Halle Berry To Ebony Magazine: “I Haven’t Abandoned Black People”

The never-aging beauty that every man loves and every woman can’t help but hate (not really!), Halle Berry, is the featured celeb in Ebony Magazine‘s March 2011 issue.

It’s almost perfect timing as her split from model Gabriel Aubry and their pending custody dispute over daughter Nahla has been all over front pages lately, as well as accusations of him calling her the “n” word. There have also been reports that her baby’s father would go off the handle when his daughter was referred to as being “black”. Although Halle is somewhat of a private person, she opened up in the interview about her thoughts on her beauty, interracial relationships and considering her daughter to be black.

On Her Daughter’s Race
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. And I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That’s how I identified myself. But I feel like she’s Black. I’m Black and I’m her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory.

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 Berry On Dating Outside of her Race
Well, first thing I want to say is that I’m very connected to my community, and I want Black people to know that I haven’t abandoned them because I’ve had a child with a man outside of my race and I’m dating someone now outside my race who is Spanish and French. I have never been more clear about who I am as a Black woman[...] And who I really am is a Black woman who is struggling to make my race proud of me, who is struggling to move Black women forward in the profession I’ve chosen, and those relationships have actually helped me identify more clearly[....]The truth that it’s taken me a long time to learn how to love myself, and color isn’t really a part of what I look at when I’m deciding who I want to spend time with. I look for the soul, the person, the evolution, what he believes in, who [he is as a person] and how does it affect me in a positive way.

On if she feels like her beauty is a burden
No. I mean, beauty is subjective. [And] there are worse things people could say about me. I do wish people would notice other things about me.I wish people would talk more about my talent than they do my beauty. I’ve worked hard as an actress and I always try to push the envelope, grow and do something different. And I wish people would maybe notice that more than that which I have no control over, which is how I look

The March 2011 issue is on newsstands now!