Keke Palmer is continuing to be outspoken about her beliefs and the issues that are important to her, including when it comes to President Donald Trump.
The 26-year-old star covers the latest issue of Cosmopolitan and talks about being an activist during these challenging times. Last month, a video of Palmer passionately encouraging members of the National Guard to march alongside Black Lives Matter protesters in Los Angeles while speaking out against police brutality and racial inequality in the wake of George Floyd’s death went viral.
“It was so euphoric,” Palmer tells the magazine of how she felt during the powerful moment. “I just felt so united with everybody. It wasn’t no celebrity-type sh, you know what I mean? I’ve never felt like that before. If I sit and think about everything that’s happened in this country, I wouldn’t get out of fking bed in the morning. So for us to have that moment of just helping each other heal, just standing by each other, marching and saying, ‘No justice, no peace.’ That’s so powerful.”
Palmer got emotional when talking about approaching a guardsman and wondering why he wasn’t marching alongside the protesters.
“I really, honestly wanted to know why,” she says. “I was overwhelmed with the emotion of everybody knowing what’s happening, that it’s not right. And this is something that, as a Black person, we’ve known.”
“It’s so powerful for me because I’ve been through it,” she adds. “I know what it feels like to be hated for your skin. It’s so silly and it’s so stupid, but it’s so cruel. I know what it feels like when somebody is racist toward you, and you literally go to a sunken place, you can’t speak. It’s so hard to explain if you’ve never felt it, but I know you have. It hurts. And we get so strong that sometimes it’s like we don’t even realize it, because we’ve been carrying the weight of it for so long.”
She didn’t mince words when it came to her thoughts on Trump, who has been criticized for his response to the Black Lives Matter movement — specifically, him calling protesters in Minneapolis “thugs” and tweeting in part, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“He’s inciting a race war,” Palmer says of the president. “His craziness is inspiring us to just really get him the f**k out! It’s like we needed somebody who riled us up so much for us to be activated to the point of saying, ‘Oh, hell no. I can’t let this guy continue. I have to do something. I have to find a way to let my voice be heard and to let people know that I’m not with this.'”
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Calling it now: @Keke Palmer will go down in the pages of your future history books. Because our Jaugust cover star isn’t just waiting for change to happen from waves hands all this. She’s standing up, marching, and screaming for it. It’s time we listen up. Link in bio for the interview. ⚡️?✨ *** Cover photo by @danascruggs Written by @hunterh Fashion by @cassieanderson212 Hair by @ann_joneshair Makeup by @mimikamara Production by @earlymorningriot
A post shared by Cosmopolitan (@cosmopolitan) on Jul 7, 2020 at 5:35am PDT
Palmer isn’t the only celebrity who has directly denounced Trump’s response to protestors and the Black Lives Matter movement. In May, Taylor Swift also responded to his now infamous tweet, writing, “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump.”
