Shemar Moore, Who is Biracial, Says He's Proud to Be Black & Proud to Be White

Shemar Moore is opening up about his experience as a biracial man.

The 50-year-old S.W.A.T. actor has a black father and a white mother. He chatted with Love & Hip Hop Hollywood‘s Moneice Slaughter in a video message that was shared on social media.

“I am half Black and I am half white. But I am proud to be Black, but I am also proud to be white,” he said (via The Grio). “I understand what it is to be treated like a n—a when I don’t have my fame and when I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time, and nobody knows who I am. Then I’m just a n—a in the street. I’ve been thrown down on the sidewalk in my lifetime. I understand what it is. I haven’t gone through the George Floyd situation. I have not gone through that, but I know what it is. But I’m not gonna denounce the other side of me, because I’m looking at humanity.”

Shemar plays a cop on the CBS series S.W.A.T. and he also talked about having to go back to work and put on that uniform.

“With my platform, I do have to go back to work and put on an LAPD uniform, and I am confused about it,” he said. “I am struggling with it because I don’t just wanna go back and just do the dance. I have to go back and tell the real story. Because George Floyd is real, and so many others before that…I’m gonna use my platform on S.W.A.T with my celebrity–all that stuff. I’m going to speak on it. I’m gonna tell Sony and CBS and my bosses that if we don’t speak on it, then they can’t f–k with me.”

“These cops need to be corrected. Some of them are f–ked up, but a lot of them are good. Some of us Black people are beautiful, and some are f–ked up…but we all bleed red…I understand how bad sh-t is, but we have to stay optimistic. We have to stay hopeful, because we will fix this,” he added. “I can’t do it by myself, she can’t do it by herself–but we can do it collectively, together.”

Here are some important resources if you want to learn more about the Black Lives Matter movement and become more educated.