Ademola Olonilua

Hollywood star, Will Smith, has shared his own experience of racism in the US. He revealed his brushes with racism on the “Pod Save America” podcast hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor.

The Men in Black actor and four-time Grammy Award winner said that he has been called the n-word to his face at least five times.

The I-Robot star further said that he never got upset when racially abused because those that called him the n-word were not smart people. 

Smith said,

“I’ve been called [n-word] to my face probably five or six times. And fortunately for my psyche, I’ve never been called [n-word] by a smart person. I grew up with the impression that racists and racism were stupid, and they were easy to get around. I just had to be smarter now while they were very dangerous. I had never looked into the eyes of a racist and saw anything that I perceived as intellect.

Smith noted that with education, the concept of racism can be alleviated.

He said,

“Fortunately, ignorance is more prevalent than blatant evil, so I’ve always been encouraged that the process of education and understanding could alleviate some of the more dangerous and difficult aspects of racism that have unfortunately been embedded in the very fibres of our country.”