Morgan Freeman Says Terms 'African-American' and 'Black History Month' Are 'An Insult'

"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the iconic actor said in a rare interview published Saturday

Morgan Freeman is setting the record straight about his feelings on race in America.

In a rare interview with The Times, the iconic actor, 85, said that he does not like being called an "African-American" or the use of the phrase "Black History Month."

"Black History Month is an insult," he told the newspaper in an article published Saturday. "You're going to relegate my history to a month?"

"Also 'African-American' is an insult," he added. "I don't subscribe to that title. Black people have had different titles all the way back to the N-word and I do not know how these things get such a grip, but everyone uses 'African-American'."

"What does it really mean? Most black people in this part of the world are mongrels," he continued about the term being used in the same context as Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans. "You say Africa as if it's a country when it's a continent, like Europe."

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Instead, the Oscar winner is aligned with comments his friend and fellow Black actor, Denzel Washington, once made when he said, "I'm very proud to be Black, but Black is not all I am."

"Yes, exactly. I'm in total agreement," Freeman told The Times. "You can't define me that way."

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Elsewhere in the interview, Freeman acknowledged that the film industry has evolved dynamically since his early days in beloved projects such as Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption.

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"The change is that all people are involved now," Freeman said. "Everyone. LGBTQ, Asians, black, white, interracial marriages, interracial relationships. All represented. You see them all on screen now and that is a huge jump."

Amid his latest movies A Good Person and The Ritual Killer, Freeman also took time to reflect on his own body of work and past choices.

"Sometimes you just work to pay the rent," he revealed. "When my career started in film I wanted to be a chameleon. I remember De Niro early on, doing very different parts. Almost unrecognizable as the same actor. I had opportunities like that.

"But as you mature in this business, eventually you become a star," he added. "Then you're pretty screwed in terms of referring to yourself as a character actor. You play a lot of the same type of role — people hire you and say, 'It's you that I want.' And you live with it."

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