Zoe Kravitz Talks Accepting Black Culture

I have accepted Zoe Kravitz as my spirit animal a long long long time ago! I love everything about her and now I love her even more with her candid conversation with Nylon Magazine. As the August 2015 cover girl of Nylon she sat down to have a candid conversation about how she transitioned as a child into loving and accepting black culture. She also sheds light about how her father Lenny Kravitz and his family were a major part of that transition.

Zoe starts off her interview discussing her battle with eating disorders as a young child because of how much she stood out in a crowd of "skinny blondes" as a "chubby brown girl". She discusses her relationship with her parents growing up and realizing that her parents were in fact "a big deal". But the best/most important part of this interview was when she discussed having to "un brainwash herself" so she could accept black culture. As someone who grew up in a predominantly white school she goes on to state she used to say things such as:

“I’m just as white as y’all,” to her classmates. “I identified with white culture, and I wanted to fit in,” she says. “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.” 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.”

Zoe  goes on to speak so much truth about choosing roles that do not identify her race or pigeonholed her into one category whether it be for her race or sex. If you want to read her full interview with Nylon you can find it here.

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