George Floyd protests: Kevin Bacon says it's time 'for old white guys like me to shut up and listen'
Actor Kevin Bacon says that he and other 'old white men' should be quiet and learn to listen.
While speaking on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Bacon shared, "It’s incredible to experience this and to go through this historically, not just the Covid-19, but clearly seeing the protests and what’s going on." He then went on to talk about the topic of police brutality as well as the role that "white guys" should have in the discussion. He and Fallon also spoke about the peaking racial tension over the deaths of many black people such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
"For an old guy like me, I was born in 1958, and to witness the passion of the young people across the world for social justice – it leaves me speechless, which is probably a good idea because I think it’s a good time for old white guys like me to just shut up and listen," he said, Independent reports.
Bacon shared how he has been trying to understand the tensions and unrest more. "I've been taking this time to first admit that I don't have a full understanding of the life experience of people that are different than me and I will never have a full understanding of that," he said. Bacon confessed that when he was younger he "thought he knew everything" but over time, he has come to learn that there are many things he does not know yet. "I’m one of these people [who] when I was a kid, I thought I knew everything ... about acting, everything about music, everything about politics, everything about people."
"I thought I could always understand what it was like to be other people, had a lot of compassion and basically I thought I just knew it all. The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize how much there is still to learn. So this has been a perfect example of a good time for me to stop and learn and listen and read and just try to gain some kind of deeper understanding," he noticed.
"Here’s the thing, I’ll never understand it because when I walk out of the house, I’m white. To not have that experience and privilege is something that I want to educate myself on," he added.
The Black Lives Matter movement has gained a lot of precedence in the US and even some parts of the world with people demanding that racist systems be changed post the death of George Floyd. 46-year-old Floyd died after an ex-cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost 9 sickening minutes while arresting him.
Floyd repeatedly told the officer that he was unable to breathe but Chauvin paid no heed and continued to press on, eventually killing Floyd. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and was fired from his job as a result of the incident. Floyd's death led to nationwide and subsequently worldwide outrage over police brutality and a lack of regard for African American lives.
During the interview, Bacon had also discussed being quarantined, as the world continues to be gripped by the deadly coronavirus. He revealed he has been spending a lot of time with his wife Kyra Sedgwick. "We have a really small bubble, it's really just me and her and the dog right now."
"We're waking up with a lot of gratitude that we have a house, a roof over our head and food to eat and that we have each other."