Sandra Bullock says she still has a lot to learn about racism as a white mother with Black children.
Bullock, 57, joined the ladies of Facebook’s hit series “The Red Table Talk.” During the show, the access and producer discussed her experience being a white mother to two adopted Black children: 8-year-old Laila and 11-year-old Louis. BET reports that she says she “sometimes” wishes they all had the same skin color.
“To say that I wish our skins matched, sometimes I do,” explained Bullock. “Because then it would be easier on how people approach us, and I have the same feelings as a woman with brown skin being her babies or a white woman with white babies.”
Bullock says she worries about the day her children will grow up and have their own indolence as adults. “As a white parent who loves her children more than life itself, I know I am laying existential anxiety on them, I have to think about what they’re going to experience leaving the home,” she said. “They’re going to have my fear, but how can I make sure that my anxiety is accurate, protective?” With Lou, being a young Black man, at one point, sweet funny Lou is going to be a young man, and the minute he leaves my home I can’t follow him everywhere. I will try. I’m joking, but I’m not.”
Despite her fears, Bullock says she doesn’t shelter her children from the harsh realities of racism. “I let him see everything. I let him process it. He knows how the world works. He knows how cruel it is, he knows how unfair it is, and Laila knows,” she added. “I let them teach me and tell me what they need to know. I thought I was educated and woke, I thought I was educated and woke, I thought I had it all. I wasn’t.”
