Gayle King says ‘leaning into being uncomfortable’ is how to make BLM last

Gayle King is a master when it comes to having tough conversations. Remember her explosive interview with R. Kelly? Or the backlash she faced for bringing up Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case after his death? Oprah’s bestie knows what’s on everyone’s minds and isn’t afraid to have an open convo about it. So when she sat down with James Corden for The Late Late Show (weekdays at 12:27ET on CTV) on June 10 to talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, she was candid about how we can no longer gloss over these topics with our friends, and most importantly, with our kids.“What’s different is that they know George Floyd’s name in London, in Germany, in Paris–that has never happened before,” she explained.  “And you have teenage white children that are saying to their parents, ‘Hey, this is not okay! This is not alright!’" Gayle explained that while this Black Lives Matter moment already feels different from other times it has broken into the mainstream, we need to keep up the momentum and have tough, uncomfortable conversations to make lasting change. “So it is starting a lot of questions about the R word, which stands for ‘Race.’ It makes so many people uncomfortable, but we’ve got to lean into being uncomfortable. Lean into the discomfort because nothing is going to change and the policies have got to change!” she said.Corden agreed and added he's forcing himself to have conversations with his young son Max, who’s nine, about what is happening around the world right now. He then had to admit, “those are conversations that—I don’t know if my parents would have had them with me.” King, however, reminded the host that his white privilege allows him to only have talks about what's going on in the world, rather than the far more serious conversation parents of Black children must have about staying alive.“James, I will bet you will never have to have the conversation with Max about, ‘Listen, if you are stopped by the police, don’t make any sudden moves. Make sure they can see your hands.'” Gayle pointed out that her personal experiences living as a Black woman and raising a Black son have made every news story about violent racially-motivated deaths like those of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd or instances like Amy Cooper's call to police, that much more emotional.

 

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Do you know what you were doing 33 years ago today ?? I do i do fav son @willgb3 was born & this is his first official pix .. swipe left he’s changed a bit .. happy birthday Will!

A post shared by Gayle King (@gayleking) on Apr 28, 2020 at 6:43pm PDT

"I don't always keep my composure... you don't come to [CBS] to hear my opinion, I get it," she said. "But there are some days, because you're not a robot, that it just hits you. That video of George Floyd followed by—we had just seen the Central Park bird guy [Christian Cooper]... a white woman weaponizes her whiteness to say 'There's a Black man who's threatening me,' and we can see that's not what's happening... this is what's so upsetting: I have a son who's 33, he lives in L.A., I think, you could be walking your dog as he often does, and things can go left so quickly and it can escalate so quickly. So I'm a nervous wreck."[video_embed id='1974635']RELATED: Tiffany Haddish shares experience at George Floyd’s memorial [/video_embed]The particular moment King is referring to is the morning of May 26 when she and her co-hosts on CBS This Morning covered both the videos of Amy Cooper calling the police in Central Park and the video of George Floyd being held down by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Live on-air, Gayle admitted she didn't have the words to discuss the situation, saying she was rattled by both stories and adding, "just sometimes [there's] not a safe place to be in this country for Black men and today is too much for me."Corden, for his part, said he sees a lot of his white friends and family realizing that racism is white people's problem to fix too. “The biggest thing I’m finding is that—I always thought it was enough to not be racist. ‘I am not racist, so therefore I’m doing my part.’ But in truth that... really isn’t enough. Because I think the biggest change is that, for the first time I can see, and I’ve only lived here five years, is that white people are saying this is actually our problem to solve.”To drive the point home, Gayle told a few stories of being racially-profiled, even with all her celebrity and notoriety. After talking about going to a pharmacy at  3a.m., bundled up in oversized sunglasses and a hoodie, she noted, “I could tell that they were instantly tensed up. They were instantly put on guard. And so we have to get to the point and have the honest conversation about what it that’s so frightening about Black people to white people? And nobody wants to have that conversation."Watch The Late Late Show with James Corden weekdays at 12:37ET on CTV.[video_embed id='1974631']BEFORE YOU GO: Janelle Monae calls on white allies to stand up to racism [/video_embed]