Many people will remember Yaya DaCosta from her time on the television show America’s Next Top Model way back in 2004 and since then Yaya has come a long way and is beginning to make quite a name for herself as a Hollywood actress. Yaya has already appeared on the big screen in such hit movies as TRON: Legacy and In Time and also has plenty more projects lined up. Now, Yaya has taken the time to discuss the issues that we as humans have regarding race.
DaCosta explained, “You know I think a lot of us are already very mixed but there’s something about human beings that likes boxes and definitions and they wanna categorize everything, you know? It’s always interesting listening to this conversation about background and race because a simple answer doesn’t seem to be good enough. You know it’s like we are citizens of the world and yes eventually I think that people will begin to accept that even more. But even now when I travel it’s like, ‘oh you’re American but you can’t be because you speak this language or you can’t be because you know how to dance and you cook and you clean.’”
She added, “It’s really funny how our perceptions are very limited and I think that it will be wonderful if eventually we can let go of it. But I don’t foresee it happening very soon. I mean I know that statistically, the census and everyone else is saying that the lines are being blurred and everyone is getting mixed up and you know white people will no longer be the majority. And that’s fine. But I think it’s gonna take a long time for people to stop restricting themselves, ourselves really to those definitions.
Yaya continued, “Even if I tell you where everybody in my family came from, which I can’t, really because of the slave trade. But even if I could people would still want a simple answer. ‘OK but you’re Brazilian because your last name’s DaCosta.’ And I’ll say, ‘OK, fine. If that’s what makes you happy then fine.’ I think people are still going to be made to feel better with simplification.” Yaya DaCosta can currently be seen on the big screen, alongside Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Olivia Wilde in In Time.
