Empire actress Taraji P. Henson’s star is on the rise, but during her interview with Uptown magazine, she reminded us of the divide that still exists within our society.
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During her interview with the publication, Henson spoke about her son, Marcel, and how racial profiling has reportedly affected his education.
“My child has been racially profiled,” she confessed. “He was in Glendale, California, and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn’t give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for.
“Then he’s at [the] University of Southern California, the school that I was going to transfer him to, when police stopped him for having his hands in his pockets,” Henson continued.
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Henson then went on to explain how her son will now be transferring colleges because she wants to reduce the chances of that happening again.
“So guess where he’s going? Howard University. I’m not paying $50K so I can’t sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus.”
Howard University is located in Washington, D.C., and Henson actually attended the historically black university herself, after she switched from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University — where she had majored in electrical engineering — to pursue a theater major instead.
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We’re impressed that it’s not just Henson’s character Cookie Lyon on the hit FOX series Empire that is fiercely protective of her children, because she certainly is in real life, too.
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