Zoë Kravitz Explains Why She Isn’t A “Black Artist”
Zoë Kravitz has often shared her thoughts on race and the perception of people of color in Hollywood, but the actress faced criticism after a post on social media confused fans.
On Wednesday (July 12) the Rough Night actress shared a quote from the late Jean-Michel Basquiat along with a sarcastic message about the title of black artists. “I think I’ll go take a Black walk. And have a black talk. With my black friend. Maybe have some black lunch. Watch a black movie, sing a black song, smoke a black bong… then take a black nap in my black bed in my back sheets and have some back dreams. …..Happy to be be black. Just don’t need to say it in front of everything,” she said with the hashtag #artisart.”
A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Jul 13, 2017 at 8:49am PDT
After catching flack for her words, the actress deleted the post and shared a photo of Basquiat with the caption, “#artisart.”
A post shared by Zoë Kravitz (@zoeisabellakravitz) on Jul 13, 2017 at 9:28am PDT
Throughout her carer, the daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz has been open about blackness and her journey as a mixed woman in film. “I ask writers and producers: ‘Why don’t you have any black people in your film?’, ‘Why do stories happen to white people and everyone else is a punchline?’,” she told The Guardian in 2015. “What I’m finding is that a lot of people don’t see it’s an issue because it’s not their story, unless they’re black or a minority.”
In her cover story with Allure in June, Kravitz explained how she’s still connecting “identifying more and more with being black.”
“I am definitely mixed,” she said. “Both my parents are mixed. I have white family on both sides. The older I get, the more I experience life, I am identifying more and more with being black, and what that means — being more and more proud of that and feeling connected to my roots and my history. I had this struggle of accepting myself as black and loving that part of myself. And now I’m so in love with my culture and so proud to be black. It’s still ongoing, but a big shift has occurred. My dad especially has always been very connected to his history, and it’s important to him that I understand where I come from.”
The black experience might be black and serious, but not for everyone.
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