“Racism is very real, and white supremacy is going strong,” Zoe Kravitz told Allure recently.

She’s on the cover this month, and did an interview with them that skipped across her professional interests, her parents and her taste in movies to land squarely on race.

We all know and recognize that it’s a time of racial tension: police shootings, the relaunch of the War on Drugs, those with racist views being given positions of power within our government — it’s dark times.

But in looking at the macro, we forget how racism can warp individual lives.

In her interview, Kravitz opens up about how racism twisted her perception of herself. “I was always one of the only black kids in any of my schools. I went to private schools full of white kids. I think a lot of that made me want to blend in or not be looked of as black.”

At school, she said, “The white kids [were] always talking about your hair and making you feel weird.” 

And what did all that do to her?

Nothing good.

“I had this struggle of accepting myself as black and loving that part of myself.”

Kravitz notes that “I am definitely mixed. Both my parents are mixed. I have white family on both sides,” and that that part of herself took primacy until not very long ago.

Now, things have changed.

“The older I get, the more I experience life, I am identifying more and more with being black, and what that means — being more and more connected to my roots and my history … and now I’m so in love with my culture and so proud to be black.”

Take it from Kravitz — even if it’s a long journey, it’s worth it to be who you are, despite what cruelty you may face from others because of it.