Journalism changed her

 I believe Kristen Green might not have been interested in her hometown's or her families history, if she had not become a journalist. I think being a journalist impacted her life and made her more diverse and aware of what was going on around her, to the point where she found herself in a interrelationship. Maybe now she is trying so hard to make up to other blacks including Elsie for what she and her family had done. Kristen is just realizing she was racist while growing up sheltered before college.