Keys Avoids Mixed Race Abuse

Music sensation Alicia Keys grew up feeling comfortable with her bi-racial heritage, and was never subjected to abuse suffered by many mixed race children.

The FALLIN' singer, who grew up in the tough Hell's Kitchen area of New York, has a white mother and an African-American father, and is delighted she avoided the torment dealt to many similar kids in her neighbourhood.

Alicia explains, "I grew up in New York, and thank God, I never had to go through that in regards to, 'You're not black enough, you're not white enough,' the whole kind of white/black-mixture thing.

"I never had to go through that. I went through prejudices and all, surely. But I never had to battle with those two parts of me. I was with people who were Indian and Spanish, people who were Italian. In New York, anything goes.

"I never had to deal with those kinds of things, I feel blessed."