Spreading the word. Ashton Kutcher shared an emotional video about a conversation he had with his children amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over George Floyd’s death.
“So, on Saturday, I posted a blackout of my social media channels and just posted BLM. And a lot of folks responded ‘all lives matter.’ And I want to talk about that a little bit because I don’t think that the people posting ‘all lives matter’ should be canceled. I think they should be educated,” the actor, 42, said in the video, which he shared via Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday, June 3.
“We all agree all lives matter, but I had a really poignant experience tonight when I was putting my kids down to bed that lent the words for why black lives matter,” he continued. “Usually, Mila [Kunis] and I put our kids to bed, we read them a book, and our daughter [Wyatt] always gets to go first. And tonight, as we were reading her book, my son [Dimitri] says, ‘Wait, why don’t I get to go first?’ And Mila said, ‘‘Cause girls go first.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but boys go first.’ And I looked at him and I said, ‘No, girls go first.’ And I said, ‘You know why girls go first? For you and me, girls go first. And the reason why is, for some boys, girls don’t get a go at all. And so for you and me, girls go first.’”
Kutcher started to get choked up as he told his social media followers that “for some people, black lives don’t matter.” He added, “For us, black lives matter. So while you may have the best intentions in saying ‘all lives matter,’ remember, for some people, black lives don’t matter at all.”
BLM VS ALM Understanding why saying ‘all lives matter’ is missing the point. #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER pic.twitter.com/7jNzPSi1W0
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) June 3, 2020
The Ranch alum and his former That ‘70s Show costar Kunis, 36, started dating in 2012 and tied the knot in July 2015. They welcomed Wyatt, now 5, in October 2014 and Dimitri, now 3, in November 2016.
Floyd died at the age of 46 on May 25 after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the unarmed black man’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Bystander videos of Floyd crying out, “I can’t breathe” quickly spread on social media and led to demonstrations and protests against racism and police brutality. Chauvin, 44, who was fired alongside three other officers, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd’s autopsy classified his death as a homicide.
For more information, visit Blacklivesmatter.com.
