Laverne Cox is known for her acting skills, most notably for her role on “Orange is the New Black.”
She has decided to take on bullies in her most recent public appearance. She gives a compelling speech that lasts a little more than six minutes, but is worth watching from start to finish.
If you only have a little bit of time on your hands, move forward to the 4:37 minute mark to discover why she is not mad even though she has faced a ton of harassment.
Cox starts the speech with an experience from 10 years ago on the Fourth of July. She was confronted about her patriotic outfit because it was a little too tight. Here is her experience:
“There was a moment about 10 years ago when I was walking to the sub-way on the Upper West Side. It was the 4th of July and I was wearing a red, white, and blue dress, so feeling very patriotic, and it was really tight. And I passed these two men, one appeared to be Latino and the other appeared to be black. And the Latin guy says, “Yo mama, can I highlight you?” And the black guy said, “Yo dude, that’s an N-word.” And then, the Latin guy says, “No man, that’s a bitch.” And the black guy said, “No, that’s an N-word.” And they began to argue. They began to argue about whether I was the B-word or the N-word. What lovely options! And I was just standing there at the light like waiting for it to change, “Please, light change so I can cross the street,” because they just needed to cross the street. And at one point, the Latin guy turns to me and says, “You ain’t an N-word, are you?” And that moment is sort of indicative of a lot of the street harassment that I’ve had to endure.”