People called me 'Iman the black model'. In my country, we're all black, so nobody called somebody else black. It was foreign to my ears.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.
I don't want to be known as the black model. I want to be recognized as Chanel Iman, a personality.
Did people think I sounded black? Totally, but that was a marketing tool as well, but also this is how I grew up and these are my influences.
There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.
In the black culture, certain kids are given nicknames that they roll with forever; the nicknames outweigh their real names. I'm one of those scenarios.
I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.
I come from a mixed background - my mom's black, my dad's white - and I traveled around the world.
There were only ever two black kids at my school. I never considered myself to be 'a black kid'. I was who I was. Which isn't to say things haven't happened to me that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't black.
I lived in an all-black neighborhood, followed by an all-white one, and other kids in the always called me Mexican in both neighborhoods.
And I used to say, 'I'm black, too.' In other words, I - my whole life I've been called a half-breed, a convict, king of the trailer trash, this and that. I take that and stand.