DisneyThomas Rhett and his wife Lauren Akins each shared moving Instagram posts following the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Minneapolis man who died last Monday after a police officer held him down by the neck with his knee for more than seven minutes. Rhett and Akins share four-year-old daughter Willa Gray, whom they adopted from Uganda in 2017.
As the white mother of a black child, Akins wrote on Sunday that she was “nervous” to speak up out of fear that some people would believe that as a white mother she was “undeserving or incapable of raising a black daughter.”
Alongside a hand-written Bible verse about hate being evil, Lauren, who shares two other daughters with Rhett, wrote in part, “I believe if I stay silent I am betraying my brothers and sisters. I believe if I stay silent I am betraying my daughter,” she wrote, as she encouraged her followers to join her in “speaking up loudly for injustices whether or not we share the same skin color, language, beliefs…the list goes on.”
In a separate post, Rhett wrote, “I have no clue what it feels like to be profiled by authorities, treated negatively or have my life threatened because of the color of my skin. When I witnessed the horrific murder of George and think about the mistreatment of other black men and women in America, I am heartbroken and angry.”
He added, “I get scared when I think about my daughters and what kind of world they will be growing up in and how my JOB as a father is to show them how to lead with love in the face of hate. To know their worth and value as not only women but human beings.”