Lorde has shot out a new email from her home base in New Zealand, discussing the importance of white celebrities like her to step up as allies and listen to the Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) around the world and at protests, condemning ongoing systemic police brutality and racism, and how she’s practising her activism while not being on social media.
She noted that after watching everything happening on the other side of the world, and after attending the Black Lives Matter protest in Auckland this week, she recognised that the silence of white people right now is far more damaging than people at protests taking selfies and taking part in performative activism.
For herself, Lorde said she’s still finding the nuances of her own activism but is doing what she can by attending local protests and using her own resources to donate to things like bail-out fundraisers on behalf of herself and her fans who cannot afford to do so.
Lorde also recognised that as she’s someone who draws upon the elements of hip-hop for her music – a creative community that’s hugely BIPOC – she said that it’s her responsibility to actively support those listeners who are directly affected. She also encouraged other artists who make music “directly inspired by and in conversation with hip hop” to do the same.
“We have a responsibility to let our affected listeners know that we’re with them when it’s hard too, not just when it’s easy,” Lorde wrote.
“Not just when we benefit. We see you, and we’re here.”
She also wrote that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing donation links, because she’s unable to know whether all of her fans are in a position to give money – and said that she’s actively donating on the behalf of those who can’t – but instead shared a 10-million strong petition, demanding justice for George Floyd‘s death.
Read her whole letter below.
