Kristin Davis Cries Describing Racism Her Adopted Children Experience
Feeling vulnerable. Kristin Davis broke down in tears during the Monday, July 8, episode of Red Table Talk while describing the racism her African-American, adopted son and daughter have experienced.
“It’s one thing to watch it happening to other people, but another to watch it happening to your child,” the Sex and the City alum, 54, told Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris on the show. “It’s a big issue and I think about it every day and every night.”
Davis opened up about specific conversations that took place when her daughter, Gemma, now 7, was a baby. “When I was holding her in my arms, people would say to me, ‘Won’t she be a great basketball player?’” the actress recalled, tearing up. “I would just have to be like … ‘This is a baby. How could you say that without just being mortified?’”
The Colorado native, who also adopted a baby boy in May 2018, experienced her “next big turning point” while watching Gemma waiting for her turn on the swings. “This one girl in particular would stop swinging, would hold the swing, would call to another white girl across the yard and say, ‘I’m holding the swing for you,’” Davis said. “I’d just be like, ‘What the f–k? What about my child?’”
She added of the discrimination her children have faced: “I don’t know how every person of color has gotten through this. I don’t understand how you could take this every day.”
While the single mom took many educational courses before adopting her children, she admitted that she will never be able to relate to the racism Gemma and her brother experience firsthand.
“I will never be black no matter how hard I try,” Davis said. “I will never be able to say to Gemma: ‘I understand because this is what happened to me.’” Because of that, the Melrose Place alum has been “on a mission” to give her children exposure to black communities. She also acknowledges that she has “so many questions” and asks for help whenever she’s uncertain about how to talk to her little ones about police brutality, for example.
“I don’t want to miss something or under the crazy white privilege assumption that everything is going to be fine,” she explained. “We have to deal with reality and we have to prepare them.”
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