Lenny Kravitz says he “didn’t understand prejudice” as a child.
The singer didn’t have a concept of racial differences until he started school because he grew up in a multicultural environment.
The star explained that his mother taught him to embrace all parts of his heritage rather than compartmentalise them.
Born to a father of Russian-Jewish descent and a mother with a Bahamian and Afro-American background, the musician spent his childhood split between New York’s Upper Eastside and Brooklyn, where his grandmother lived.
“I didn’t understand prejudice. It wasn’t part of my reality. I just thought people looked different, and that’s the way it was. My house was full of every kind of person you can imagine. My family was mixed white, black, Christian, Jewish, and my parents had friends from all different backgrounds and other biracial couples. It was very colourful. Not till I got to school did I realise there was a thing about it,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. “It was the first day of first grade. A kid walked up to my parents — they were walking me into class — and this kid pointed his finger and said very loudly, ‘Your dad’s white!’ It really threw me off. My mother had a conversation with me about race, about my life, how I’m not one thing, to embrace both sides.”
Lenny also revealed how his childhood taught him to enjoy different cultures.
Now a hugely successful musician, the star has a home in the Bahamas and spends a lot of time in Paris.
The Are You Gonna Go My Way singer explained he loves to switch between the simplicity of island life to the cultural treasure of the French capital.
“I’m very much into contrasts. When I’m in the Bahamas, I live in a trailer. It’s a simple life. I eat fish from the sea and vegetables out of my garden,” he said. “In Paris, it’s a very glamorous existence. I live in a wonderful hotel, and I enjoy what Paris has to offer — the art, the fashion, the culinary experience, the architecture. Because I grew up between the ghetto and the Upper East Side, that’s made a big impression on me. I tend to like the bottom and the top. The middle, I don’t have a big attraction for.”
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