Sandra Bullock recently opened up about raising two Black children, Louis and Laila, during which the actress, who is white, admitted that sometimes she wished that her skin color matched her kids.
While talking with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris during a recent appearance on “Red Table Talk,” the 57-year-old Hollywood veteran said, “To say that I wish our skins matched, sometimes I do. Because then it would be easier on how people approach us.”
She added, “And I have the same feelings as a woman with brown skin with it being her babies or a white woman with white babies.” The Oscar-winning actress adopted her now 11-year-old son Louis as an infant in 2010, when he was about three-and-a-half months old, People reported. She welcomed her now 8-year-old daughter, Laila, five years later.
“It’s the mother-child dynamic,” Willow inserted. “There is no color.” to which the actress replied, “Maybe one day that will go away. Maybe one day we will be able to see with different eyes.”
The actress, who is currently on a press tour for her latest film, “The Unforgivable,” gave more insight into her day-to-day raising Black children and reflected on a time her son was wearing a hoodie. “At the age of six, he popped on a hoodie and I was like, ‘We’re going to have a conversation,’ ” Bullock said in an interview with The Grio.
She continued, “I said, ‘What does it look like you’re doing with the hoodie?’” she continued. “And he says, ‘Well, I look like I’m hiding.’ ‘Do you have anything to hide?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Then you don’t need to wear it like that outside,’ I said, ‘People are scared and will react to you differently than if you were a white boy.’ And he knows it.”
The star revealed, ”I let them see everything. I let them hear and know everything, see it all. I don’t care if it scares them because it’s my job to let them know that outside of these safe walls, that things are different.”
Bullock’ms comments garnered mixed reactions from critics on social media, many of whom found the remark to be offensive, including one Twitter user who wrote, “Up early thinking about how #SandraBullock’s statements in that “parenting a 6yo black kid video” was smothered in white fragility with a side of black docility. #IsaidWhatisaid.”
However, others defended the star, including one social media user who wrote, “Nobody will ever understand unless its personal to them, sandra bullock and mothers of black dead children understand.”
In a sneak peek of the newest episode, obtained by “Good Morning America,” host Jada asked the actress if she ever received criticism for adopting Black children. The star revealed that she’s often met with “the racism…sure.” “There’s a lot of it,” she added, before stating “but guess what? Not my problem.”
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