Matthew McConaughey had an open conversation with former NFL star Emmanuel Acho about how he can be a part of the solution amid the Black Lives Matter protests.
“How can I do better as a human?” the Oscar winner, 50, asked during the Wednesday, June 10, episode of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man. “How can I do better as a man? How can I do better as a white man?”
Acho, 29, then educated McConaughey on how he can acknowledge the problem in the country and also the implicit bias he has on an individual level.
The How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days star later shared his discovery of the term “white allergies” in recent days. “That by where we were raised and how we were raised in our history growing up, there’s certain just imported obvious ways that we’re prejudiced in ways that we don’t even understand,” he explained. “We got white allergies and may not even know it. … What prejudices may I have via white allergies that I may not even be aware of?”
McConaughey noted that conversations spurred on by the movement have prompted him to seek out a fuller perspective of the issues. “I’m diving deeper into how I’m looking at things and how I’m looking at myself,” he said. “How I can learn more, see things from your side more, see things from the black side more, so I can get a four-dimensional view here ‘cause inherently, maybe to some extent, I’ve been living in a way where I didn’t quite see all sides as clearly as I could’ve.”
Elsewhere in their sit-down, Acho compared Black Lives Matter to the coronavirus pandemic. “We all know that coronavirus, COVID-19, right now we’re focused on finding a remedy for that illness,” he told McConaughey. “That’s not to say that cancer doesn’t matter; it’s not to say that HIV doesn’t matter; it’s not to say that ALS doesn’t matter. All those things still matter, but right now the coronavirus is killing people. So, on the same token, Matthew, that’s what I propose is that once we get these black lives that are being ended unjustly handled, by the grace of God, if we can get those handled through conversations like these — and I hope that y’all at home are having — then we can be at a point to focus on everything else.”
