Keke Palmer Says a White Scream Queens Co-Star Snapped, “Who Do You Think You Are? Martin F—Ing Luther King?” She Refuses to Name Her
Palmer could have named the co-star. Plenty of people wanted her to. Instead she gave the woman a pseudonym, “Brenda,” and explained why: she didn’t want the story to become about that person, and she didn’t want to hand the remark any power over her.
The moment lives in her book, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative. Palmer played Zayday Williams on Scream Queens in 2015, and she recounts trying to calm a tense moment between castmates by suggesting everyone have some fun and respect each other. A white co-star shut her down with the Martin Luther King line.
Palmer has been on camera since she was 11. Somewhere along the way she decided the only person who gets to define her story is her, and that decision is the whole thesis of the book.
She has been clear that she isn’t interested in being anybody’s victim. The remark happened, she carried it, and then she put it inside a book about owning your own narrative rather than letting other people write it for you.
That is what mastery of your own story looks like. You decide what stays anonymous, what gets a chapter, and whose name the book belongs to.
