“I grew up on the coast of England in the 70s. My dad is white, from Cornwall, and my mom is black, from Zimbabwe. Even the idea of us as a family was challenging to most people. But nature had it’s wicked way and brown babies were born. But from about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly. And myself was rooting around for definition trying to plug-in. Because the self likes to fit. To see itself replicated. To belong. That confirms its existence and its importance. And it is important, it has an extremely important function. Without it we literally can’t interface with others, we can’t hatch plans, and climb that stairway of popularity, of success. But my skin color wasn’t right. My hair wasn’t right. My history wasn’t right. Myself, became defined by Otherness, which meant that in that social world I didn’t really exist. And I was Other before being anything else, even before being a girl. I was a noticeable nobody.” —Thandie Newton (Ted Talks: “Embracing otherness, embracing myself”)
