Halsey has been on the streets demanding justice for the police killings of Black people, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many more. On Wednesday, the singer took a moment from her action to address her own privilege. While Halsey is biracial, she is white-passing, meaning she doesn’t face the same racist violence other Black people face.
Halsey responded to a now-deleted tweet that claimed she doesn’t embrace her “Black side” because of the language she uses, and she explained that’s not at all the case.
“I’m white-passing. It’s not my place to say ‘we.’ It’s my place to help,” Halsey wrote. “I am in pain for my family, but nobody is gonna kill me based on my skin color. 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.”
Halsey has elaborated more on this in past interviews. She spoke about identifying as a Black woman but looking like a white woman in a 2017 interview with Playboy.
“I’m white-passing. I’ve accepted that about myself and have never tried to control anything about black culture that’s not mine,” she said. “I look like a white girl, but I don’t feel like one. I’m a Black woman. So it’s been weird navigating that.”
Privilege is not something you choose, which is why Halsey explaining her own inherent privilege is so important. For white and white-passing people, it’s a privilege to know that you can safely walk down the street, sit in your home, or even interact with police without risk of being unjustly killed because of the color of your skin.
Halsey is using her privilege to fight for justice, and that’s powerful.
This article was originally published on Teen Vogue.
