“I wanted so desperately to apologise to dark skinned Black women… for not representing them, for being chosen, for taking their men…”

There is so much to unpack here.

Such intimate reflections should be reserved for one’s therapist or girlfriend, not a SKY News interview.

Dear Thandiwe, you auditioned, was called back, and offered roles. You wanted to work, and that decision overrides whether the role could have gone to someone more befitting.

Casting agents will always choose a more palatable face, a more commercial face, the face that says the industry is attempting to be inclusive, whilst othering others.

Why apologise for being Biracial? Such internalised colourism is arduous to watch.

Being lighter-skinned does have certain privileges, and we all know why. But what about personal integrity?

Black Women don’t require an apology; they want equity and opportunity. Dynamic, complex roles that showcase the breadth of Black lives.

This performative display of guilt is sad.

We also have to consider how we are complicit in this identity crisis.

The one drop rule was created to ensure the socially constructed pure race is not tainted with any Black blood. So, we claim Biracial people as Black, denying them the right to self-identify, and then bemoan when they occupy spaces due to Black actors.

Header Image: Thandiwe Newton. Photo Credit: Jordan Strauss / Invision /AP