Selena Gomez shares message of support for Black Lives Matter: “There is a deep pain that needs to be healed”

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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.

• Read more: How to support Black Lives Matter and anti-racist organisations if you can’t protest

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.

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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. 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 recognized history will continue to repeat itself over and over. ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Tomorrow is Juneteenth which commemorates the day slaves in Texas were told they were free on June 19th 1865. To learn more of the history and the movement to make it a national holiday read The article in my bio. Please take the day to have conversations with your family and friends about the importance of Black Lives Matter and how we all need to join together to ensure equality and justice and then continue these conversations every day!⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Everyone needs to have their voices heard and we can do that by VOTING! We will not let voter suppression stop us! Check out @whenweallvote to get registered and find other helpful resources.⠀ ⠀ ⠀ It’s not lost on me how fortunate I am to have this platform and appreciate you all for taking the time to watch, listen and take in the powerful messages and information we’ve been provided over the last two weeks by some of the most inspiring people I’ve come across in my life. If you missed any of these incredible IG stories they are all saved in my Story Highlights under #BLM and #BLM2. This is just the beginning and we will continue to hear from other Black voices and as well as other marginalized communities I am committed to doing the work and I hope you join me.

A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Jun 18, 2020 at 5:26pm PDT

“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.”

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.

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