From Zambia, he came to study in Ukraine, like everyone else. Mom and Dad are two bright people. They met at a disco. Dad danced perfectly , knew Russian well, although his parents tried to [speak] more English. They were together for five years, then separated. After the divorce and the master’s degree, my father went to work in a specialty in Zambia. I stayed with my mother, but after parents’ separation, she also went to Europe.

While my parents were a couple , mom went to Turkey. She bought and sold clothes. As they could then, got out of that. She came with bags, with all this. And she managed to travel. When the marriage fell apart, she decided to go to the Netherlands. She lived there for five years.

I was very small, went back and forth. Quite often I stayed for a long time. I’ve been staying for a long time. I could have been there for a few months, then back to my grandmother.

Of course, I liked it [in the Netherlands]. We went to Disneyland and somewhere else. Everything was different there. At that time we didn’t even have yoghurts in Ukraine. And there from food was all that can be. As we have now, it was already there then. As a child, I liked both places. I also liked the yard in Ukraine – I could climb the trees, walk in abandoned kindergartens with friends, and in the Netherlands, I also enjoyed being with the locals. I remember when I visited Disneyland, my mother told me that I went to kindergarten and said: “Oh, it’s so boring here, Disneyland was better.” At first, I did not like to be in this kindergarten, and then it was OK, I made friends with the guys.

In kindergarten, I don’t remember it at all. It seemed to me that everything was fine. But my mother used to say that when I was little, people would look at us sideways, like a black child, saying, what is it? They could react wildly. She even told me once, now that I’m grown up: “If you want children from a black man, I do not advise you [to give birth] in Russia.” I was very surprised, because I thought it wasn’t a problem.

My grandmother told me that [in the garden] I fought, never let anyone hurt me. Then my relatives taught me: if someone picks on you, don’t answer. That’s how I went and didn’t answer. They shout something, and I just walk away. Sometimes I got tired of it, it accumulated.

I went to several children’s camps every summer. I don’t remember if I had any problems with racism. But I remember I didn’t get along with the girls once. They lived with me in the same room. Either they were jealous, or else, in general, they constantly led me to scandals. I even hit one a couple of times. Somehow we didn’t get along. More girls weren’t friends with me. At some point, they all banded together, tricked my friend, and asked to call me. I came, and they sprinkled chlorine over me from head to toe. They also poured something into the shower gel, into a suitcase. In general, tried their best. I went to the camp headmaster. I don’t know why not to a camp leader. Probably because the leaders are already used to it. And by the way, she (director - ed.) then stood up for me. I always took part in events, performed, was very active, so she knew me. She came [to the squad] and said: “Who did this, come out! You will not go to this camp again. " They would come again then, of course, but I was pleased, I felt that I was not alone.

Yes, my mother moved, and I followed her. I was in the third grade then. Everything was fine because there were many people of different nationalities there. I began to feel [towards myself] some kind of unpleasant attitude in the ninth grade when everyone was at an awkward age. There was a case when a girl told me something like: “You have a nest on your head.” I did not pay attention, and then she said something to me again. Then, in response, I fought back. We got into it. All the phones at once were [pulled out] - the “operators” woke up. We stood for a while grappling: she pulled my hair, I slapped her, then I also pulled on something. All my classmates, like a circus, watched and filmed us. They stood until she ripped my hair out. [The girl] held my hair in her hand, boasted, was proud of herself. Then a whole lesson was spent on clarifying that situation.

Our class teacher Lyubov Anatolievna, it seems, stood up for me, because that girl provoked me.

Then we had nothing more. But there was a different situation when the boys started bullying me. They shouted all the time: “Africa, Africa”. Well, they shouted and shouted. I thought maybe they were so small that they did not know how to look after in any other way. I didn’t pay much attention. I already liked the older boys at that moment. Then a girl appeared who began to shout with them. I don’t know why I react more aggressively to girls, but I remember that when she yelled at me, everyone was sitting and giggling, and I was drinking some kind of juice with fruit. And this juice ended up on her head. I did not pay attention, as taught in childhood, endured, endured, but patience comes to an end. At that moment the math teacher came in and saw us: “Adeline, how could you?!” I said nothing, did not explain anything. And later [one on one] the teacher said: “Who has teased you? Oh, this one! Well, you did the right thing.”

On the theory of intercultural communication [at the university], we studied that there is such a tactic: to make friends, people find an outcast and unite against him. It always works. At that moment they decided that I would be an outcast. And since I was silent, there was only one fight, it turned out that I did not stop it. They went through puberty. I think it [behavior] is related to that. I didn’t provoke them, but I didn’t give a proper rebuff either. Once I was tortured to such an extent that I had very dangerous thoughts: “Where are the guns sold? Should I take it, maybe? And if I go to jail, I’ll ruin my life. No, I can’t do that.” It worried me, but I never told anyone about it. I am telling now for the first time in my life. Then I was stopped by the fact that I believe in God and, still, the punishment [and understanding] that such things cannot be done in society.

