If you have ever seen Halsey you might be surprised to learn she is a black woman. She was born to a white mother and a black father. She is opening up about race, her politics and feminism in a new interview with Playboy.
She might look white but she says that she identifies strongly as a black woman.
“I’m white-passing. I’ve accepted that about myself and have never tried to control anything about black culture that’s not mine,” the 22-year-old singer said in the August 15 interview.
Halsey says that she is proud of her identity but still has “racial blips” from time to time like, “white boys in my life asking my why my nipples are brown.”
— Seth DeValve’s wife doesn’t want us to make him a ‘white savior” —
“I look like a white girl, but I don’t feel like one. I’m a black woman,” the singer goes on to explain. “So it’s been weird navigating that. When I was growing up I didn’t know if I was supposed to love TLC or Britney.”
She went on to discuss white allies in our current political climate.
“White guilt is funny, but this is a really hard time for white allies. People don’t want to do too much but want to do enough, and in my bubble of Los Angeles I’m surrounded by a lot of good people with a lot of good intentions,” she stated.
“But as I learned in this past election, my bubble is just a small fraction of how this country operates. That is ultimately my greatest frustration with the public perception of any sort of activism: the mentality of ‘Well, it’s not affecting me.’ Open your f**king eyes.”