The vital importance of Thandiwe Newton changing her name
Given that the word of the year for 2022 is permacrisis, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the world has been rapidly sliding into oblivion for some time now. Some argue that this has been in progress since the late 1970s and others since 2001, but despite the arguments about the origin, one thing is certain: for the past few years, life has royally sucked, and it looks like things aren’t going to change anytime soon. Whether it be environmental, racial, or economic, many factors have culminated in the period being a taut one. However, it hasn’t all been bad. We’ve seen many heroes step up to the plate, and in 2021 actor Thandiwe Newton did her bit to make the world a little bit better.
2021 was a strange year. It saw many countries finally emerge from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic and attempt to try and live life normally. Elsewhere, Italy won the Euros, Russia’s war games in Belarus came forewarned their final objective, and President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in a murderous rage in Washington, D.C.
Running concurrently with all this was the fight of the Black Lives Matter movement, which rose to new levels following the murder of George Floyd the previous year. Many musicians, actors and sportspeople did their bit to speak up for the cause, despite a backlash from some elements of society ranging from racist thugs to bizarre ideologues such as Candace Owens – a textbook Aunt Thomasina.
In my view, the Black Lives Matter movement bringing the longtime struggles of BAME people into the mainstream dialogue was one of the best things to happen in the 21st century. It had long needed doing, with the murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin proving to be an incendiary moment. Race relations might have drastically improved since the days of lynchings in the 1950s and ’60s, but there is still much work to do.
For many people of colour, BLM’s work over the past years encouraged them to stand up for themselves, with Thandiwe Newton being one of the most prominent. Until 2021, the Westworld star had been known as Thandie Newton, a lazily anglicised name due to the institutional racism she faced in every chapter of her life. However, in the face of BAME people taking back control, or more pointedly, self-determination, this was no more. From April that year and forevermore, she was now called Thandiwe Newton, her real name.
Born in London in 1972, Newton is the daughter of a Zimbabwean princess and an English laboratory technician, with Thandiwe meaning “beloved” in Zulu. Although she was born in Britain, the family lived in Zambia until she was three, when they moved to Penzance, Cornwall, so her father could help run his family’s antique business. She was soon to get her first taste of otherness.
During an extensive interview with Vogue conducted in April 2021, Newton discussed her sense of being part of the BAME community, the effect this had on her early life and her eventual decision to reclaim her name. “I mean, holy hell,” she said of the move to the southwest coast of Britain. “We may as well have been the first Black people anyone had ever seen. We didn’t have conditioner. We didn’t have anything.”
The move was typical of the age. Her mother cast off her standing as the granddaughter of a Shona chief and became an NHS health worker, whilst her father took over the antique business. Completing the segue into assimilation, Thandiwe and her younger brother attended a local Catholic school run by austere nuns, but they were treated with utter contempt.
She told the publication of an instance where she was excluded from a class photograph for wearing cornrows. Shockingly, this was just one of the earliest moments Newton was forced to accept that she, her mother and her brother were the ‘other’ and that for any hope of assimilating into their new society, she would have to forego elements of her natural self and give in to the demands of the white-configured world. Duly, she gradually dropped the W of her name, moving closer to the concept of whiteness.
She told a TED conference in 2011: “From about the age of five, I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly.”
Raised between Penzance and London, Thandiwe would eventually study at Cambridge before embarking on an acting career that saw her become of the most successful British stars of all time. However, one thing was clear: although she stayed true to herself by only accepting roles she saw fit in the wake of being sexually abused by a director at just 16, something was still missing – her real name and, accordingly, her true self.
Notably, because of the obstacles she faced, Newton always referred to herself as a Londoner and not British. An example of this kind of prejudice came in 2006 after she won a BAFTA for Crash when a certain UK tabloid claimed that she wasn’t really British due to her mother being Black. She reflected on that moment to Vogue: “I remember thinking, ‘But it’s a British win! Why don’t you wanna take that? Why would you not wanna dig that and embrace it and feel really good?'”
Unsurprisingly, in the wake of the BLM movement and the adverse reaction to it, Thandiwe decided once and for all that it was time to act.
Only a week before announcing that she was reclaiming her name, Newton took to Twitter to express her disgust at the government’s report on race disparity, which practically dismissed the thought that structural racism is alive and well in the UK. It claimed that whilst racism might still exist, geography, family influence, socio-economic background, culture and religion significantly impact life chances more.
Interestingly, Lord Wooley, the former head of No. 10’s race disparity unit, even criticised the report, saying it disrespected and disregarded many people’s lived experience: “If you deny structural race inequality, then you’ve got nothing to do and that in of itself is a huge problem. There was structural racism before Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter in all areas and all levels of our society. There are shocking disparities and shocking outcomes in health, education and housing. That’s why we set up the race and disparity unit in the first place.”
He continued: “Covid-19 laid bare these structural inequalities in such Technicolor and made them worse, where [BAME communities] are dying in greater numbers, becoming severely ill in greater numbers, and losing their jobs. Then to be not only in denial but saying: ‘What are you complaining about? We live in a society that is much better than it was 100 years ago’ is monumental disrespect and disregard of people’s lived experiences but above all, a lost opportunity for systemic change.”
Aghast by the report’s findings, writing on Twitter, Newton said: “There’s no way it can be real – it would be unethical insanity”.
During the interview with Vogue, she cast off the shackles of the past, clarifying the reasons for her decision: “That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine.”
“The thing I’m most grateful for in our business right now is being in the company of others who truly see me. And to not be complicit in the objectification of Black people as ‘others’, which is what happens when you’re the only one,” she explained.
Thandiwe Newton changing her name was a significant move. It conveyed that BAME people don’t have to live by the rules that the system lays out for them and that they can be as successful as their white counterparts whilst still managing to retain their natural selves. This might have appeared inconsequential to some, such as those who conducted the government’s report, but it’s not. Having to give up your name in the hope of fitting in is a crime in more ways than one.
Furthermore, the symbolic weight of the decision was tremendous, as Newton was one of the most prominent people of colour to highlight the unfair racial rules of the world, doing her bit to highlight the struggle of people of colour who are not blessed with money, fame and ultimately, power like she has. It is certain that much good will continue to follow it.
