People are making a lot more noise about representation and diversity. But I think modeling is one of the professions where people can be kind of racist. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
We definitely experience racism in England and different levels of oppression as well. Anywhere affected by colonialism there’s certain kinds of race relations and class relations going on. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
When I first started in modeling, I went back to England, and it was really hard, because I would go around to the agencies and they would be like, ‘We already have one mixed-race black girl.’ Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
My family is Jamaican. We were just the slaves that were dropped off over there. And at the end of the day when you live and exist as a Black person in America, at least to white society, to a certain extent, no one is asking where you’re from and where you were born. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
I’ve always been ‘other’ in all the spaces that I’ve been in. Even when I first moved to America, just the idea that I was a dark-skinned black girl from England with an accent. It’s one thing to be a black girl, but it’s another to be a dark black girl. I was chastised for that. I was chastised for the way I spoke. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
That callousness that comes from feeling like you have to survive on your own – I really empathized with that. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
So I was really excited when I came to America about meeting black people. But it was a huge culture shock, because I was rejected by the black community. They were like, ‘You talk like a white girl.’ People would call me an Oreo. All I wanted was acceptance. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
I understand we love to talk about black girl magic, but sometimes that is a term that allows people to put us in this character like we’re not real people that feel real things. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
I think about what I grew up seeing, what I didn’t see growing up, and what it felt like when I did see someone who I thought that I could relate to, just living their life on screen. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
I didn’t come to L.A. thinking, okay, I’m going to be an actor, so my progression was just kind of organic, starting in print modeling, which I was far less successful in, then acting in television commercials. Jodie Turner-Smith Read Quote
