Keke Palmer is the cover girl for Cosmopolitan latest issue. In this issue, she speak on how Black Lives Matters a lots to her.
The world—Keke included—has been protesting the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and too many others, and calling for painfully necessary dialogue and policy changes to eradicate racism.
See excerpts of her interview below :
How did you first respond to the protests?
With a lot of different emotions, when I saw some of the violence. I couldn’t actually see myself doing that because I work from a different place, but I understand it. There are people out there who feel like that is their only option in order to be heard or their only way to have access to something they feel represents value. If the language for so long toward you has been violence, how would you expect someone to respond? I feel like there’s such a lack of compassion.
And then eventually you come face-to-face with the soldier…
So, we’re marching, doing a call-and-response, and we get to this point where we’re not able to cross because the National Guard is being told to protect the nearby buildings. To me, it’s just such a slap in the face. We’re the ones that need to be protected, not the damn buildings! The buildings can be rebuilt.
So you were thinking about all this?
At that moment, I felt like, You’re human like me. I’m fighting out here, not just for me but for you too, you and the universe. How in control is this system for them to be able to stop y’all from seeing that? Everything I said came out like word vomit. I know I didn’t let him get a word in edgewise, but it was because I wanted him to feel me. I wanted to connect to the human, not the suit, not this robot-ass shit. “Yo, we need you to take a stand with us because this has got to stop.”
Read the full interview here
Credits
Cover photo by @danascruggs
Written by @hunterh
Fashion by @cassieanderson212
Hair by @ann_joneshair
Makeup by @mimikamara
Production by @earlymorningriot
