Chrissy Teigen Recalls 1st Scary Racism Experience Riding With John Legend

Source: WENN.com / WENN

Chrissy Teigen is on the cover of Marie Claire’s Fall issue. Inside her feature interview she talks about her first scary brush with racist intimidation and her fears for her black children.

In the interview, she recalls a 2010 incident when she and Legend were followed and harassed by two white “neighborhood-watch-type” guys in Fredericksburg, Virginia:

“We were in a nicer neighborhood at night, driving slowly, looking for John’s godmother’s home. These two guys were in a pickup truck slowly tailing us, flashing their lights and trying to speak to us. When we pulled over, they were like, ‘What are you guys looking for?’ and we gave them the address. They literally said, ‘Get your asses out of here!’ and proceeded to follow us all the way into her driveway. They got out of the car and stared at us as we knocked on the door and went inside. It was a terrible, scary experience.”

“That was my first taste of seeing what happens to Black men everyday,” Teigen continues, through tears. “It was horrifying and could have gone wrong so quickly. I was sobbing afterward for hours, and I noticed John wasn’t emotional about it. Seeing that he wasn’t very thrown by it was really upsetting because he obviously had experienced it before.”

Definitely scary. How many of us have experienced that kind of intimidation?

Chrissy Teigen has been outspoken in her opposition to 45 throughout his regime (definitely the correct word for it). She blames Trump for the rise of open acts of hatefulness in America.

“People are very confident in their ways of being open about their racism because they have the backing views of the president,” she says. “It’s become such a hurtful, weird presidency for so many Americans, and I’m going to fight to get this person out of office because I can’t live another four years with this kind of hatred boiling through America.”

Teigen also reveals that she’s sought out therapy during quarantine, and while taking a small step back from social media has been necessary, she doesn’t feel she has the luxury of not speaking out:

“Part of me right now knows this is not the right time to go silent. It does feel very selfish and weird to say that my mental health is important when there are people being murdered by police and murdered in their own homes. Who gives a fu** about someone making fun of me when people’s livelihoods are being threatened just for telling their stories? I have Black children, so is it really the right time to not want to step on anyone’s toes?”

In her interview, Teigen reflects quite a bit on her Black children, acknowledging their multicultural heritage while admitting she has to seek help from John to prepare their kids for all that comes with their brown skin:

“There are books that I read when I became a mom that would explain to them hard and traumatic situations. But it’s really hard to teach them about their privilege; there are no books for that. But regardless of money or status, they’re always going to have their skin color,” she says. “When it comes to them being treated differently because of the color of their skin, I’m going to look to John for a lot of help with that because while they are Asian and white too, their skin color is Black. We just try to talk to them like little adults, saying it in words they’ll understand, making it known that it’s very serious, and letting them ask as many questions as they need.”

What did you think about Chrissy’s interview? How are you talking to your kids at home about the state of the U.S. right now?