Washington (CNN) Sen. Kamala Harris said Thursday that Americans have not had "honest discussions about race" and that "it is in our collective best interest" to have those conversations in response to a question about "racial divides" in the United States.

Speaking at a campaign event in Hemingway, South Carolina, the Democratic presidential candidate was asked a pointed question about race in America by Meg Oliver, a voter who identified herself as being raised as "a daughter of the south" and said she has personal connections to people with racist views -- including her father who she believes "was most likely in the KKK."

"I am embarrassed at what I see with a lot of the southerners and a lot of the members of our Congress," Oliver said. "I'm wondering what you can do... to heal the racial divides that (President) Donald Trump has emboldened and what we as white people who don't believe in that and don't support that -- what can we do to help offset the obvious flashpoints of racial divide in this country."

"For too long, frankly in our country, for too long we have not had these honest discussions about race. We've just not. You can look at textbooks in public schools that have erased so much of the history, the awful shameful history on race in this country," said Harris, who identifies as black.

She cited the recent passage of an anti-lynching bill in the Senate that she co-authored and a speech she gave about the legislation as an example of how she is contributing to the conversations about race that Oliver asked about.

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