Keke Palmer pleads with U.S. National Guardsmen to march during protest: 'Make history with us, please'

Keke Palmer is being praised all over the world for the way she attempted to unite protestors and the U.S National Guard during a protest in Hollywood, in response to the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as the numerous Black people who have lost their lives to police brutality.

In a viral video of the encounter, the actress can be seen urging U.S. National Guardsmen to march alongside protestors and show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

“You have to pay attention to what’s going on,” Keke tells the guardsmen. “We have a president that’s trying to incite a race war. And the borders are closed! We can’t leave. You have people in here that need your help.”

After some of the U.S. National Guard members told Keke that they agreed with what she was saying, she urged them to march with the protestors.

“March with us. March beside us,” she says. “You get your people. Y’all march beside us … Let the revolution be televised. March beside us and show us that you’re here for us. Make history with us, please.”

When one of the guardsmen explains that he can’t leave his post because he needs to protect the businesses in his area, he offers to march down the street as far as he can.

“You’re the protector,” Keke says in response. “If you’re supposed to be patrolling us, then walk with us.”

In response to this, one of the protestors asks the U.S. National Guardsmen to kneel — and to the delight of many of the protestors, they do.

“Can you do me a favor — can you take a kneel?” one person can be heard asking.

This doesn’t please everyone, though.

“I don’t know, that ain’t enough for me,” Keke says as several of the U.S. National Guard members kneel. “That ain’t enough for me.”

Though the guardsmen never left their post, Keke’s passionate plea has received strong social media support.

“KEKE FOR PRESIDENT,” Nick Jonas said.

“The young woman showed the power of speech and non-violent activism,” another user added. “We need more dialog.”

“She is trying to talk, not berate or yell. She’s explaining her concerns to them. In the end, she makes a difference because she reached their minds and hearts,” a third person added.

Keke often uses her social media platforms to speak out against systemic racism.

“Racism is what the country was built on: Slavery, systematic oppression, then voter oppression, female oppression, poor education system, so you’re intentionally uninformed, financial oppression,” she said in an Instagram video. “Human beings can only take so much. American needs government reform that demand legislations and new laws that birth the future for our kids. We deserve a new system because the old one was created to oppress us.”

If you want to help the peaceful protestors right now, here are some places you can donate right now.

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