Natalie Portman told fans this week that her “white privilege” was responsible for causing fear and trepidation over calls by Black Lives Matter activists to defund police departments across the nation.
The liberal actress told Instagram followers on Monday that she’s now on board with defunding police departments after realizing that decades of personal experiences feeling safe around cops were based upon a lie — one created by “white privilege.”
“When I first heard #defundthepolice, I have to admit my first reaction was fear,” she said of activists’ stance in the wake of George Floyd’s death under the weight of Minneapolis cops in late May.
Footage of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin and three colleagues pinning the 46-year-old black man down has sparked mass protests, looting, and rioting.
“My whole life, police have made me feel safe,” Ms. Portman continued. “But that’s exactly the center of my white privilege: the police make me as a white woman feel safe, while my black friends, family and neighbors feel the opposite: police make them feel terror. And for good reason. Police are the 6th leading cause of death for black men in this country. These are not isolated incidents. They are patterns and part of the system of over-policing of black Americans. Reforms have not worked.”
Critics of the “defund the police” calls have countered that Mr. Chauvin was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. His peers — Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
The actress also noted another retort by critics: Minneapolis is a city overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.
“Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered, is one of the most progressive police forces in the country, having undergone extensive anti-bias training,” she wrote. “I am grateful to the leaders in the @mvmnt4blklives who have made us question the status quo. […] I’ve gotten to the age in my life, where if my gut feels uncomfortable, I take the situation as wrong. But this concept initially made me uncomfortable because I was wrong. Because the system that makes me feel comfortable is wrong. #defendblacklives#defundthepolice.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Natalie Portman (@natalieportman) on Jun 8, 2020 at 3:02pm PDT
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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