I’m white. In reality, I am tri-racial yet was born at a time when the notion of color amalgamation was a generally unacknowledged or denied reality by the dominant U.S. culture.
If you do a search for Vivian Cash on Google, then choose the images, rather than articles option, you will see the lady had Negroid/Congoid features, as opposed to the typical Caucasoid features. Chances are good that her background is a mix of the two types. Apparently, this was not an important factor in Johnny Cash’s attraction to his first wife. I never cared for him, or his music, frankly. However, I now have great respect for a man who would follow his heart, given the atmosphere he, and Vivian, had to overcome. If it was not important to him, why does it matter to us?
I am black, and I know black when I see it and I know mixed black when I see it. There is no doubt she is mixed black, she has black african in her. If you have not been born as a black person in the black culture, you maybe wouldn’t understand what to look for in a person’s facial structure. But most black people can tell. Her face has african/black features, period.
I did a genealogy search going back 3-4 generations for her going to 1870. Every generation is listed as white. She was half Italian though. (and 1/4 German). No evidence that she was black. It’s possible that her dark looks come from her Italian heritage.
Nothing really changes. I never heard of Vivian Cash. What happened to her and her children?
Did Johnny Cash take care of his children.
They are both dead, so who cares. Why is that important to anyone but the four girls.
Not true!
Leaders of the National States’ Rights Party, a white supremacist group in Alabama, seized on the photo, which, when reproduced in grainy newsprint, made Vivian look dark-skinned and possessed of facial features some considered African American. Whether outraged by the apparent miscegenation or eager to get back at him for his protest stance in the song “Ira Hayes” (Native Americans were also a target of white supremacists), the group reprinted the photo in its newspaper the Thunderbolt and undertook an aggressive campaign against Cash.
She didn’t claim her black heritage, she didn’t “look” it, it had zero effect on the story or the storyline. This is just someone looking for “offense” to bolster their own agenda.
Why not concentrate on Cash’s talents rather than his wives? His deep, mellow voice;
the songs he’s written and his performance superiority are some of the qualities that
make Johnny Cash so exciting and well-
loved.
The nation they prides to be the leader of the Free worls is so obsessed with colour of human skin. How can you call this nation a Christian nation. It segregated people on the basis of the colour of skin be it Red skin or black. Ye the white folks loved and still do spend a fortune on tanning skin. The white American pre-occupation on their white skin–short on pigmentation is an unconscious confirmation of their feeling of inadequacy that they feel that the colour of their skin short on darker pigmentation makes them a Superior race. They stole the Natives’ land and brought the African from AFRICA TO WORK ON THEIR PLANTATION. The White folks should have had stayed in Europe and let the other Races live in their land of their ancestors. The White Americans inability to accept other races of darker colour of any other complexion is their own Inferiority Complex. They came from Europe and poached other races Homeland–Day Light Robbery.
Wow! That was really cool. Impressed and grateful for your energy spent here!
Poor Vivian deserves proper representation!
According to the official record she’s not black and is Italian-American. This entire story is in my book, The Man Who Carried Cash. The article from the Thunderbolt, that is referenced in this piece, is from the archive I used for the book, which belonged to Johnny’s manager Saul Holiff. The Thunderbolt is a far-right racist rag that had direct ties to the KKK. They mistakenly thought Vivian was black from a photo that was printed in the newspaper after Cash left an arraignment at the courthouse for his drug smuggling arrest in 1965. It’s an interesting story because it caused the KKK to attack Johnny for two years. Saul battled them with him. My book has the full accurate story. Saul got a copy of Vivian’s birth certificate and it stated that she’s white. But anything is possible, the very fact that the KKK attacked Johnny shows the kind of era they were living in. Of course people hid their race at times, people were getting murdered by racists regularly. Saul also said it was ridiculous that they had to even prove her race because it made it appear as though there was something wrong with being black, which he regretted.
juchawick: everything that you wrote about the far right and the KKK, etc may very well be true. That however does NOT negate the fact that this woman, no matter what her birth certificate says, is in fact at the very least of mixed race. It could be that her mother had an affair with a black man or that possibly someone farther back in the family line was of African heritage. In all honesty, the mixed heritage CAN can show itself from several generations back Birth certificates mean nothing, seeing as they only include information as the parents give it. Also, because of the taboo nature of race mixing in this country at the time, it would have been common for people to list a child as white no matter what in order to “save face” and/or have them “pass”. You have heard of the phenomenon of people “passing”, right?There are probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of people whose birth certificates says they are white when they obviously have different races mixed in. The bottom line is that if the pictures present as being Vivian are actually her, then she WAS of mixed race…. period. It doesn’t particularly matter to me other. I am just very sad that people were forced to have to “pass” or to live a lie. I have no axe to grind here and have no “agenda”. I just find it interesting that supposedly intelligent people have the need to whitewash or gloss over facts.