To the company of those who teased was added another girl, who even did not study at our school. She also began to shout: “Africa, Africa”. I ask her: “Do you know any other continent?” She saw that I did not give in to provocation. And so she probably spent a year, screaming like a rooster. Once I told my mother about it. In general, I didn’t tend to tell. Was silent even about that fight with the girl.

Well, this is my business, mom has nothing to do with it. Snitching, it seems, is not accepted. It’s not customary to go snitching. Moreover, what would mom do? Would go and say: “Oh, you are such a scamp”? In that case, I told them, because I just didn’t know what to do. I already had enough, the girl bullied at me endlessly, and I wanted to ask my mother for advice. Mom picked me up from school, did sometimes. When she drove in, this girl was next to me. Mom stopped and told her calmly: “Do you belong to skinheads or the Nazis? Then go to these groups. “She was silent for a while, and then she started again [shouting “Africa”]. She directly knew which way I [walked], followed me. I even told my friends, like, I don’t know, was that such a way of self-expression or what was she trying to show? They laughed, said that she is some kind of fool, better to not pay attention.

You know, in some moments I really could not stand up for myself, and in others - the color of my skin was the reason. When there is nothing to complain about, you have to find fault with it at least. There was a situation: the boy liked me, but I did not know about it and did not understand that he was trying to attract my attention to himself. He was offended and suddenly remembered that I was a mulatto, decided to find fault with this: you are black, he says.

My skin color is more likely a plus in working as a model. But sometimes in our common chat of mulatto-models get ads, they say, we are looking for a negro. Or may write “nigger”. It’s not respected brands that do it, but those who offer work at events, something like that. When I see it, my eyes open wide. I understand that people are still not very tolerant.

Many Russians have been living abroad for a long time or have mixed up someone here. Globalization has not been abolished. We are not in Asian countries, where ones stand for the purity of the nation, they are very critical of any deviations. Although I know that there are such moods here too ... By the way, when I was filming in “The Khach’s Diary” * - he was choosing a bride for himself - sometimes I saw comments there: “Not Afro!”, “She is not beautiful at all.”

* “Khach’s Diary” is a YouTube show by blogger Amiran Sardarov.

I understand that such people do not have broad views of the world, they think narrowly. It happens that some of my acquaintances call Asian girls narrow-eyed. I always laugh at this. This is some way of self-affirmation that humiliates you. For me, this always means that a person is still a little wild, out of date.

There this situation [with the inequality of blacks] has always been, the murder has become a cause [for reaction]. Despite the fact that there are [in the USA] more blacks in general [than in Russia], people are less tolerant. There’s one thing in the movies. I talked with African Americans, and they told me that in reality, everything is not so. It is impossible to get medical help because there is no money for insurance. You may not be hired because you are black. In Russia, the situation is milder, although you may not be accepted for a specific position.

I mean, for example, the girl at the reception. If the employer has a task, to hire a dark-shinned one to attract attention, she will be hired. And if “we don’t need exotic things,” then they will refuse because of the skin color. I have never worked at the front desk, but I guess this is how it works. But, in my opinion, the situation in terms of employment has changed for the better. The guy I sing with and his friends say that earlier in terms of Nazism in Russia it was much worse.

This is the ability to appreciate the basic things that are very important: life, health, self-realization. Your loved ones are healthy, you feel in the right place at the right time, at your favorite job.

You know, I watched a film about “The Venus Project” by Jacques Fresco *. He offered to abandon the monetary system altogether. Initially, everyone would be given food and shelter, and people would all work on technical and scientific progress, medicine. No one in this system would have to complain. If you are complaining, then be prepared to offer something. Here is the first thing, as an experiment, the rejection of the monetary system according to the Fresco scheme.

*Jacques Fresco is an American engineer, industrial designer, and futurologist. His “The Venus Project” was dedicated to creating a social system based on a resource- based economic model which cornerstone was the broad application of technical and technological solutions (Wikipedia).

And the third is health. To make medicine available to everyone in the world.

I would still sing. And would work as a model. Art and fashion. I really like these areas.

Music. I turn on and listen to what I like. Music brings some incredible pleasure. In the moments when I was terribly lonely, I could not sleep at night, I turned on music or wrote poetry.

If I have a problem, I don’t run straight to the bar and bother my friends. But I can read a book that will help solve the problem.

If I am gutted, then I need to awaken interest in life. Music has always helped me in this - to sing or listen to what I want right now.

I would like to say: “Be kinder!” Kindness works wonders, it’s a fact. If you feel that you are not happy with yourself, you will not be liked by others. Be happy with what you do. If you are satisfied, then you are true to yourself, if you are dissatisfied, then you are lying to yourself, you are not true to yourself. If you like yourself and your actions and appearance, you are satisfied, then others like you. The main thing is to love yourself and be true to yourself.