Keke Palmer is opening up about how her experience with sexual harassment in the industry only furthered her belief that Black women's innocence is always put into question.
Keke recently released her self-directed film Big Boss where she shared an intimate look at her experience working in a male-dominated business and some of the uncomfortable moments she was faced with.
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During a recent interview with BuzzFeed, I asked Keke if she's noticed any change in the industry since she initially wasn't believed for speaking out about an alleged sexual harassment incident with singer Trey Songz.
"I don't," Keke told BuzzFeed. "I don't think it's changed too much. I still get trolled about that, every now and then."
"I think there's propaganda against Black women not being seen as damsels in any situation. We kind of have been overly sexualized in the media to the point that people have a hard time seeing us as innocent."
"Even as young as 15 and 16, Black women have become sexualized so that people have a hard time, like, believing they're innocent in any scenario."
Keke went on to say how media's propaganda of women works in the opposite way for women of other cultures and lighter complexions, because they're not sexualized as much as Black women.
Because of that, Keke said people might not even realize that those internalized judgements they place on Black women are "deeply rooted" in "years and years of propaganda" that started in slavery.
As for a solution, Keke believes the only way to reconstruct that way of thinking is to teach people about propaganda in school and various classes. But until then, Black women and their stories will continue to be ignored and disbelieved.
"So, it's changed a little bit. I guess people that do the research and understand where their prejudices are coming from, but people that are just taking things at face value? Yeah, they're gonna always usually assume that a Black woman is not innocent."
