Award-winning actress Regina King turned heads when she wore a Breonna Taylor t-shirt to the 2020 Emmy awards.
King picked up the Emmy for Best Actress in a Limited Series on Sunday night for her role in Watchmen, which was canceled after the first season.
“The cops still haven’t been held accountable. She represents decades, hundreds of years of violence against Black bodies, Breonna Taylor does, and wearing Breonna’s likeness — representing her and her family and the stories that we were exploring, that we were presenting, that we were holding a mirror up to in Watchmen — it felt appropriate to represent with Breonna Taylor,” she told Cosmopolitan.
Taylor was killed inside her apartment as police officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant. Earlier this month, her family was awarded a $12 million settlement — the highest-ever paid out by the city of Lousiville.
King explained why representing Taylor on the Emmy stage was necessary.
“Whether you like it or not, when you decided to take on this career choice and be a part of the thespian community, if you have some success in it, you have a platform. I loved being a Black girl, I love being a Black woman, I love being American, and it’s important for people to see all of those things together. And when you have a platform to celebrate that and remind those who tend to look past Black girls, Black women, and you have the opportunity to celebrate, you take it, you seize it. When I saw my sister Uzo had on the same shirt, it was a confirmation that this was right.”
