“Educating ourselves is the first step”

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez CREDIT: Tibrina Hobson/FilmMagic

Selena Gomez has shared an impassioned message of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

A host of celebrities and public figures have shared their support for racial justice in the past weeks, as anti-racism protests continue to sweep the globe.

Taking to Instagram, Gomez said that there is “a deep pain that needs to be healed” in the Black community, and called on white people to “educate ourselves”.

Gomez shared a photo of a number of people from the Black community that have spoken to her about ways to combat racism – including Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, and author Ibram X. Kendi. She captioned the post: “I want to thank all of the amazing people that took the time to speak to us directly. I am blown away with your knowledge, eagerness to teach and commitment to ensuring Black voices are not silenced.

“Educating ourselves is the first step if we hope to make any progress in bringing an end to systemic racism. As much as one might want to believe things have gotten better we cannot deny any longer that they have not.”

The message continued: “We need to acknowledge that social, political and economic discrimination against Black communities continues to exist. There is a deep pain that needs to be healed. Unless this is recognised history will continue to repeat itself over and over.”

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Gomez is the latest figure in the music industry to vocally support the anti-racism movement today (June 19) as an acknowledgement of Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the US.

Taylor Swift has also marked Juneteenth by promising to be “loudly and ferociously anti-racist” going forward, while Usher has written an essay calling for the day to be made a national holiday.