Paula Patton doesn’t want to distance herself from her background.
On Friday, the “Sacrifice” star appeared on SiriusXM Urban View’s “The Clay Cane Show” to talk about her new show, and she was asked about an old quote in which she expressed her dislike of the term “biracial”.
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“’I find [the term] biracial offensive. It’s a way for people to separate themselves from African Americans, a way of saying, ‘I’m better than that,’” Patton had said in a 2010 interview.
Bringing up the quote, Cane asked, “When I heard you say that it resonated with me. What are your thoughts when you hear that quote later?”
“I feel the exact same way,” Patton said. “That’s not to say that I don’t embrace my mother and everything that she’s brought to my life, but it was my mother who let me know, ‘The world is going see you as Black and that is who you are.'”
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She continued, “So don’t have any questions about that. I’m very grateful for her. The politics of race in our country are such that when [some]one wants to make it very clear that they’re not Black, it’s a way to keep them separate from Black people. We know, we’ve had a long history in this country of that, of it not being popular to be Black, to be honest with you. I’ve always found that to be an offensive term. I’m Black and I embrace it, that’s my family.”
