“What was I? That outdated “tragic mulatto” of earlier fiction? Oddly enough, there remains some validity in this concept, in a society not yet integrated. I wasn’t fully accepted in either world, black or white. I was too light to satisfy Negroes, not light enough to secure the screen work, the roles, the marriage status available to a white woman. I had been catapulted from a primarily Negro environment high up into white-peopled studios and salons. Subtly, while experiencing what seemed to be a full acceptance, I encountered not-yetness. Whites weren’t quite ready for full acceptance even of me, purportedly beautiful, passable, acceptable, talented, called by critics every superlative in the lexicon employed for a talented and beautiful woman. Yet the barrier was there.” - Dorothy Dandridge, Everything and Nothing