Gabrielle Union appears on the premiere episode of Facebook Watch‘s Peace of Mind With Taraji, hosted by Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade Jenkins, and opens up about this wild year, quarantine and how it has affected her and her family.
Union talked about the PTSD she feels, stemming from her rape at age 19, during quarantine. “I thought quarantining was right up my alley,” she admitted. “I love silence. I love hunkering down at home, but you add in our former president Donald Trump was so rooted in racism and white supremacy and hatred and evil that he inspired so much of it, we have been in the midst of an onslaught, a daily barrage of the brutalization of Black and brown bodies that we're just taking in every day, all day.”
Union talks PTSD: “The terror that exists to this day in my body, in my spirit, in my soul. Henson: that’s PTSD. Union: We do associate PTSD with soldiers. We forget that we are surviving our neighborhoods every day. Henson: We are embarrassed to say we need help, especially for people of color in the Black community. But we are going to heal, damn it!”
She also discussed how it affected her husband Dwayne Wade and her stepdaughter Zaya, 13, who has come out as transgender. “Zaya's peace is nonnegotiable,” says Union. “As Zaya gathered more language, she was able to tell us about her identity. She was able to tell us about her sexuality. She was able to tell us 'I'm trans.' And she says, 'I've come out a few times. I came out to my teacher in third grade, and then when you guys posted that picture of me in Chicago at my birthday party.' “
Union — who shares 2-year-old daughter Kaavia James with Wade and is stepmom to Zaya plus his two sons Xavier Zechariah, 7, and Zaire, 18 — adds that she and her NBA star husband are still learning as parents. “We only know what we know,” she says.
