Queen Latifah is embracing her “honest and genuine” identity and celebrating the “freedom” to be herself! During an acceptance speech at TheGrio Awards, Latifah opened up about her evolving sense of identity.
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Queen Latifah Embraces ‘Honest & Genuine’ Identity: ‘I Didn’t Know I Was A Girl, I Had To Be Told’
At the inaugural awards ceremony in Beverly Hill, California, the 52 year old first spoke to the audience about celebrating Black culture.
She said, “It all starts with the family for me. My parents raised me with the idea that Black is beautiful. Black is beautiful, Black is beautiful. Black is OK.
You start saying it enough and you start believing me. And so I didn’t realize at the time that what they were preparing me for was a whole world.”
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The rapper and actress then goes on to open up about her identity and the moment she recognized the difference between girls and boys, further admitting that as a youth, she “didn’t know” she was a girl.
Latifah said, “I didn’t know I was a girl, initially, I had to be told that. That had to be explained to me…. ‘Cause I was running around with my T-shirt off like the boys … I wanted to play the sports and all these things had to be explained to me because I was free. And so my whole life would feel like I’ve been trying to maintain my freedom to be me.”
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Latifah added, “I wear these beautiful gowns and dresses because I want to, because that’s part of me. I play in the dirt, I play basketball with the boys — ’cause that’s me.
I love who I love because that’s me. I know me. I know what I’ve done and what I haven’t done. I realize that life is fleeting. And you just gotta do the best you can. Be as honest and genuine as you can. Don’t go for what people are trying to tell you about yourself. It’s not true. I said, don’t go for what people are trying to tell you about yourself.”
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