During an appearance on The View, Yara Shahidi got political, and she didn’t mince words in the least.
During a conversation about President Donald Trump‘s comments on Kim Jong Un, Shahidi weighed in, saying that previous interactions with North Korea had relied on the idea of “mutually assured destruction.”
“We understand, like you said, the ramifications of nuclear warfare,” she said. “It’s not as though we have no feasible way of understanding how this affects everybody.”
She then spoke to the fact that Trump commented on his nuclear “button” being bigger than Kim’s.
“But it speaks to the larger picture of using social media as a platform to communicate and as a platform to implement policy, because he’s pushing everyone into a corner by avoiding the natural way in which one makes policy,” she said, adding that “social media prevents you from having a constructive conversation.”
https://youtu.be/td90ukpDP-A?t=2m36s
When the ladies on the View praised the 17-year-old for her clarity, she explained that there was a sense of “emergency” that people her age felt that drove them to connect with politics.
When co-host Meghan McCain went on to ask her who she felt was a politician that would bring “hope” to her generation, Shahidi admitted that there was no one she could think of.
“What my generation is looking forward to is midterms, because what we are now focusing on is who we can appreciate who can represent us on a more local level,” she said.
She also put in a plug for her project, 18 by 18, geared at increasing voter engagement for people her age.
Iranian protests
Shahidi, who is half Iranian, also spoke about the protests breaking out in Iran.
“The larger conversation that I would love to be having right now is moreso how to look at this from a humane perspective,” she said. “When we look at certain countries outside the United States, we do have a sort of isolationist way of approaching things in which we do not relate.”
“For me when we’re looking at these movements, I feel like it is really connected to our own movements in the past, whether it’s the Black Lives Matter rallies that have been happening or the Women’s March,” she added.
She added that people needed to understand that these protests were part of the “global community” and that it was “so much more” than a matter of how Americans would be affected by Trump’s tweets or the Iranian nuclear deal.
“We have to look at that interconnectivity,” she said.
She also spoke to the fact that women have been leading the protests, saying, “I think what’s funny is it may be a surprising narrative for some. But my family is a personal matriarchy. And so I come from a lineage of fierce women who are humanitarians.”
“It’s always been a narrative that if you’re in Iran, you’re familiar with, just women being at the forefront of these movements,” she said.
‘Grown-ish’
Of course, Shahidi spoke about her new Black-ish spinoff show, Grown-ish, in which her character goes to college. The show, like its predecessor, doesn’t shy away from heavier topics.
“What I do really appreciate about what the writers did is that a lot of the storylines on ‘Grown-ish’ are not cleanly wrapped up,” she said. “If anything, we’re trying to talk about, similar to ‘Black-ish’, the different views that every character has.”
She also admitted that, being 17, there were a few things her college-age character experienced that she would call her friends up to ask, “Does this happen?”
We’re excited to see Grown-ish tackle more topics and to hear Shahidi speak her mind more!
