Mariah Carey is still upset after being called “ni**erish” by comedian Sandra Bernhard during a 1998 comedy routine.
The pop singer told Naomi Campbell about the controversial moment from Sandra’s standup comedy special I’m Still Here… Damn It!, when the comedienne accused Mariah of exploiting her biracial ethnicity to further her career.
“She’s trying to backtrack on our asses by acting real ni**erish there at the Royalton Hotel suite with Puff Daddy and all the greasy, chain-wearing Black men,” Bernhard said during her TV special.
Mariah told Naomi: “I wish I would have called you back when it happened because I was so upset and nobody came to my rescue at that point. But whatever, I can’t – it’s ignorance.”
Naomi called Bernhard’s insult “rude and disrespectful” as well as being “completely racist”.
“People can be very hurtful,” Naomi said, “but one of the things that hurt me, because I care about you and I care about the past, was what Sandra said. I was just like, ‘Are you for real?’ How did that even slide by?” she continued.
Gesturing at Mariah, who is biracial, Naomi added: “You are Black. You have every right. You are working also, in a professional capacity. I just felt like, now, I wanted to clear that up because I was p**sed.”
Mariah is the daughter of former opera singer Patricia, of Irish descent, and Alfred, an aeronautical engineer of Black and Afro-Venezuelan descent.
