Yeah but we've never seen idris elba say that he's only been cast in roles for american blacks and as a black brit he doesn't really RELATE to american blacks culturally and he's like to have the opportunity to play a black brit roles....in american tv/films..
I mean if he said something like that you gonna tell me the reaction from American blacks shouldn't be
thats just the basic mindfuck of the concept of race and how weve ALL been indoctrinated with it.
Why would Idris say that he's only been cast in roles as American Blacks given the fact that he's played several roles as a Black Brit- most notably, John Luther?
Secondly, what you quoted from me was in response to someone saying she was taking away roles meant for sistas. She didn't take any roles from anyone, just as Idris and Delroy didn't take roles from American brothas. She IS a sista and they are brothas. Most of their roles were not roles that they selected themselves for. So then, if there are any fingers that should be pointed they should be in the direction of white Hollywood.
As well, Gina herself is an African-American. She was raised Afro-Cuban by her Black Cuban parents. But was born in NYC.
Thirdly, she didn't say she didn't relate to American Black folks. Relating to people and playing the roles of people are two different things.
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"There was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black woman—I didn’t identify as a Black woman, because for me it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman. I am also Cuban,” she shared. “When you’re here in the United States and they ask you to be in a box, and you don’t fit into the box…culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive, it was something that I had to learn...
For Torres, she practiced what she explains as a "jedi mind trick" to fit into the industry when it came to accepting roles as a Latina woman.
“To then learn to be whatever ‘Black’ was, and then feel like I was alienating that other part of myself, that Latina self,” she shares. “To keep myself from just being sad all the time about not being able to fully experience and express the entirety of myself.”
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She is saying that she identified as a Black Cuban woman as opposed to identifying
solely as a Black American woman sans the Latina side...And in the context of working in Hollywood and what their expectations were, more pointedly she was indicating that Hollywood sees an African-American woman character and a Latina-American character as being two different and separate and certain ways. She sees from her perspective as a Black Latina that America is wanting you to pick a side (as evidenced by the highlighted portion).
I wasn't offended at anything she said. It was her experience. The difficulty she experienced internally, she found a way to cope and kept it moving. I definitely was not offended as an African-American man. What has America done for my people to be that tethered to it? My family have been in the U.S. going back centuries, but my Black people are many places in and outside of North America, speak many languages and dialects and have many cultures and subcultures.
thats just the basic mindfuck of the concept of race and how weve ALL been indoctrinated with it.
Absolutely.
"Yes, I can say for the most part I've worked very consistently and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to say that."
- Gina Torres
Expanding on what she was talking about in the OP interview
