Kristin Davis: I Didn’t Realize How ‘Institutional’ Racism Is Until I Adopted My Black Daughter

Former Sex and the City star Kristin Davis fought through tears as she explained her struggle with “institutional” racism, raising her adopted black children in Los Angeles, California.

“This is what I want to say, from a white person adopting [black children]: You absolutely do not fully understand. There’s no doubt. There’s no way you could,” Davis said, on the latest episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook show Red Table Talk.

The Monday episode, titled “Should White People Adopt Black Kids?” saw Davis opening up about raising her now-seven-year-old daughter Gemma.

“It’s one thing to be watching [racism] happening to other people and it’s another thing when it’s your child. And you haven’t personally been through it. It’s a big issue,” said Kristin Davis, a longtime homeowner in Brentwood, California.

“I’d be holding her in my arms and people would say to me, ‘Won’t she be a great basketball player,’” Davis said, also Davis recalling an instance in which white girls wouldn’t let her daughter play on a swing. “It was a very harsh moment of understanding. I don’t know how every person of color has gotten through this. I don’t understand how you could take this every day.”

Asked about what she learned about white privilege while raising a black child, the actress said “I don’t want to miss something or be under the crazy white privilege assumption that everything is going to be fine. We have to deal with reality and we have to prepare them.”

Kristin Davis adopted a black baby boy last year. This revelation promoted Pinkett-Smith to explain how she began telling her sons not to wear red and blue, colors often affiliated with gangs. “And we had to teach them early how to deal with being pulled over by the police,” Pinkett said of the conversations she had with her sons a six-years-old.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson