As with Fredi Washington in 1934’s Imitation of Life and several other Black females who skin tones and facial features enabled them to "pass" for white such as Lena Horne, Dona would have to deny her family heritage to succeed in the entertainment industry&#8230;

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

“I was born in this country and I grew up here, and I could only speak Japanese. This is my home country; it’s not a matter of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes,’ ” she said simply. “Since my dad is an American, I look like a foreigner, so I used to think, ‘It’s cool having U.S. citizenship,’ and so I went there. But in America I couldn’t understand the culture, and it was then that I realized, ‘Without a doubt, I’m Japanese.’”…

…“There are lots of people from all kinds of countries (in America), so I felt relaxed,” she said. “My family is all black, so I felt relieved. I was like, ‘Wow, these people are the same color as me!’ Over there, I definitely felt a sense of peace — it was easy to live there.”

“I’d like Japan to be an easier place to live,” she added, “but Japan has some fundamental problems that it still hasn’t solved, in my opinion. These problems need to be dealt with right now. One thing is that the Japanese population is shrinking, and if foreigners come and aren’t accepted, I’d be concerned about what will happen to Japan, and so I’d like to see Japan adopt a more global outlook…” —Ariana Miyamoto

Bay McNeil, “Meeting Miss Universe Japan, the ‘half’ who has it all,” The Japan Times, (April 19, 2015). http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/04/19/general/meeting-miss-universe-japan-half.

As with Fredi Washington in 1934’s Imitation of Life and several other Black females who skin tones and facial features enabled them to “pass” for white such as Lena Horne, Dona would have to deny her family heritage to succeed in the entertainment industry…

As with Fredi Washington in 1934’s Imitation of Life and several other Black females who skin tones and facial features enabled them to “pass” for white such as Lena Horne, Dona [Drake] would have to deny her family heritage to succeed in the entertainment industry because at the time and for many years after, the studios felt the movie going public wouldn’t accept (and unfortunately they were correct) an attractive black actress, no matter how talented, in any role but that of a servant or comedic side-kick. Certainly not as the romantic lead opposite a white actor, even Hollywood knew the rest of the country paid it’s salaries.

“The “Real” Mrs. William Travilla – Dona Drake,” Travilla’s Legacy: Keeping True Fashion Alive, November, 7, 2013. https://travillalegacy.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/the-real-mrs-william-travilla-dona-drake/.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2020 at 20:40Z and is filed under Excerpts/Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Mixed Race Studies

As with Fredi Washington in 1934’s Imitation of Life and several other Black females who skin tones and facial features enabled them to “pass” for white such as Lena Horne, Dona would have to deny her family heritage to succeed in the entertainment industry…

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