Porsha Williams Recalls 1st Experience With Racism At 6 Years Old: The KKK ‘Threw Rocks At Me’
On the June 8 episode of ‘WWHL,’ Porsha Williams opened up about the first time she experienced racism during a conversation about the tragic killing of George Floyd.
Porsha Williams appeared on the June 8 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen for a conversation about Black Lives Matter. During the all-important talk, she looked back on the first time she experienced racism in her life. She explained that the incident happened during a civil rights march in Georgia, which she attended with her grandfather when she was just six years old.
“We came across Ku Klux Klan who decided they were going to protest our protest,” Porsha revealed. “They threw rocks at us — I actually got hit with one. They chased us all the way back to the buses. We had busloads of people with us and they chased us back to the buses and called us the n-word and anything else you could imagine the KKK would be calling us.”
Porsha admitted that she “didn’t understand” what was going on at the time, but said that she’s used her experience as a reason to continue fighting for change all these years later. “What I got out of that was to keep on, regardless,” she explained. “The movement is still continuing on and I think that’s what’s inside of me that’s not going to stop. I know a lot of people are protesting now and I know a lot of times when the media stops covering it, it kind of dies down and ends. But it’s not going to stop this time.”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star has been on the front lines of protests in Georgia following the death of George Floyd on May 25. George, a black man, was killed by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, during an arrest in Minneapolis. His murder has sparked the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, with marches taking place across the country and a widespread call for justice on social media.
During her WWHL appearance, Porsha also opened up about her hopes for the future of the police force after this tragic killing. “I actually want complete police reform,” Porsha said. “I want the system to be completely changed. The way it is set up right now, say here in Atlanta, with our law, a policeman can say, “I felt my life was threatened.” So, at the end of the day, who is to say if his life was threatened or not?” She added that she feels that the police system has to change in its “entirety” for things to be different in the future.