Sandra Bullock Responds To Criticism Over Adopting 2 Black Kids

Dec 02, 2021 by apost team

Actress Sandra Bullock appeared on this week's episode of "Red Table Talk," the Facebook talk show hosted by Jada Pinkett-Smith, her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris and daughter Willow Smith. In the 30-minute interview, the Oscar winner opened up about raising her children, 11-year-old Louis and 8-year-old Laila. Bullock spoke about being a white woman who is raising two Black children and the criticism she has received in relation to this.

The 57-year-old adopted Louis back in 2010 and Laila in 2015. Not only is she a doting mother of two, but Bullock said on the show that she believed her own late mother, Helga Meyer, played a role in bringing her children to her. She revealed that she had been in Jacksonville, Wyoming, both times that she learned she was getting her children and it just so happens to be where her mom got married as well.

When she spoke about raising her kids, Bullock admitted it wasn't always easy. One reason was that Laila was already 3 when the star adopted her and had some trauma from going through the foster care system. The actress also acknowledged other difficulties she'd had.

Another reason was related to the fact that her children are Black and she is white. Bullock spoke candidly about how she gets worried when she thinks about her kids growing up and going into the world on their own, especially Louis. She also spoke about her children teaching her new things and admitted that while she thought she was "educated and woke," she admitted "(she) wasn't." 

During the episode of "Red Table Talk," Bullock said:

"As a white parent who loves her children more than life itself, I'm scared of everything ... I know I'm laying all kinds of existential anxiety on them. I have to think about what they're going to experience leaving the home. They're gonna have my fear but how can I make sure that my anxiety is accurate, protective?"

She revealed that she's especially worried about Louis when he grows up. She said:

"With Lou being a young Black man, at some point, sweet, funny Lou, is going to be a young man, and the minute he leaves my home, I can't follow him everywhere. I will try. I'm joking, but I'm not. I don't know what I will do but I pray and I pray and I pray that I've done a good enough job, scared them sufficiently."

She added that she's "been schooling Lou since he was 6 years old." She recounted an incident that ended up as an educational moment:

"(Louis) popped that hoodie on his head and I went, 'Ahhh.' I said, let me just explain. And I let him see everything. I let him process it. He knows how the world works. He knows how cruel it is, he knows how unfair it is, and now Laila's knowing it."

In fact, Bullock mentioned that Laila recently got upset at the fact that Netflix's popular "Squid Game" series didn't have Black people in it. She explained:

"The fact that that was fire in her belly made me so happy that she was already voicing."

She added:

"And I let them teach me and tell me what they need to know. I thought I was educated and woke, I thought I had it all, and guess what? I wasn't."

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Bullock admitted that while no one had criticized her to her face for having adopted two Black children, she did receive racism about her decision. Her response? "But guess what? Your sickness is not my problem."

Banfield-Norris pointed out that perhaps not everybody was coming from a racist place, that maybe they felt a Black child should be raised in a Black home. She said she now felt that was "an old and tired" attitude. Bullock acknowledged that point of view but said that at the end of the day, she's got the same thoughts and feelings as every other mother. Bullock added:

"I know it's hard for people to look at a white woman going, 'I just have a hard time getting past that. I know they push up against that, and then they come into the home and I just go, let our [love] be the evidence."

She told some funny anecdotes about the same parental "chaos" that every parent goes through when trying to get their kids ready for school. She explained:

"And every parent has the same thing. I'm like, come into our home and discover the every parent problem, you know?"

Bullock admitted to sometimes wishing that her children and her skins matched. She explained:

"Because then it would be easier on how people approach us. It's our anxiety, it's our fear, it's our cross to bear the minute you become a mom. And I have the same feelings as a woman with brown skin being with her babies, or a white woman with, you know, white babies."

After Smith said she wished people didn't always put color on everything, Bullock replied: "And maybe one day that will go away. Maybe one day we will be able to see with different eyes."

What do you think about Bullock's candid interview about raising her Black children on "Red Table Talk"? Let us know then send this to your friends so they can watch it too.