Anne Hathaway On Nia Wilson’s Death: “All BLACK PEOPLE Fear For Their Lives DAILY In America”

The Princess Diaries actress Anne Hathaway called out White privilege while discussing the death of 18 year old Nia Wilson.

Oakland High School student Nia Wilson and her 26 year old sister Lahtifa Wilson, was attacked by suspected Klansman, 27 year old John Lee Cowell at Oakland’s MacArthur BART station Sunday evening.

Nia and her sister Lahtifa were leaving their aunt’s birthday celebration. Nia had also planned a memorial service for her boyfriend, Josiah Pratt-Rose who passed away in May 2016 in a drowning incident when he and his best friend jumped off a boat in California’s Woodward Reservoir. Both Josiah and his friend passed away.

According to witnesses at the BART station, John Cowell “appeared out of nowhere”, walked up to Nia and her sister, and slashed their throats open. He was arrested the following day.

When we see horrific police brutality against African Americans, we often say police need more training. But here, while arresting John Lee Cowell, a violent white murderer, they show us they absolutely know how to be calm, cool, & methodical…when they want to. Hard to teach that. I’ve never seen a more calm arrest. You’d a thought he was caught throwing water balloons. I’m not saying they should’ve killed this man. I’m saying the hundreds of unarmed, non-violent Black folk who didn’t even commit crimes who’ve been killed by police should be alive right now.

A post shared by Shaun King (@shaunking) on Jul 24, 2018 at 2:57am PDT

John Cowell is a suspected White supremacist.

John Cowell, the suspect in the murder of #NiaWilson was seen on camera wearing black boots with white laces. This attire is worn by Skinhead groups. In Skinhead culture, once a member kills a Black person, they get red laces to put in their boots. This was a coordinated murder pic.twitter.com/CadKvPbylz

— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) July 24, 2018

In the days following her death, bay area TV station KTVU displayed a picture of what they believed to be Nia holding a gun to her head during their news segment on her murder.

Viewed say what Nia was actually a cell phone case.

This  reportedly came after authorities repeatedly stated Nia’s attack was unwarranted and unprovoked.

KTVU Reporter Frank Somerville apologized for posting the pictures, admitting there were many others the station could’ve chosen from Nia’s social media pages, but the damage was done.

Viewers called out the news station as one many media outlets who purposely portray unarmed Black murder victims as thugs in an effort to dehumanize them.

Actress Anne Hathaway posted a picture of Nia to her Instagram page, saying for generations, Black people in this country feared for their lives daily and that is a feeling White people will never understand:

The murder of Nia Wilson- may she rest in the power and peace she was denied here- is unspeakable AND MUST NOT be met with silence. She is not a hash tag; she was a black woman and she was murdered in cold blood by a white man. White people- including me, including you- must take into the marrow of our privileged bones the truth that ALL black people fear for their lives DAILY in America and have done so for GENERATIONS. White people DO NOT have equivalence for this fear of violence. Given those givens, we must ask our (white)selves- how “decent” are we really? Not in our intent, but in our actions? In our lack of action? Peace and prayers and JUSTICE for Nia and the Wilson family xx Note: the comments for this post are closed. #blacklivesmatter #antiracist #noexcuse #sayhername #earntherighttosayhername

A post shared by Anne Hathaway (@annehathaway) on Jul 25, 2018 at 10:44am PDT