Think of the last time you purchased a pair of concert tickets. What are some things you would normally take into consideration before buying them?
For many music fans it's ticket price and where their seats are. It's pretty easy.
Unfortunately, that's not the case for Rachel Berry, an African American woman from New Jersey who's gone viral on Instragram after sharing her reality when it comes to being a country music fan; and her message is something every country music fan needs to hear.
In her heartfelt post, she explains that before she evens buys tickets to a show, she Googles the name of the city and then adds the word "racism." If the first two or three links that pop up are about acts of racism in that town, she doesn't go.
You know how when you stand up at a concert to dance with friends? You might have someone kindly ask you (sometimes it's TELL you) to sit down; but not Rachel. Her biggest fear is that if she stands up, someone will yell a racial slur at her and tell her to sit down.
And picture this- when you're walking through the parking lot or campgrounds at a music festival, what do you look for? Your friends or where the party's at; not even thinking twice about anything else, except for maybe how much you've had to drink. For Rachel, she says she feels nervous just walking through the parking lot, saying, "I have felt uneasy walking through a crowd of tailgaters. and seeing Confederate flags flying high from their trucks. I find myself almost wishing I was invisible so I could walk through the crowd without being seen or noticed."
Could you imagine?
We could never accurately describe how she's feeling or what she's going through, so please read her Instagram post and at the very end, she sums it up best by saying, ""We ALL have to stand together and stand up for what's right. We all bleed red. There should be no racial divide. Period."
