When Regina King’s son, Ian Alexander Jr., was little, he wasn’t particularly aware of the politics of race. He couldn’t really see what difference it made for his friends to have diverse backgrounds; they were his “rainbow coalition,” as his famous mom put it. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, King told a story about when her son was a pre-teen: “When he was younger, he was always paying attention to our conversations, and he asked me, ‘Why when you guys talk’ — you guys being adults — ‘do you always have to ask what color someone was?'”
Explaining that Ian Jr.’s friend group became more predominantly Black a few years later, King attributed this shift to his growing understanding of racial dynamics, and of the racism that was actually present in his own circles. She said, “It was because certain things were happening in conversations that were making him go, ‘Woo, OK, this doesn’t feel right.’ Certain things that some of the white boys would say that he was like, ‘Yo, you shouldn’t feel comfortable saying that.'”
It may have taken Ian Jr. a while to understand where his mom was coming from, but what’s certain is that he never took her for granted: To mark King’s birthday in January 2021, he wrote on Instagram, “To have you as my mother is the greatest gift I could ask for. To be all that you are while always having the time to be there, love and support me unconditionally is truly remarkable.”
