{"id":43307,"date":"2015-10-18T18:19:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T18:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43307"},"modified":"2015-10-18T18:23:56","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T18:23:56","slug":"misty-copeland-on-why-she-doesnt-identify-as-biracial-i-am-viewed-as-a-black-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43307","title":{"rendered":"Misty Copeland on Why She Doesn’t Identify as Biracial: ‘I Am Viewed as a Black Woman’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misty Copeland on Why She Doesn’t Identify as Biracial: ‘I Am Viewed as a Black Woman’<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Black Entertainment Television<\/a> (BET)
\n2015-10-15<\/p>\n

Evelyn Diaz<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMisty Copeland<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

The history-making ballerina on changing the game.<\/em><\/p>\n

Misty Copeland<\/a> and director Nelson George<\/a> recently talked about their new documentary, A Ballerina’s Tale<\/em><\/a>, which chronicles Copeland’s awe-inspiring rise to becoming the first Black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater<\/a>. The film is not only a portrait of one of the most exciting artists of our generation, but a look at how difficult it still is for people of color to gain entry into some parts of American life.<\/p>\n

Asked why it was important for him to tell Copeland’s story, George’s answer is simple: “Black artists aren’t documented very well,” he says.<\/p>\n

Copeland, meanwhile, got real about the backlash she’s experienced from her own people because of her skin color. “I’ve gotten some flack from the African-American community…[people] say ‘you’re not really Black,’ or ‘you don’t really have dark skin,'” she says. “I’m fully aware that it’s harder to succeed in ballet as a darker-skinned woman, but it has to start somewhere.” She adds that the racial discrimination in ballet \u2014 and the rest of the world \u2014 doesn’t differentiate between dark-skinned and light-skinned. “I know that I’m viewed as a Black woman in society,” she says.<\/p>\n

Watch our full interview with Copeland and George below, and see A Ballerina’s Tale<\/em> in select theaters and on VOD<\/a> now.<\/p>\n

Watch the video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Misty Copeland on Why She Doesn’t Identify as Biracial: ‘I Am Viewed as a Black Woman’ Black Entertainment Television (BET) 2015-10-15 Evelyn Diaz Misty Copeland The history-making ballerina on changing the game. Misty Copeland and director Nelson George recently talked about their new documentary, A Ballerina’s Tale, which chronicles Copeland’s awe-inspiring rise to becoming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1245,8,20,842,25],"tags":[19921,19721,11251,6725,21446,19922,13665],"class_list":["post-43307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-videos","category-women","tag-ballet","tag-bet","tag-black-entertainment-television","tag-dance","tag-evelyn-diaz","tag-misty-copeland","tag-nelson-george"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43309,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43307\/revisions\/43309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}