Danai Gurira has said anti-racism must be popularised in culture and language to create lasting change.

The Black Panther actress said this is the only way there can consistently be true justice.

She told Women’s Health: “Concerning the fight for racial justice, a fight that so many have devoted their lives to over so many years, a fight that has stubbornly refused to be won, I’m daring to hope.

(Ben Watts/Women’s Health)

“This is a moment that could bring about some real change and honour the labour of those who have come before. I desire to help that change come to pass in any way I can. That’s what inspires me to keep going.”

She added: “We need sustainable reforms. I’d like to see anti-racism popularised in our culture, our society, language, commonality and ultimately throughout the system.

“That would allow for true justice to be the norm and not the exception.”

Gurira also described witnessing a sexual assault at the University of Zimbabwe when she was nine years old.

(Ben Watts/Women’s Health)

She said: “There (were) some people saying (about the victim), ‘Well, she was wearing a short skirt,’ things like that, and I was outraged… I was outraged also because I didn’t have the vocabulary to combat how unfair the assessment of her and her situation and the assault was, how she was somehow being blamed.

“And I didn’t have the words to advocate for her, and advocate for how that was wrong.”

The full interview is in the August 2020 issue of Women’s Health, on sale from the July 8 and also available as a digital edition.