Zoë Kravitz Gets Candid About Growing Up Biracial: ‘I Was Uncomfortable With My Blackness’
Zoë Kravitz has frequently spoken about her racial identity in interviews and on social media. Here’s what the star of The Batman said about growing up biracial and being proud to be black.
Zoë Kravitz said she was once ‘uncomfortable with her Blackness’
Although she is now a famous artist in her own right, Zoë Kravitz first stepped into the spotlight as the daughter of musician and actor Lenny Kravitz and actor Lisa Bonet. In a March 2022 interview with The Guardian, Kravitz opened up about growing up with famous parents who “broke down boundaries in a lot of ways.”
“They both dealt with being artists who didn’t act or dress or look or sound the way a Black person was supposed to act in terms of what white people specifically were comfortable with,” Kravitz said of her parents.
She went on to explain that she sometimes felt uncomfortable with her heritage. “I felt really insecure about my hair,” Kravitz said. “Relaxing it, putting chemicals in it, plucking my eyebrows really thin. I was uncomfortable with my Blackness. It took me a long time to not only accept it but to love it and want to scream it from the rooftops.”
Zoë Kravitz once shared a message about being a ‘Black artist’
Her interview promoting the 2022 movie The Batman wasn’t the first time actor Zoë Kravitz has addressed her racial identity. In July 2017, she shared a since-deleted Instagram post that can still be viewed on an account called The Shade Room.
In the photo, Kravitz posed in front of a quote from the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat that said, “I AM NOT A BLACK ARTIST I AM AN ARTIST.” Kravitz captioned the photo, “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 [sic] black. Just don’t need to say it in front of everything. #artisart.”
The ‘Batman’ star said she is ‘so proud to be Black’
In a May 2017 interview with Allure, Zoë Kravitz said that the older she gets, the more connected she feels to her roots and history.
“I am definitely mixed. Both my parents are mixed. I have white family on both sides,” Kravitz explained. “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.”
She went on to describe her experience as a biracial child in predominantly white schools. “It’s been a really interesting journey because I was always one of the only Black kids in any of my schools,” Kravitz said. “I went to private schools full of white kids. I think a lot of that made me want to blend in or not be looked at as Black. The white kids are always talking about your hair and making you feel weird.”
The actor said that she is now “in love” with her culture and “so proud to be Black.” “I had this struggle of accepting myself as Black and loving that part of myself,” Kravitz said. “And now I’m so in love with my culture and so proud to be Black.”
