A handful of Black Lives Matter activists are seeing a glint of hope after sitting down with 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
The Huffington Post reports that Clinton along with Johnetta Elzie, DeRay Mckesson and other activists met for a candid conversation about race and other issues plaguing the Black community.
“In the end, I felt heard,” Mckesson told the Huffington Post. “It was a tough conversation, and we didn’t agree about every approach or everything. But she was willing to be pushed, and it was a candid conversation, and that’s important.”
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Activists say that Clinton addressed the lasting effects of slavery—which she referred to as America’s “original sin”—head on, and she admitted that her White privilege has shielded her from many of these issues, though many in attendance felt that she didn’t understand the bigger picture.
“You saying that you know that you’re White, you know that you have power and you know that you are wealthy is not the same as seeing it and knowing that the way that police interact with you is completely different than how they will ever interact with us,” Elzie told the Post.
The activists are hoping that the frankness that Clinton showed behind closed doors will carry over to her public speeches.
“It took her a while to get there, but she got there,” Elzie said. “So I’m hopeful that she will continue to have this educational conversation with herself to acknowledge her privilege.”
