Jurnee Smollett-Bell Won't Let Racists Steal Her Son's Black Boy Joy

Jurnee Smollett-Bell And Son Hunter Appear In New #MamaSaid Gap Ad

Congratulations are in order for our girl Jurnee Smollett-Bell! The new mom and son Hunter appear in the newly released #MamaSaid Gap campaign, which serves both as an ad as well as a call to action for Every Mother Counts, a non-profit organization dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safer for all moms.

“I thought it was such a beautiful project,” Smollett-Bell said in a recent interview with Romper. For mothers, “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get access to safe and healthy health care.”

“I just think more than ever we have to support women, and we have to support mothers across the world,” Smollett-Bell says. “It’s vital.”

Watch the ad below:

During her interview with Romper, Smollett-Bell spoke of her newfound sense of optimism, after previously harboring fears for her future son’s well-being in our race-obsessed society.

“Before being a mom, I remember going on a Twitter rant during the whole George Zimmerman trial in Florida about my younger brothers and how one day I’ll be the mom of a black son,” Smollett-Bell told Romper. At the time Smollett-Bell recalls being scared that someday her future children, particularly any sons, would face a similar fate to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot by Zimmerman.

“I don’t want anyone to steal his joy,” Smollett-Bell says of her son. “I just want to raise him to walk in his purpose. To be unapologetically who he is and to embrace all that he is.”

Asked about her possible fears that societal biases already put black children like Hunter at a disadvantage, Smollett-Bell says she doesn’t even consider that possibility:

“I won’t even give into that notion, because I believe there are so many amazing people in this world,” she says. “I see the movement happening all across the world, where people of all walks of life are coming together and supporting each other, and feel called to action. It inspires me. It gives me so much hope about the future. So I am not afraid at all.”

Jurnee is all about rejecting preconceived notions these days. The actress spoke about the impact of filming while she was pregnant and while it wasn’t all positivity, she says she found it empowering:

“It was so empowering to me to be able to be on set,” she says. “But there’s this notion, kind of like unspoken, that you can’t live your dreams and be a mom. You can’t have a career and be a mom. There’s still that preconceived notion, and I reject that.”

Kudos to Jurnee. We love this ad and little Hunter is so cute.

You can read the full interview on Romper.

More from Jurnee on motherhood when you continue

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