Not too long ago, I wrote on Twitter that Keke Palmer is a modern-day Renaissance woman, and we need to start respecting her as such. Last week, a video of the multi-talented entertainment superstar calmly speaking to a National Guardsman at a Los Angeles anti-racism protest made the rounds, which made my heart soar and validated my sentiments even further. Not only is she beautiful and gifted, but she is a force, an agent for change and a fellow 1993 baby doing the damn thing.
On Thursday, Palmer was interviewed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss the video, where she urged the National Guardsman to stop what he was doing and walk with her and the other protestors in solidarity. (“March with us, march beside us, let the revolution be televised,” she insisted.) The original video has been viewed over 25 million times on Twitter.
“I didn’t plan on really seeing anybody like that out there,” she reveals, adding that she merely wanted to be a part of the protest “for this cause.” After observing the National Guardsmen blocking protestors from walking any further, she explains that she was “weirded out a bit” and “kind of confused, from a genuine naive place.”
“They’re human like I’m human, I know they have a job to do, but I felt like why can’t they be marching with us?” she continues. “I felt like we had an opportunity [at] that moment…[to] come together...what if your job is telling you to do something you don’t believe in? I was just speaking from my heart.”
The L.A. protest was not Palmer’s first time at the rodeo. She told the talk show host that she’s attended anti-racism protests in the past, including one that took place in Ferguson, Missouri after Michael Brown was killed by police. However, this particular protest carried a “different energy.”
“Especially with all of the stuff that was happening in quarantine, so just being around that many people at once, it was a lot...because none of us had been anywhere in a while,” she said.
Palmer, who also made sure to plug her new song “Thick,” said that after her video went viral, she received a phone call from Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden. However, she says that she remains unmoved about him even after their conversation.
“It was good to talk,” she sighs. “I guess he was cool, but I can’t say after the convo [that] I felt totally thrilled or excited.” Same, sis.
Check out her entire conversation with Jimmy Kimmel below.