Keke Palmer for Cosmopolitan Magazine

Keke Palmer covers the Jaugust issue of Cosmopolitan, which is on newsstands nationwide on July 14. In the article Keke talks about the protests, her thoughts about the President inciting a race war and why she considers 26 her golden year.

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On her first response to the protests: “With a lot of different emotions, when I saw some of the violence. I couldn’t actually see myself doing that because I work from a different place, but I understand it. There are people out there who feel like that is their only option in order to be heard or their only way to have access to something they feel represents value. If the language for so long toward you has been violence, how would you expect someone to respond?”

On her interaction with the National Guardsman: “At that moment, I felt like, You’re human like me. I’m fighting out here, not just for me but for you too, you and the universe. Everything I said came out like word vomit. I know I didn’t let him get a word in edgewise, but it was because I wanted him to feel me. I wanted to connect to the human, not the suit, not this robot-ass shit.”

On how the movement feels different right now: “Of course no one wanted the coronavirus pandemic to happen, but I think quarantine allowed us to be more reflective. Maybe before, we’d be able to gloss over it because of work. It’s also been a buildup: There have been so many names turned into hashtags, so much pain. It blows me away because our language has progressed—I don’t mean specifically Black people. I mean young people, millennials. Naming white supremacy, saying that out loud.”

On President Trump: “I think President Trump plays into it too. He’s inciting a race war. His craziness is inspiring us to just really get him the f*ck out! It’s like we needed somebody who riled us up so much for us to be activated to the point of saying, ‘Oh, hell no. I can’t let this guy continue.’”

[Photo Credit: Dana Scruggs/Cosmopolitan Magazine]

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