Starr says, "Hailey you can say something racist and not be racist." What does this mean?

Hailey and Starr’s friendship experiences many tensions and ultimately ends, in part because of Hailey’s insensitivity toward issues of race. Hailey refuses to grasp that people who are not intentionally racist can still say comments that are in fact racist, or at the very least culturally insensitive. Furthermore, Hailey refuses to engage in conversation with Hailey or Maya about why her remarks were offensive to them. She is blinded towards her own mistakes by defensiveness and a fear of being called a racist. While Maya, for example, listens to Starr and understands why her participation in the Williamson protest was offensive, Hailey refuses to accept Starr’s argument and gets angry instead.