14 DAY TRIAL // Perhaps in response to rumors of ex Gabriel Aubry telling people that his and Halle Berry’s daughter Nahla is white, the Oscar-winning actress is in the latest issue of Ebony magazine talking race, identity and the “one-drop theory.”
As it’s already well known, Halle and Gabriel have been locked in a very bitter custody battle, with allegations flying from all sides. Race also seems to be an issue, as we also noted a while back.
Halle, as far as she’s concerned, can’t think of her daughter as white for the simple reason that she, her mother, is black.
However, she will wait until Nahla decides that for herself, she says for the mag.
“What I think is that that’s something she’s going to have to decide. I’m not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself, and that’s what she’s going to have to decide – how she identifies herself in the world,” the actress says.
“But I feel like she’s black. I’m black and I’m her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory. [The one-drop rule was used during segregation to classify a person as black if they had any African ancestry.]” Halle argues.
Speaking of race, Halle too had to identify herself as black or white at one point, just like Nahla will also have to do one day.
“If you’re of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself, and I think that’s often hard for us to do,” the actress says.
“I identify as a black woman, but I’ve always had to embrace my mother and the white side of who I am, too. By choosing, I’ve often [wondered], ‘Well, would that make her feel like I’m invalidating her by choosing to identify more with the black side of myself?’” Halle asks.
In the same interview, Berry also talks about dating white men (such as ex Gabriel and current beau Olivier Martinez) and how that doesn’t make her “any less black,” as well as about motherhood being more important than career.