I just didn’t understand from being white, from growing up white, from being raised white. A lot of it has to do with dialogues and conversations that took place at protests, which inspired me to do more research on my own, to look things up, to read things, whether I was comfortable with it or not.
And, so, hearing things at protests and listening how deep those feelings were and reactions to what was happening (in Ferguson) I was, “Oh! I didn’t think about that.” And there are so many strong black women who come out there to the protests who got so much courage and so much strength. Seeing people like that is inspiring.
I need to be either calling in or calling out my white cousins. I need to be talking to my white people and have those conversations, and sometimes those are good, positive dialogues, and sometimes that’s confrontation. Sometimes that’s standing in the streets pissing people off.
Particularly for me as a white woman, it’s really important for white women to speak out, just because of the historical significance of our “safety” and our being used as a weapon against the black community is really important.