At a recent news conference for the movie 'The Butler," Mariah Carey revealed a painful memory of racism that she experienced as a child.  

Carey recalled being spat on by a white person when she was young, according to the Daily News.  She was discussing a scene in the film meant to replicate the Woolworth's Lunch Counter sit-in, in which a black college student is spat on by a white woman.

"That actually happened to me," Carey, 43, said.

Carey's father was of African-American and Venezuelan decent, and her mother is Irish-American.

"I know people would be in shock and not really want to believe or accept that, but it did," she stated. "And it happened to be a bus as well. It was a school bus ... In the face and in the same way."

Even though she had such a difficult moment as a child, it hasn't stopped her from being a successful celebtiry.

"That right there - - that was almost the deepest thing to me in the movie because I know what she went through," she added.

Currently, Carey is recovering from a disloacated shoulder that she got while filming a video in July.  Her injury hasn't stopped her from attending events and doing other work-she has been keeping her arm in various stylish arm slings, many matching to her outfits.