Aimee Walker
Gigi Hadid, whose billionaire dad recently caused a stir by labelling her ‘self-made‘, feels that she’s ‘too white’ to stand up for her Arab heritage.
The model, whose father is Palestinian and mum is Dutch, made the comments during an interview with i-D for The New Worldwi-De Issue.
She explained: “Because both of our parents are their own heritage. We are that first generation of those mixed races, and then that comes with that first generational experience of being like, ‘Oh damn, I’m the bridge!’. That’s not something that my parents experienced or that they can really help me through.
Watch as Gigi Hadid opens up about her heritage in the clip below…
“It’s something I’ve always thought about my whole life.”
She continued: “In certain situations, I feel – or I’m made to feel – that I’m too white to stand up for part of my Arab heritage.
“You go through life trying to figure out where you fit in racially. Is what I am, or what I have, enough to do what I feel is right? But then, also, is that taking advantage of the privilege of having the whiteness within me, right?
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“Am I allowed to speak for this side of me, or is that speaking on something that I don’t experience enough to know?”
The 26-year-old went on to discuss her child, Khai, and how she and Zayn Malik plan to parent her.
In the future, Hadid predicts that her daughter ‘will grow up feeling the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities’.
She added: “But I think that it will be nice to be able to have those conversations, and see where she comes from [with] it, without us putting that onto her.
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“What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions, you know?”
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