Zoe Kravitz is looking gorge as she covers and graces the pages of the new issue of Nylon magazine and opening up on some deep rooted issues she had with racial identity growing up.
One would assume based off of her style and vibe that Zoe was always very connected to black culture and her roots, however the model says that being the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet and growing up a privileged child in schools where the majority were non African American she was totally oblivious to the black experience.
“I didn’t identify with black culture, like, I didn’t like Tyler Perry movies, and I wasn’t into hip-hop music. I liked Neil Young.”
She revealed that once she got older and wiser she opened her mind to the culture and realized it was not so black and white (no pun intended).
“Black culture is so much deeper than that,” she says, “but unfortunately that is what’s fed through the media. That’s what people see. That’s what I saw. But then I got older and listened to A Tribe Called Quest and watched films with Sidney Poitier, and heard Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. I had to un-brainwash myself. It’s my mission, especially as an actress.”
Although her mom was one of the most historical and iconic African American shows ever that showcased to the world what a prominent black family was like, she was not taught more about her culture. She says her dad did do his best to teach her and keep her grounded.
“I knew we were very lucky, and my dad raised me in an old-school way. His mom was from the Bahamas, and it was about manners and making the bed. It’s that old black shit, really—like, you get smacked if you talk the wrong way. It was about having respect for your elders and being thankful for what we had. He wanted to make sure I had chores, and not because we didn’t have a housekeeper, but because of the principle of the thing.” Of course, like any child, she tested the waters: “When I was about 11, my dad was trying to make me finish my dinner, but I didn’t want any more. He said, ‘There are starving kids in Africa.’ So I took an envelope and put potatoes in it and was like, ‘Send it to them.’ He was like, ‘You go upstairs right now!’ I was dead.” By this time, she’d already come to realize that her family was different.
She says she now embraces her black side fully as well as her Jewish side (Lenny and Lisa both are biracial) and even was discouraged from auditioning for a role in a major film simply because of her race.
“In the last Batman movie [The Dark Knight Rises], they told me that I couldn’t get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren’t ‘going urban,’” she says. “It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?’”
You can read the full article over at Nylon’s site by clicking HERE and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
