Over the last few weeks, there have been many emotional, impassioned, and viral moments from the protests against racism and police brutality that have swept America and parts of the globe following the police killing of George Floyd.
One you might have seen, with 26.5 million video views, is Hustlers actor and singer Keke Palmer having a strong conversation with National Guardsmen who were preventing protesters from marching past a certain point. Palmer talked Jimmy Kimmel through the moment in an interview, and explained how she asked the National Guard to march beside the protesters (which they did not), and why the moment in which the military took a knee was not enough.
"I felt like we had an opportunity in that moment to...we have the current administration making a point to make a statement about division. I felt like let's just come together, let's be beyond that, let's be beyond what's happening," Palmer said. "You know, it was a risk, I understand he has a job to do. But I think in my mind I was just thinking at this moment it's like, what if your job is telling you to do something you don't believe in? Like, I know you want to be out here with me. I know you want to walk. I know you want to walk side by side, so let's just do it."
FYI the organisation Palmer mentions at the end of the video is the Black Visions Collective, a non-profit for black liberation, inclusive of black LGBTQ people, based in Minnesota. Check 'em out and donate if you can. And if you want to hear more from Palmer, watch her speak about oppression and uniting against racism on Instagram, or read her guest column in Variety.
