Gigi Hadid says she’s felt ‘too white’ to stand up for Arab heritage while reflecting on mixed-race identity

Model says she hopes her and Zayn Malik’s daughter Khai ‘wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities’

(AFP via Getty Images)

Gigi Hadid has opened up about feeling, and being made to feel, as if she is “too white to stand up for part of my Arab heritage,” while reflecting on her mixed-race identity.

The supermodel discussed her experience growing up half Palestinian through her father Mohamed Hadid, and half Dutch through her mother Yolanda Hadid, during an interview with i-D.

While speaking to the publication, the 26-year-old revealed that there have been times throughout her life where she has felt her whiteness bars her from speaking “for this side of me”.

“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,” she said. “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?

“Am I allowed to speak for this side of me, or is that speaking on something that I don’t experience enough to know?”

Hadid also revealed that she and her partner Zayn Malik, who is English-Irish and Pakistani, frequently discuss the topic of their mixed identities, with the supermodel explaining that it is both “important” to them, and something that they both experienced as firsts in their families.

“We think about it and talk about it a lot as partners and it’s something that’s really important to us, but it’s also something that we first experienced ourselves,” she said. “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. It’s something I’ve always thought about my whole life.”

Hadid also reflected on how her and Malik’s mixed identities will impact their daughter Khai, who was born in September 2020.

According to Hadid, she believes that their daughter will “grow up feeling out the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities”.

However, according to Hadid, while it will be “nice to have those conversations” with Khai, she doesn’t plan on pressuring her with her or Malik’s beliefs.

“What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions,” she said.

Hadid’s hopes for her daughter’s future come after the former One Direction singer revealed that being a father has been “amazing”.

“Honestly, it’s amazing. A lot of people that I was speaking to, obviously, before she was born and stuff were like: ‘It’s a big adjustment, and it’s going to be a massive change and stuff,’” the singer told iHeartRadio in March. “But honestly, she’s an amazing baby. It’s been really easy for me and Gig to kind of just ease into it.”