Kerry Washington, an award-winning and multimillionaire actress, admits she has a “very real fear” of playing with her kids in her own neighborhood for fear that White people will call the cops on her.
Washington made the sobering admission on former ESPN sports reporter Jemele Hill’s podcast “Unbothered” that will air on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020, according to BET.com.
“It’s crazy when somebody says like, ‘How dare you, Kerry Washington, have a voice. You’re a so-privileged Hollywood actor person,’ ” says the former star of “Scandal.” “No matter what I do, no matter how many Emmy nominations, I am still scared at times to scooter in neighborhoods with my kids where I feel like somebody could call the cops.”
“Because that cop may never have seen ‘Scandal,’ ” she adds. “I still have that very real fear.”
Washington, who also starred in Academy Award-winning films such as Django Unchained and The Last King of Scotland, says it’s imperative for her to always be meticulous in articulating her own beliefs and not allow others to speak for her.
“When I speak about this country, I speak as a mother, I speak as a woman, I speak as a Black person,” she said. “I speak as a kid who grew up in the Bronx, across the street from the projects. I don’t speak as a Hollywood elite. I speak as somebody who’s the mother of Black children, as somebody who had student loans way longer than I thought I would. I speak as somebody who cares about my community and the community that my family lives in, my extended family.”
Washington, 43, added that she’s “never going to be quiet because somebody else thinks I should. Whenever somebody says to an entertainer or an athlete or an actor, ‘You shouldn’t have a voice,’ to me, that’s a reminder to stay in my voice because I can’t let people silence me.”
