Jada Pinkett Smith admitted she held a strong bias against white women due to childhood trauma.
The actress confessed during an episode of Red Table Talk, “I think what crushes me, specifically in my relationship with white women, the thing that really breaks my heart is that white women understand what it feels to be oppressed,” she said.
The Set If Off star added she has a visceral reaction to blonde women.
“I have to admit I’m guilty to a certain degree because I do have my own biases, specifically to blonde women,” she said.
“Blonde hair on white women just triggers me. I’ve had to catch myself.”
When her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, asked her about the origin of her bias, the 47-year-old said she was bullied by white girls when she was a child.
“All throughout my childhood. I do remember experiencing being teased by white women in regards to my hair, how I looked, feeling belittled,” Pinkett Smith responded.
Eventually, she checked herself when the problem began to affect her work. She believes her bias against white women is no different than white folks’ racism toward Black people.
“I was going to do an interview with this blonde woman, and I thought twice about it. I thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that.’ That was my first instinct because of how she looked! And I was like, ‘Oh! That’s no different.’ That doesn’t give me the right to clump all blonde women in one,” she added. “And look at me, I got blonde hair! It’s no different than you getting robbed by a Black guy once, and now you’re saying all Black dudes are thieves and dangerous.”
Banfield-Jones also struggles with a bias against white people.
“It’s really difficult for me because we have white people in our family,” she said, referring to relatives who entered interracial marriages.
Pinkett Smith recalled her mother’s advice about dating white people.
“I remember you telling me to never let anybody know that,” she said. “Do you remember that? You said don’t take pride in it.”
Her mother admitted her views came from her childhood.
“I repeated what mommy told me, that you have to learn to get along with white people but don’t ever bring them home,” Banfield-Jones said.
The 64-year-old admitted her views are why she didn’t “give myself an opportunity to even like” one of her daughter's white ex-boyfriends. Pinkett Smith’s former boo wasn’t the only one who received the cold shoulder.
“Just like I said, we have people in our family [who are white], and I’ve given those people a hard time. Jason is married to a white woman,” Banfield-Jones recalled, referring to her nephew and his wife.
“She will tell you we gave her a hard time because we didn’t welcome her with open arms, and she really had to prove herself. I feel bad about that,” she said.
Watch the full episode below:
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