Kevin Costner On Race Debates: ‘If Somebody Thinks They Are Losing, Race Comes Up’

Actor Kevin Costner gave an interview to Variety where he shared his feeling over the race debate currently embroiled in the media. Costner expressed his thoughts on issues such as racial profiling and Ferguson.

In PopPolitics, Kevin Costner gave details on how the narrative usually changes once the issue race is brought into the conversation.

“A lot of times a conversation gets stopped dead in its tracks because if somebody thinks they are losing, race comes up — even if the word has no place in the discussion.”

Costner believes that race overshadows the conversation itself and therefore distorts the narrative. The 59-year-old continued, “It trumps the point someone is trying to make, or what they are trying to talk about, and it has no place there.”

Costner states that America’s history with race is indeed a “terrible one.” However, he believes it used by many to win arguments more than anything else.

“Race has a place in our country and a terrible one, and it is one we’re still grappling with, but oftentimes we just don’t how to talk about it and if someone feels they are perhaps losing the argument the conversation breaks up, it stops, it just comes to a shrieking halt.”

Last week, Inquisitr published an opinion article invoking similar sentiments to Kevin Costner’s standpoint.

Kevin Costner has been promoting his new film Black or White, in which he plays an attorney caught in a custody battle with an African American family over his mixed race granddaughter. Costner spoke about how the film captures the issue of race in the most genuine viewpoint.

“… In a very authentic way, and it’s not a look backward, it’s a look forward.”

In a stand-out moment in the film, Costner’s character admits to using the ‘n-word’ before answering on the witness stand, “It’s not my first thought that counts. It’s my second, third and fourth that will define if I am a racist.”

Costner says that when it comes to media coverage, “the facts are what is important to me.”

“If anything that was covered was a lie, I resent that. That feels as big as any crime as any committed.”

Black or White is scheduled to receive a limited release on December 3, 2014, before opening wide on January 23, 2015.

Do you agree with Kevin Costner’s view that race overshadows the conversation itself?

[Image via Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File]