Over the last week, Halsey has, like many Americans and people all over the world, taken to the streets and protested against the systemic racism against black Americans. According to CNBC, last year, more than 1000 people were killed while in police custody, 24 percent of which were black people, despite making up only 13 percent of the overall population.
Halsey, who is biracial, is white-passing, meaning that she “passes” as a white person and therefore doesn’t experience the same amount of prejudice as other black Americans because of her skin. And, on Wednesday, the singer took to Twitter to acknowledge how her privilege relates to her experience with police brutality.
In response to a now deleted tweet accusing her of not embracing her black heritage because of the language she uses, the “Without Me” singer said, “I’m white-passing. It’s not my place to say ‘we.’ It’s my place to help.”
“I am in pain for my family, but nobody is gonna kill me based on my skin colour,” she tweeted. “I’ve always been proud of who I am but it’d be an absolute disservice to say ‘we’ when I’m not susceptible to the same violence.”
Last weekend, Halsey, who has been on the frontlines of the Black Lives Matter inspired protests in Los Angeles with her ex-boyfriend Yungblud, live streamed the moment she and hundreds of peaceful protestors were attacked by police. The singer was hit with rubber bullets and tear gassed, before helping other protestors get home, returning to protest the next day with medical supplies to help the injured.
“I’m white-passing,” reminded the 22-year-old Manic artist in a Playboy interview in 2017, according to The Huffington Post. “I’ve accepted that about myself and have never tried to control anything about black culture that’s not mine.”
While the Black Lives Matter group was first founded in 2013, racial injustice and systemic racism against black Americans is part of the foundation of U.S. society and institutions. The movement is part of a long fight for justice for the black American population and the large sum of black American deaths by police and while in police custody, many of which have not been charged.
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