Many child actors go on to be successful adult stars, and Keke Palmer is one of them. But her experiences were different than those of her peers because she was Black.
Palmer had her breakout role back in 2006 when she played the title character in the film Akeelah and the Bee. Two years later, she was cast in the Nickelodeon show True Jackson, VP, about a teenage girl who becomes vice president of a children’s fashion division. The show was a big hit and made Palmer one of the highest-paid child stars on American television. All along the way, her parents guarded her career. “They were very cautious about the roles I played as a young Black child,” Palmer told The Cut during an in-depth interview.
Palmer was able to make the transition from child star to adult – something plenty of her peers found understandably difficult – and she’s had a lot of success with the TV series Scream Queens and the movie Nope. But she was always acutely aware she was treated differently from her white peers, and she’s spoken about that to The Cut.
“People were putting limitations on me,” she told the magazine. “I wasn’t necessarily in the same conversations as Victoria Justice or Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus at that time. It was very much ‘That’s the Black show’ or ‘That’s Keke Palmer, the Black girl on the network.’”
Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus ended up becoming household names, while Victoria Justice did very well for herself off the back of Victorious. But Palmer feels like the same opportunities weren’t given to her. “There is a loss of innocence that comes with the awareness that you’re treated differently that I’d accepted a long time ago,” she told The Cut. “I don’t compare myself to anyone, but I definitely don’t compare myself to any white person.”
This isn’t the first time Palmer has spoken out about racism in the entertainment industry. Last year, she revealed to the Los Angeles Times that an unnamed co-star had made a racist comment on the set of Scream Queens. During an argument that Palmer tried to defuse, the co-star allegedly snapped at her, “Keke, literally, just don’t. Who do you think you are? Martin f***ing Luther King?”
Palmer was affected by the incident but tried not to let it get to her. “It was such a weighted thing that she said, but I didn’t allow that weight to be projected on me, because I know who I am,” she told the LA Times. “I’m not no victim. That’s not my storyline, sweetie. I don’t care what her ass said. If I allow what she said to cripple me, then she would.”
But Palmer still remembers the hurtful words, and she made reference to them in her new interview with The Cut. Apparently, the co-star had reached out to congratulate Palmer on her new book, Master of Me, but offered no word of apology. “I was like, ‘Hey, thanks, it feels good,’” Palmer said. “She was just checking the temperature. She knows what she did.”
There’s no doubt that Palmer has had a difficult road to the top. She’s very open about the struggles she faced as a young actress (at one point, a higher-up told her that her mother would die if she didn’t lose weight, horrifying the young Palmer). But she’s pushed through it. “Sure, the child-star industry is inherently exploitative. But everything is inherently exploitative,” she told The Cut. “Everything is a problem, and everything is hurting somebody else. No disrespect to anybody else, because everyone else’s experience is valid. But I don’t want to group my experiences with theirs because that’s not how I think. And I think that’s a big part of how I’ve survived.”
Published: Jan 15, 2025 10:13 am