Nicole Caminiti, the 23-year-old daughter of Astros legend Ken Caminiti, is speaking out against the racism she’s witnessed growing up in the Pecan Grove community.
In a post titled “A Message To The Pecan Grove Community” on Medium, Caminiti asked residents to educate themselves on systemic racism and work on understanding the frustrations and experiences of their black neighbors.
Recommended Videos
“Start saying Black Lives Matter, because they do matter. All lives cannot matter until black lives matter,” she wrote. “Love your black neighbors who don’t dress like you, who are different than you, who had different upbringings than you. Understand that their anger with injustice is justified.”
Caminiti details her experience growing up in the Pecan Grove neighborhood which she said was built to reflect old southern ideology.
In the message, she revealed the neighborhood had racist street names such as Confederate Court and Plantation Drive.
Caminiti recalled the awkward moment when one of her closest friends in middle school rode the bus home with her asked “Does that sign say Plantation?”
Caminiti said as a 7th grader she didn’t really understand why her friend asked about the street name, because at the time she didn’t associate plantation with slavery, she associated it with her neighborhood.
Caminiti said her intention isn’t to erase the history of the area but to shine a light on an issue which many in the community don’t want to acknowledge.
She concludes her message to the community by saying “My name is Nicole, I am white, I am 23 years old, and I stand with Black Lives Matter.”
“To my black brothers and sisters: I hear you, I am fighting for you, I am protesting for you, I will do anything I can to change both conscious and unconscious racism,” she wrote. “To my white brothers and sisters: when someone says Black Lives Matter, don’t argue. Just listen.”
Click here to read the full post.