I really enjoyed this article I had no idea of this taking place we have come a long way, but sadly we look like we are taking a few Ste backwards.
This woman is NOT black. I read this, saw the pictures and believed. Then I did more research of my own. I’m an amateur genealogist. I looked at all the public records I could find on Vivian and her family. Vivian was half-Italian (her father Thomas Libreto was the son of immigrants). Her grandmother on her mother’s side was German. Her grandfather’s family was from the south (Texas, Alabama, North Carolina). As far back as the 1870 census (and through other documents), they are listed as white. Every. Single. Time. It’s highly doubtful that the family “passed” in the south. It was a challenge to pass in the south at any point but especially right after the Civil War. While it is possible she has black heritage (or even Native American) if you go far enough back, she was NOT black. Pushing this notion any further would be irresponsible of you.
I would suggest that you correct your article and take it back, as written. It’s inaccurate. If you’d like me to provide genealogical evidence to what I’ve said, I am more than happy to do so.
If I was you I would suggest picking a new career because you can clearly see that she is not 100% white and you can see she has African in her dna 🧬 just let it go. It just reminds me of imitation of life with Fredi Washington and how she is African American but can pass for white because of her skin but she unlike others stood for something and would not let others tell her to say anything other! Plus I bet if they did a dna 🧬 test on her kids the truth would shock you but not everyone else because it’s easy to see! So next time you wanna come at someone what sprew bs, come correctly! Please if you search a picture of her mother you would also see the real truth!!
Damn!
So many Black and red people have been whitewashed in hollywood…BUT this time i dont think its the case has anyone here actually googled Vivian Cash?
She has VERY dutch features and with those italian roots, in so many pictures she looks black, but, especially in the pictures of her when shes older – there is no confusion – in my opinion.
https://www.google.es/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.gr-assets.com%2Fbooks%2F1408927261l%2F186098.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F186086.I_Walked_the_Line&docid=euTCYss6HoVsOM&tbnid=zjeaoPkR2j92uM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjg6I3c0KfVAhURLFAKHe0qBUMQMwg-KAowCg..i&w=254&h=400&client=ms-android-orange-es&bih=580&biw=360&q=vivian%20cash&ved=0ahUKEwjg6I3c0KfVAhURLFAKHe0qBUMQMwg-KAowCg&iact=mrc&uact=8
Omg I’m so glad you wrote this article.I too became obsessed with the movie the characters.i thought Vivian was just an emotional cannon just ready to explode.and not very appreciative of her husband and his success.but one day it happened i read June Carter cash book.and it was such dribble and nonsense.i got to rethinking her character.then Vivian book came out.I loved it.it was wonderful i understood who she was.and I realized they did a great disservice to her in that movie.I found a new perspective for her.when I did see pictures of her.I knew she wasn’t white..thank you so much for writing this article.my daughter emailed it to me today
Once again thank you so much.
Very well written article. To hell with the naysayers!!
Perhaps the birth certificates of her parents, especially her mother might help clarify. Or perhaps one or both parents were passing and the infant looked white at birth until melanin pigment produced. Passing was both common and often necessary.
Haha, wow, shocked a lot of rednecks? If you look into your history I’m sure you’ll find even more with children!
I don’t understand the problem. Not referencing the article but to all of the naysayers who seem to have a problem with the fact that Johnny Cash’s first wife was Black. It’s not like he was some prize when you look at his life in its entirety.
Great article! I didn’t know this bit of history. I’ll be sharing it on various social media platforms.
Thank you!
These comments are amusing and also very representative of today’s America. I was born in Italy to an African-American father and a Dominican mother, which makes me black. We come in all shades and are mixed with many races, which makes us black. Get over it.
Well it makes since to me that the document say’s white. Because all of my children are considered black. I was told because their father was black. Makes no sense to me because I ask the question what happened to the other ethnicity?
Woohoo! Love it! Cash is my favorite country musician and now even more so! So he married a sister. Very nice to know. Thanks for sharing!!❤️
Writer get over it, apparently if she is black or white , Johnny didn’t care because he married her anyway, I’m sure her ethnicity didn’t have squat to do with the divorce, you’re the only racist I see in this story
America has an orange president, what nationality/race is he ?? Nationality and race are two completely different things, who cares, all you are doing is keeping racism going, we here in ireland have every race and nationality, but what matters is, they all came voluntarily, with their own names, customs, why cant people see them for what they really are , PEOPLE 11
Exactly!!
Most of us are “Bi-racial”, as a matter of fact people should have their DNA tested and they will be shocked at what the find. Because most people were raised and taught that being Black was a bad thing, that is their problem to overcome. I am very comfortable in my melanin skin.