Darnell Martin Has Looked At Racial Issues From Both SidesPosted in Articles, Arts, Media Archive, United States on 2016-03-07 17:06Z by Steven |
Darnell Martin Has Looked At Racial Issues From Both Sides
Orlando Sentinal
Orlando, Florida
1994-10-28
Glenn Lovell
San Jose Mercury News
Darnell Martin is talking about growing up in an interracial household in the Bronx and about a childhood that inspired her impressive debut feature, I Like It Like That.
Her take on street life is different from Spike Lee’s or John Singleton’s. It’s less fatalistic and preachy. It’s about being a little of this (white) and a little of that (black) but, in some circles, not enough of either. It’s about standing alone and saying, “This is who I am. Take it or leave it!”
“Yes, I did feel caught in a squeeze,” replies Martin, who, in her late 20s, is being hyped as “the first African-American woman to make a major studio movie.”
“My mother is white and my father black. The people next door, the Lopez family, were Puerto Rican. They were very close to our family, very much a part of our extended family. We even knocked a hole in the wall to connect our apartments.” In fact, Martin, who later attended film school at New York University and apprenticed as assistant camera operator on Lee’s Do the Right Thing, felt more Puerto Rican than white or black.
“They (Puerto Rican neighbors) never asked me what I was,” recalls Martin, with the barest hint of sarcasm. “They accepted me more than whites or blacks. I guess I looked like them. When you grow up being asked, ‘What are you?,’ it can be a very frustrating thing.”…
…She loves contradicting generalizations about race. “When somebody, not knowing I’m black, says, ‘Blacks are like this or like that,’ I can say, ‘Absolutely not! That’s not true. I am black.’ And when people say, ‘Whites are like this,’ I can do the same thing.”…
Read the entire article here.