Systemic Racism Caused Zendaya To Fear for Her Father’s Safety: ‘I Didn’t Want Him To Go Out’
Hollywood actress and singer Zendaya gets emotional regarding her father’s safety during police shootings.
It has been three years since the filming of actress Zendaya’s first Spider-Man movie in 2016. She starred as the role of Michelle in Spider-Man: Homecoming when the movie made its debut in July 2017. Despite the world’s whirr of excitement, the Marvel actress was feeling quite the opposite. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, while speaking to Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors for InStyle‘s September cover, Zendaya expressed how she feared for her father’s safety during the filming.
Her father, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, accompanied her as she was filming . He was onset running errands and other everyday activities. This was all taking place at the same time as the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
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Thank you for a gorgeous night, proud to be an official member of the @bulgari family.
“I was extremely emotional, and I remember thinking about my dad, who was out picking up food at the time,” Zendaya admitted to InStyle. “And I started worrying and calling him like, ‘Are you OK?’ I didn’t want him to go out and do anything.”
The Euphoria star recognized her father’s full awareness of systemic racism in America, but this did not subside her fears. “My dad is a 65-year-old Black man,” said the star. “He’s been on this planet a long time, so he knows what he knows. But I still had that fear, and that scared me.”
The 23-year-old explained how she uses her platform to empower Black people and issues through her style team via InStyle’s cover story. Her cover look featured clothing, jewelry, shoes, hair, and makeup all by Black artists. The singer and actress’s team is headed by stylist Law Roach.
“I’ve always had a Black stylist and Black hair and makeup artists. But we were able to work with two talented young Black photographers on this shoot too,” she expressed to the magazine. “There are also so many Black designers people don’t know about, so having an opportunity where they can be in InStyle and get the love they deserve is really special.”
Thank you for your talents, it was so special to work with you both♥️ https://t.co/sCVBgNhyhL
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) August 7, 2020
For InStyle, Zendaya talked about standing up for racial justice as well as why she “always hesitated to use the word ‘activist’” to describe herself. The Disney star referred to it as a lifestyle of much dedication daily. She seeks other identities such as being acknowledged as one who cares “about human beings.”
You can read Zendaya’s entire in-depth InStyle interview as reported by The Hollywood Reporter here.
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