Tyla Speaks Out After She and Her Team Shut Down “Coloured” Identity Question on “The Breakfast Club” [Video]

Tyla was the topic of discussion on Thursday following her “Breakfast Club” interview, and now, she is speaking out. 

The “Water” singer joined the morning show, where Charlamagne tha God questioned her about her past “Coloured” comments. However, instead of answering, the 22-year-old glanced over to her representative who interjected off-camera and asked for the question to be skipped. Tyla remained silent until they moved on to the next subject. This once again caused backlash on the internet, the same way it had when she initially made the remark. After she immediately began trending online, Tyla spoke out via social media.

“Never denied my blackness, Idk where that came from…I’m mixed with Black/Zulu, Irish, Mauritian/Indian and Coloured,” she wrote, further explaining “In Southa, I would be classified as a Coloured woman and other places I would be classified as a Black woman. Race ic classified differently in different parts of the world.”

pic.twitter.com/Jec9oraIAz

— Tyla (@Tyllaaaaaaa) June 13, 2024

In December 2023, she declared herself as “Coloured,” igniting a debate on racial identity. According to Tyla, she doesn’t expect to be “identified as Coloured outside of Southa by anyone not comfortable doing so.” 

“I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman,” Tyla added. 

Needless to say, social media had many thoughts over the conversation and her subsequent explanation.

Tyla when the breakfast club asked her about background pic.twitter.com/RBgguCxKOw

— 👳🏾‍♂️Shay-Boogie🤙🏾 (@HeartBreakSeun) June 13, 2024

Tyla could give them a full break down of SA's racial history classifications & why it would be wrong for her to claim blackness but they'd still misconstrue and ask ignorant questions based on the US understanding of race, instead of just hearing her and letting her be coloured https://t.co/kvXeiteDmk

— Sisa (@TheTitanBaddie) June 13, 2024

Maybe black media should just start asking Tyla “how as a SA coloured artist has it been navigating the Black American music & media space” and “in what ways do black culture influence or inspire your artistry” so the discourse can stop.

Ask her as a guest in the space idk

— Ms. Andry Noir, PhD (@keatingssixth) June 13, 2024

I’m glad Tyla did that. The way Americans approach any conversation that doesn’t centre them or moves away from a concept that they are comfortable with, is always met with condescension and disdain. There is absolutely no point.

— HomoNoma (@Nomaswazi_11) June 13, 2024

What bothers me about the Tyla discussion is that any other day yall don’t want mixed people to call themselves solely Black, but yall want her to and im not understanding that cognitive dissonance. Someone explain quickly. pic.twitter.com/oDDfH9NQtT

— GET UP 😩 (@wyetthasspoken) June 13, 2024

good on tyla and her team for shutting that BS down. she’s already talked about it in other interviews, but people still just want a little sound bite that they can clip. it’s not her job to educate ignorant people, especially when google is RIGHT THERE. https://t.co/mDeBvSZX7v pic.twitter.com/NjvxfSrmM4

— ace 🐅 (@featuringtyla) June 13, 2024

i’m also glad she didn’t answer because i’m getting flashbacks to when charlemagne belittled amara la negra when she was explaining what the afro latina identity is 😐

— ace 🐅 (@featuringtyla) June 13, 2024