Alicia Keys’s Quotes in InStyle Magazine July 2020

Alicia Keys graces the cover of InStyle‘s July issue, and she’s sharing some words of hope inside the magazine. In her interview with the publication, which took place in early May, the singer reflects on everything from her music to family life, but one of her most powerful quotes is when she talks about the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.

“You know, we do a really good job of judging each other and assuming who people are when we don’t even know them,” she said. “To me, the most important thing we can do right now is take a second to see and appreciate each other as we are.” She added that if we want to see change in the world, it must first start with us. “I really believe that we are it — we are what we’re waiting for, what we’re looking for. The way we raise our kids, the way we choose to be with each other, the way we face the world — that is how things will start to shift.”

Alicia shared similar sentiments when she addressed students on the Dear Class of 2020 special. “It’s okay to not be okay right now,” she said. “I know so many of you are not thinking about your time at school. You’re thinking about what’s happening right now in the present. You’re thinking about marching and protesting and making sure that your voices are heard in a time that we cannot be silent. The world feels broken right now, it is broken right now in so many ways, but, you know, you’re taking your heartbreak and your outrage and you’re putting it into action. You are showing that your generation is the one that’s going to heal this.”

Be sure to check out Alicia’s full interview on InStyle.