Hollywood couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have shown their support for the Black Lives Matter movement by donating $200,000 to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
They made their decision in the wake of the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, and they hope their money will help aid the NAACP in fighting racial injustice.
Lively and Reynolds issued a statement on Instagram, which explained in detail their reasons for donating. They said, “we want to use our privilege and our platform to be an ally.”
Lively and Reynolds want to educate their children better
They started the statement by writing about how they do their best to educate their children to be more racially sensitive, and they also admitted to having made mistakes in the past but committed to learning from these mistakes.
They wrote: “We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car. We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out.”
“We can’t imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past, we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.
“We’ve been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people’s experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it… especially our own complicity. We talk about our biases, blindness, and our own mistakes.
“We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become. They’ve led us to huge avenues of education.”
“We’re committed to raising our kids, so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern, and so they’ll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously.”
Lively and Reynolds want to honor African-Americans wrongfully killed
Blakely and Lively added: “That’s the least we can do to honor not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, but all the black men and women who have been killed when the camera wasn’t rolling. We stand in awe of this organization (NAACP), their empathy, and leadership in, Sherrilyn Ifill. Their work is essential to the integrity of democracy.”
The death of George Floyd at the hands of white police officers in Minneapolis has sparked protests across the country. The four officers involved have been dismissed, while the officer who was caught kneeling on Floyd’s neck has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Lively and Reynolds welcomed their third child into the world last August. At the time, they kept the birth secret, only revealing the news a couple of months later. The latest baby addition joins their two other daughters, 5-year-old James, 3-year-old Inez.
Earlier this year, Lively got very excited after two of her fave celebrities liked her Instagram post about her upcoming movie, The Rhythm Section. She wrote: “What is happening right now. I’m not ok. Not. O.K.” when both Jennifer Aniston and Mariah Carey liked her post.