The Confederate flag continues to spark debate across the nation as South Carolina recently voted to remove the symbol from the Statehouse.
But weeks prior to the official removal, Bree Newsome took matters into her own hands and decided to remove the flag herself.
During a recent interview, Goapele shared her thoughts on the controversy.
“I would have had the courage to rally that woman that wasn’t sure if she wanted to go up there like ‘girl you should go up there.’ I wouldn’t have been the one to get the flag down, but I would have helped get her ready to go up there or whoever was thinking about it. I feel like that’s more my kind of position is to motivate people. Even my mom has been to rallies and I’ve just always been the one that doesn’t want to get arrested. So I’m going to be there and if the energy starts to shift, this isn’t my purpose anymore. And if I can motivate people through music or if I can speak there, then that’s good. That’s another one of my boundaries; I pick my battles. I’m so happy that she climbed to the top of there and took that flag because sometimes it’s just that easy and there [are]these glass ceilings and its seems like you can’t change something when really we can all have a ripple effect and do things,” Goapele said.
