Lisa Bonet’s Daughter Explains Why She Couldn’t Connect With Being Black

Lisa Bonet’s Daughter Explains Why She Couldn’t Connect With Being Black

by Adminabout 22 hours ago

Actress Lisa Bonet’s and singer Lenny Kravitz’s 29-year-old daughter, Zoe’ Kravitz, recently did an interview with Nylon Magazine, where she admitted that she did not know what it meant to be Black. She was confused as all get out about her heritage, so she instead identified with being White. Now let’s keep in mind that, to her credit, both of her parents are bir-cial – Lisa is White and Black; and Lenny’s mother was the late African American actress, Roxie Roker (“Helen” from The Jefferson’s TV show) and his father was White- so Zoe’ is also of mixed heritage.










Peep what Zoe’ explained about why she could not connect with being Black though…

As one of few black kids in her predominately white school, she remembers saying things like, “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.” But as time went on, her views shifted. “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.”



A big tenet of this undertaking involves choosing roles that don’t focus on her race. “I don’t want to play everyone’s best friend,” she explains. “I don’t want to play the role of a girl struggling in the ghetto. It’s not that that story isn’t important, but I saw patterns and was like, ‘I don’t relate to these people.’” Kravitz’s agent knows not to pass her scripts where her race is a key factor. But there has been one exception: the Sundance darling Dope. “It hit all the points that I believe in,” she says of the hilarious film about a crew of geeky punk- and ’90s-hip-hop-loving teens growing up in Inglewood, California. “I know those people,” she says. “I got the sense of humor.”

While Kravitz has had admirable success in this regard, there have been a few roles she’s lost because of her race, she says. “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?’”



I definitely commend Zoe’ for now attempting to get to know her whole self, but I can’t help but wonder what she was (or wasn’t) being taught as a child. I have nothing but love for Lenny and Lisa and I can tell that they love their daughter more than life itself, but in my humble opinion it just seems like Zoe’ needed a tad few more history lessons about her grandparents, her parents, and everyone else in her family who is Black, because she actually had the perception that being Black in America is summarized by watching Tyler Perry movies and bumpin’ Cardi B. and The Migos songs all day…while doing the ‘Milly Rock’ dance.

I respect her honesty, but here’s what this doctor is ordering: A Netflix rental of the entire Roots series, with a heavy dose of Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Gill Scott-Heron albums on the side.


Lisa Bonet’s Daughter Explains Why She Couldn’t Connect With Being Black

 

I was finna throw her ass in the bushes after the first few sentences

She redeemed herself

Her mom was on the fukking Cosby show tho

 

Coli told me all it took was one drop

 

In terms of her life and what she identifies with, .

All she needs to do is not talk bad about black people. Don't talk ill of the ancestors.

 

Honestly that last paragraph

THis is kinda on Lenny and Lisa for not providing an environment for her to learn about her black side. It's one thing to shun black culture but to not know about it when both parents are black.

 

I hate how she keeps up popping up in films, with her non acting ass

 

Cant identify with something you're not

 

Somewhat

I blame her parents more but I mean... it’s not shocking from those 2.

Glad she realized there’s more to being black then Tyler Perry movies and “hiphop”. I understand taking racially ambiguous roles too

 

I was going to give her the same pass you are after I read the article. Then I thought about her parents body of work being atypical of the media pushed version of black culture. So she should have been very aware that black culture doesn't fit into the small box of what the media says it is. She had no excuse.

 

This is old,and from what ive seen of her she has taken on even whiter parts.She wont be unbrainwashing herself as long as shes in LA/hollywood,because she is probably considered Malcolm X out there.

 

Arent both Lenny and Lisa biracial? If so they aint black themselves so I see why.

 

lenny and lisa are "black" but they're not Afram

so

 

Admit it. A lot of yall was raised the same way

 

Neil Young is a cac performing black culture, as the daughter of a black rock artist, she should have known.
Tyler Perry is "ratchet-gay" type black SUBculture...all the excuses are odd and

 

I don't play that biracial ain't black shyt. IF it were before 1865 they'd be slaves like us. If Lenny Kravitz and Lisa weren't famous and we didn't know they background we'd assume they was light skinned and treat them accordingly.