Keke Palmer appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week and talked about the viral video of her confronting the member of the National Guard at the Black Lives Matter protest. Jimmy asked Keke to elaborate about what was going on her mind while speaking to the Guardsman and why taking a knee wasn’t enough. Keke said that it was a good moment to make a statement on both their parts and she felt the Guard could have made more of one.

On how she’s feeling
I am an upbeat person but my empathic side is being weighed down by what’s going on right now.

On how that viral moment of her talking to the National Guard happened
I hadn’t been around people for a while so I really wanted to be out there to protest for this cause. The National Guardsmen were blocking us from going further with the peaceful protest. In that moment I was weirded out and confused, why is there now this separation between us? They’re human like I’m human. I know they have a job to do, but I just felt like ‘why can’t they be marching with us?’ I feel like there’s such a division being created in society from every angle. I just felt like we all need to come together. I was just really overwhelmed. I didn’t know what I was saying, I was just speaking from my heart and how I was feeling.

”You said you didn’t feel like [taking] the knee was enough from those guys”
I felt like we had an opportunity in that moment… let’s just come together, let’s go beyond that. It was a risk I understand he has a job to do. At this moment it’s like ‘what if your job is telling you something you don’t believe in?’

Joe Biden called her after that
We had a conversation. I didn’t get to ask him everything I wanted to ask him, but it was good to talk, to hear what he’s saying right now.

”Do you feel like he’s on the right track?”
It’s such a loaded question. I guess he was cool but I can’t say after the convo I felt totally thrilled or excited per se, but it was good to talk and just to hear firsthand.

On her new single, “Thick.”
It’s about being in quarantine the entire time and I’ve just been eating, getting really thick.

[From Jimmy Kimmel Live on YouTube]

Thank you to CB for transcribing that for me! Keke explained herself much better than I did when we spoke about this before. Of course she understands that military personnel have a job to do but, in this moment, but we need to find a way for them to stand beside us. If you think about it, the National Guard was called in to make sure the marches and protests didn’t get out of control. However, the marches and protests were all about those in positions of power, like the military and police, being out of control. So yes, more of a statement that they were there for the protesters and not against them would have been welcome. I was also very interested in Keke’s answers about Joe Biden’s phone call. I’ll vote for Biden and will encourage everyone around me to do the same, but he was never my candidate. I hope Keke’s thoughts on the phone call gets back to him because I feel like he’s taking the BIPOC vote for granted, given the terrible supremacist he’s running against. But Biden needs to prove that once he’s in office he has the BIPOC community’s interest in mind. Many of my friends in that community have expressed their concerns about his policies should he take office. However, and I am saying this as a white woman I realize, it seems like Biden has been listening better. Not just more, but better. I still can’t call him an advocate, but at least he’s starting to act more like an ally.

Here is a link to Keke’s new song Thick. It’s really fun, even if I’m having a hard time seeing Keke as “thick” in it. And here is her segment with Jimmy:

Photo credit: YouTube and WENN/Avalon