Zoe Saldana is back with more questionable thoughts on race.
The actress recently stopped by SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” to discuss her new film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, but the conversation soon turned to politics, race, and sexism.
Sharing her thoughts on Blackness in Latino culture and her own experience, Saldana shared that she and her sisters don’t refer to Black or White in conversations about race as it makes them feel “very uncomfortable when we are referring to skin because it shouldn’t be the priority.”
The actress says she is familiar with colorism and its use when it comes to social status having grown up in the Dominican Republic, “We understand what that is, we carry ourselves, in our minds, properly. I feel like you don’t have to talk about your color or you’re lighter or darker than, every day in order for you to get acceptance. I feel like the big conversation that we’re not having is, why do you think about this constantly? What is it that you want others to say for you that you should just say to yourself?”
Saldana continued that she avoids social media because of the trolls and constant conversation about her race from Black and Latino people, adding that she wishes people would “focus on the progress and not focus on the complaints.”
Seems Saldana doesn’t quite realize that those “complaints” are valid considering the current state of our country and the systemic injustice Black and Latino people face.
It’s also easier to ignore the conversation when you’re wealthy and conventionally attractive or fit a European standard of beauty, which Saldana does.
“I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt by not addressing it because it’s not something I wake up in the morning and I’m troubled by,” the actress told the show’s hosts. “I’m not troubled by the way that I look. I never looked at my blonde friend’s or my darker friends and said ‘Well, I wish I looked like her,’ I’m good. And, for some reason that bother people that are struggling with their own identity.”
Later, sharing her thoughts on Trump and the election, Saldana touched on sexism and race, adding, “There was a realization that I just had in this last election is that, that America is racist. Of course, there’s racism everywhere, I’m not saying that there isn’t, but I think that sexism is much stronger and it’s much more aggressive.”
For Saldana, the evidence of sexism is everywhere, “CEOs are primarily males. Art is primarily male-driven.”
“There’s a big problem here and we have to address this pink elephant in the room.”