In a new issue of Uptown magazine, Empire star Taraji P. Henson says that her son, 20-year-old Marcel, was racially profiled at the University of Southern California and will transfer to Howard University, her alma mater.

According to Henson, her son experienced two cases of racial profiling: one after being pulled over by cops in California and another while on USC's campus, for having his hands in his pockets. The anecdote, in full, via Uptown:

"My child has been racially profiled. He was in Glendale, California and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn't give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for. Then he's at University of Southern California, the school that I was going to transfer him to, when police stopped him for having his hands in his pockets. So guess where he's going? Howard University. I'm not paying $50K so I can't sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus."

USC's chief of Public Safety released a statement on Tuesday, saying that "any allegation of unequal treatment by university officers would trigger an investigation," as reported in Page Six.

Image via Getty. Contact the author at dayna.evans@gawker.com.