In talking about people whose voices haven’t been heard, West said he wasn’t just talking about those who’ve been marginalized in society because of their race or poverty. In the conversation about race, he said, many people are afraid to speak out.

“I had a great conversation with a member of law enforcement,” he said. “He’s scared to say anything. He wants to say something, but he’s scared to say something because he’s being stereotyped as a bad police officer, because he’s in law enforcement now. And I said to him, ‘Black people get stereotyped all the time as being bad because we’re black.’ We can we can build on that similarity in terms of stereotypes.”

“And so, it’s all about also bringing police into the conversation, understanding how they’re feeling and where they’re coming from, and build from there,” he said. “That’s not a popular thing to say because you hear all these people say, ‘F the police?’ Well, that’s not gonna help us to get to where we need to be. Conversations have to be two-sided, which means police must be a part of the conversation as well.”

West also said he believes the news media should play a role in promoting cross-racial understanding by amplifying the voices of those who are often reluctant to talk about race.

“I think coming from the media you guys have the best platform right now,” he said. “And to utilize your platform, to talk with those who are unfamiliar, to who feel that they’re voiceless and let them, let them be wrong, let them be vulnerable with how they’re feeling, so that we can hear them and people around us who are may not be black and that may not understand what we’re going through, can hear them and really hear the emotion and rawness to their story. It is time for us to be vulnerable on both sides.”