Will Smith Reveals Police Have Called Him The N-Word ‘On More Than 10 Occasions’
While speaking on the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing protesting for social and racial injustices worldwide, Will Smith revealed that police have called him the n-word “on more than 10 occasions” while growing up in Philadelphia.
Joining political commentator and activist Angela Rye on her podcast, ‘On One With Angela Rye,’ Smith recalls, “I grew up in Philadelphia. I grew up under Mayor [Frank] Rizzo. He went from the chief of police to becoming the mayor, and he had an iron hand.”
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With Rizzo as mayor, pushing an anti-desegregation platform, Smith reveals, “I’ve been called n****r by the cops in Philly on more than 10 occasions. I got stopped frequently. So I understand what it’s like to be in those circumstances with the police, to feel like you’ve occupied–it’s an occupying force. But, I went to school in the suburbs. I went to Catholic school, so I understand what the disparities are, really in an interesting way. White kids were happy when the cops showed up, and my heart always started pounding.”
Smith goes on to talk about raising two black sons in America, and the increasing attention being to the Black Lives Matter movement.
He says, “We are in a circumstance that we’ve never been in before. The entire globe has stood up and said to the African American people, ‘We see you and we hear you. How can we help?’ We’ve never been there before.”
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