I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place.
I had to prove myself to a lot of different people.
As a young black boy, it made me proud to see black leaders that did something amazing and made the world change.
I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.
I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me.
There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.
The white audiences thought I was white, my features being what they are, and at every performance I'd have to take off my gloves to prove I was a spade.
I can't even see me wasting my time or my talent to disrespect another black man.
I only became an actor to get your attention, to challenge the archetype of an African American male; I can't be anything else in this lifetime than an African American man.
My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.