Grammy-award-winning artist Lauren Daigle broke her silence regarding George Floyd after receiving some flack and questions from friends for not speaking on the issue.
“I received a lot of text messages yesterday about my silence regarding the George Floyd issue,” Daigle said, in opening her 53-minute Instagram video posted on Monday.
“In pondering this time, my friend, my sweet friend reached out to me and she said, ‘Lauren, There are people of color that follow you and your silence could be hurting them,’” Daigle recounted of one text exchange. “And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the exact opposite of the message that I’m trying to deliver. I have just been waiting to get still enough.’”
She assured her 1.9 million fans that neither her silence nor decision to guard her eyes from watching the entire video had to do with her lack of concern for the matter of racial injustice that has rattled the nation.
“Let me assure everybody that silence has nothing to do with a lack of concern because I haven’t had a moment to pray and reflect and ask God where to stand with my words,” Daigle explained. “I know where I stand, but with my words, how do I speak?”
The 28-year-old referenced the violence in video games that disgusts her and shared that she didn’t watch the whole video because she doesn’t ever want to become “desensitized” or “get used to this”:
“I think what happened to George Floyd is absolutely infuriating. I’m shaking just talking about it. I didn’t watch the full video because I don’t want my eyes to become accustomed to things that are hellacious and wrong.”
The Louisiana-born singer was brought to tears as she questioned the hearts of the police officers involved—both the one who stole Floyd’s last breath under the crippling weight of his body, and the ones who stood there and did nothing about it:
“How can the heart of man be like that? I don’t understand. I’m shaking with anger. And no officer said anything. I have no idea what it’s like to be a police officer. I’m not even going to begin the barrage of thoughts on how to handle situations. But my gosh, I don’t know how much more evidence you need to say, ‘Hey, maybe you should let up bro.’ This is wrong!”
Daigle said that when she thinks about George Floyd, she thinks about his family, friends, and the ‘remnants of his life that are still being sprinkled and scattered all over this world.’
“My jaw just gets tight even thinking about living my last moments like that,” she reflected. “Wrong!”
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