"Hate speech is free speech" and "unapologetically white" fluttered from posts and poles all over downtown St. Joseph, Minn. It was February 2018, and a group calling itself the White Student Union had gone leafleting.
Kayla was an eighth-grader. By the time the White Student Union hit town, she knew how it felt to be called racial slurs and have people touch her hair without asking. A classmate said her hair made her look like she'd been "dragged from the rafts of hell." A classmate told her racism didn't exist in America anymore.
But when Kayla asked school administrators to discuss those "You Will Not Replace Us" signs, the answer was no.
"We're not prepared to handle these conversations," Okonu and her mother, Angel Hight, said they were told. "We have teachers who aren't comfortable talking about it."
This week, Kayla tried again.
In a crowded auditorium in St. Cloud, she faced a panel that included both a former neo-Nazi and the state attorney general, and she asked for help.
"I've had racist remarks, I've had people call me [a racial slur], I've had people touch my hair," said Okonu, who's now 14 years old. "I need to feel welcome, and I need to feel accepted."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a black Muslim man from Minneapolis, is leading a statewide conversation on race and hate, one town at a time. For months, he's been hearing stories of hate, hurt and isolation in a state where there's been a 22% jump in reported hate crimes.