Zoe Saldana Speaks On Race

The actress that played the lead female role (the alien girl) in the Avatar movie, Zoe Saldana is multi-racial, but her skin-tone is black. Not too black that she can't take a role as a Latino actress. She is multi-racial, and that seems to work in her advantage as she can play a lot of different roles in Hollywood. But that also works against her, as she says she is tired of people saying she is not black enough, or she is not a full Latino, and so and so. She is currently scheduled to play the role of the legendary Nino Simmon (singer and civil rights activist), but has received backlash for not being black enough for the role. Her late father was of Dominican decent, and that's probably where she got her black skin tone from. And her mother is from Puerto Rico, which is gives her the Hispanic blood.





In a recent interview with BET, she spoke on her displeasure in people always wanting to know what race she is. She would rather them just accept her as Zoe the artistic actress, and not base her skill or personality on her racial background.

"I find it uncomfortable to have to speak about my identity all of the time, when in reality it’s not something that drives me or wakes me up out of bed everyday. I didn’t grow up in a household where I was categorized by my mother. I was just Zoe and I could have and be anything that I ever wanted to do…and every human being is the same as you. So to all of a sudden leave your household and have people always ask you, “What are you, what are you” is the most uncomfortable question and it’s literally the most repetitive question. I can’t wait to be in a world where people are sized by their soul and how much they can contribute as individuals and not what they look like.

I literally run away from people that use words like ethnic. It’s preposterous! To me there is no such thing as people of color cause in reality people aren’t white. Paper is white. People are pink, it’s a bit ridiculous when I have to explain to a human being, that is an adult like I am, that looks intelligent but for some reason I have to question his intelligence and explain to him as if he was a two year old, my composition in order for him to say, “Oh I guess I can chill with you, I can work with you.” I will not underestimate a human being and I will not allow another human being to underestimate me. I feel like as a race, that’s a minute problem against the problems we face just as women versus men, in a world that’s more geared and designed to cater towards the male species.

That is a situation that, I spend time thinking about, and working towards ending that, I guess we could talk about that."