Former 'Gray's Anatomy' star Isaiah Washington mentioned he grew up with members of the KKK: 'I confirmed them love and respect'

• Isaiah Washington mentioned on Fb that a few of his “greatest elementary faculty lecturers” have been members of the KKK.
• He additionally mentioned his “neighbors” in Texas have been too, and that he’d play with their kids. 
• Washington puzzled if a few of these folks observe his profession as a result of he confirmed them “love.”

Former “Gray’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington mentioned in a put up on his official Fb web page that among the “greatest elementary faculty lecturers” and “neighbors” he grew up with in Houston, Texas, have been members of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. 

Within the put up, shared on Sunday, the actor recalled taking part in with their children, although he mentioned clear “boundaries” have been set on either side. For instance, Washington mentioned he could not drink from these KKK members’ out of doors water hoses or come into their houses to eat. Washington’s mom, nevertheless, would let children of KKK members eat inside her home and  “drink from our classic JFK water glasses.”

The “P-Valley” star went on to say that he puzzled if among the kids he performed with have been “vigorously” supporting his performing profession immediately as a result of he confirmed them “love and respect as a real Texan and a real American,” even when their dad and mom refused to let the kids do the identical for him in public. 

Insider has reached out to Washington for remark. 

Washington performed Dr. Preston Burke on “Gray’s Anatomy” from 2005 to 2007 earlier than he was fired from the present for referring to his costar T.R Knight, who later got here out as homosexual, with a homophobic slur throughout a bodily altercation on set. 

Since being fired from the present, Washington has made a number of claims concerning the hit sequence and his co-stars. 

In keeping with Lynette Rice’s ebook, ” Save a Life: The Inside Story of Gray’s Anatomy,” Washington had initially been thought-about for the function of Dr. Derek Shepherd reverse Ellen Pompeo’s Dr. Meredith Gray, however mentioned Pompeo felt “uncomfortable” with having him as a love curiosity as a result of her then-boyfriend (now husband) Chris Ivery was additionally a Black man.

As Pompeo defined to the New York Publish in 2013, “You recognize they needed Isaiah Washington to be my boyfriend. Shonda actually needed to place a Black man within the combine. I did not suppose they have been actually going to place an interracial couple on the present and I did not need him. It was too near dwelling.”

In an October 2021 look on “The Tavis Smiley Present,” Washington known as Patrick Dempsey a “whole tyrant” and claimed that Pompeo accepted “$5 million {dollars} below the desk” to maintain quiet about Dempsey’s “poisonous and nasty” conduct on set. 

In 2022, he additionally spoke out about his “Romeo Should Die” co-star, the late singer Aaliyah. In an interview with Vlad TV,  Washington mentioned that the pop star, who married R. Kelly when she was 15 and Kelly was 27, was “in charge of the scenario even at her age.”

“She was 15 happening 30, so she was in charge of that complete scenario,” he mentioned. “I do not decide her, however she was very good and really mature and really in charge of her scenario. I do not consider one minute that Aaliyah was made to do something that Aaliyah did not need to do.”

Washington introduced his intention to retire from acting in early 2023, solely to launch a GoFundMe web page to try to crowdfund a million-dollar film undertaking days later.