Anne Hathaway has urged white people to ask “how decent are we really” after a black teenager was killed in California.

Nia Wilson, 18, died after being stabbed in the neck in Oakland on Sunday night.

A suspect, John Lee Cowell, was arrested in connection with the attack. Officials said it was unclear if the incident was racially motivated.

Hathaway wrote on Instagram: “[Wilson’s death] is unspeakable and must not be met with silence … She was a black woman and she was murdered in cold blood by a white man.

“White people – including me, including you – must take into the marrow of our privileged bones the truth that all black people fear for their lives daily in America and have done so for generations.

“We must ask our (white)selves - how ‘decent’ are we really? Not in our intent, but in our actions? In our lack of action?”

Wilson was returning home with her sister from a family event when she was stabbed, in what the local police chief, Carlos Rojas, called “the most vicious attack” he had seen in nearly three decades.



Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Rojas said the attack had been unusually quick. “It’s more reminiscent of a prison yard assault. They do their attack so quickly that before anybody can really react, the person takes off running.”

The mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, said: “The fact that [the] victims were both young African American women stirs deep pain and palpable fear in all of us who acknowledge the reality that our country still suffers from a tragic and deeply racist history.”

Hathaway has more than 12 million followers on Instagram, on which she frequently champions human rights. Last week, she urged critics of the LGBT community to remain silent; in February she called for politicians to tighten gun laws.

She has also previously pledged support for campaigns against the separation of families at the US border, sexual harassment in the workplace, household chore inequality, bullying of gay students and intolerance towards transgender children.