Karla Souza Quotes

I think only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian.

I wanted to write a story about colonization and about Hawaii. I went to college right at the height of identity politics, and that's how I always read 'The Tempest,' for example.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

I don't think that because I am Hispanic I should therefore do Hispanic work.

I haven't gotten labeled as a Hispanic actor.

To call somebody a Jewish composer is obviously redundant.

I'm so sick of people treating Latinos like some homogenous group that all feel the same way about everything.

It's really tough to be a Mexican on 'Breaking Bad.'

There are many films in which minority groups are caricatured to the point where truth is all together lost. There are many more films, good in general, but untrue in their presentation of the Negro's life as totally divorced from the Caucasian's or the Caucasian's from the Negro.

I've never been one to bow down to people who try to question my identity because I don't fit their mould of what an Aboriginal Australian is supposed to be or look like.

I feel like a lot of the portrayals of, in particular, younger minority ethnic characters on television, a lot of their dialogue, a lot of their characteristics, a lot of their personality in a writer's eyes, is kind of propelled through their ethnicity.

I get offered a lot of black roles, because apparently I don't look Latino enough.

If I have to pretend to be anything else than French, then I know it's work for me. It's not that it scares me, but it's work. I cannot just pop up on the set and say 'Okay, today I'm Italian!'

I think there's the apparent lack of subtlety and sort of make-believe anti-sensibility connected with American art. I think this is a style, and it does relate to our culture, and I think it would be anachronistic maybe to pretend to be involved with subtle changes and modulations and things like that, because it's really not part of America.

I am not defined as a black writer in the Caribbean, but as soon as I go to America or the U.K., my place becomes black theatre. It's a little ridiculous.

I've been told that I wasn't Latino enough, which was code for 'street' enough.

When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream culture thinks you are, you have less energy and time to figure out who you are when you go home at night.

I often hear things like, 'You don't look Latina enough,' and that mentality is so backwards. The fact is, I am Latina, so how are you going to tell me that I don't look Latina?

'Hispanic' was the term adopted by the government - by the Nixon government in particular - and that made the community feel it was being branded.

Some Mexicans go to Hollywood and lose career in Mexico because they play imitation. I don't want this to happen to me.

It was quite strange that people were saying I wasn't Asian enough. It's like, 'Oh, you're not Asian enough to play an Asian role.' So what does that mean for people who come from mixed heritage? I grew up in Asia; I'm Malaysian.

We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre.

I feel like being vocal on social media, especially working in an industry that is very Eurocentric.

More than anything, I'm an American kid, and my music reflects that more so than being an Asian-American. I think it's important but also something that can detrimental to your career if celebrated too much.

I think Hollywood makes the mistake of mixing all these identities and cultures, mostly from the Middle East.