Mickey Guyton Opens Up About Not Hiding the Online Bullying She Gets: 'We Have to Call This Out'

Mickey Guyton does not stand for hate — and she'll promptly call it out when she sees it.

Like any celebrity, the 38-year-old "Black Like Me" has been targeted with harassment online. But oftentimes, the trolls who seek to bring Guyton down attack her for the color of her skin and argue she doesn't have a place in country music because of it.

Guyton, however, shares these horrendous posts on her social media platforms to help put a stop to this behavior.

"When I post it, I think some people might think that I'm looking for this sympathy that I'm not looking for at all. I sleep very well at night," she tells PEOPLE exclusively while promoting her partnership with 3M's School Zone Safety initiative. "But what I'm doing is, people need to know that this is happening."

"For so long, people were able to get away with being racist. You could be racist and move on with your life. And my thinking is we have to call this out," she continues. "This is bullying. This is something that we were taught when we were 5 that you don't do. And you have grown individuals and adults bullying people and saying these horrible things behind their computers, and that has to stop. I don't care who you are, where you're from, what color of your skin — it has to stop."

For Guyton, calling out racial harassment is also her way of showcasing how bad the problem really is.

"My thinking is when someone wants to blatantly show their racism to me, when they @ me on whatever social media platform that it is, I will gladly give them the platform to do so," she says. "They can show off their bullying and hate and racism. It could be shown to all the world to see, and it stays there."

"People have to understand screenshots. We have screenshots. You might want to stop doing that," she adds.

Unfortunately, being the victim of online harassment is the "price" of fame — and Guyton is certainly on the rise, as of late.

Following the release of her critically-acclaimed debut album, Remember Her Name, Guyton became a four-time Grammy nominee. She also was asked to perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl in February.

But Guyton — who is set to drop new music later this year — recognizes that "it took a lot of things" for her work to finally get noticed.

"It took me really being comfortable with who I am. That was something that I wasn't comfortable with for a while. Being one of the few [Black people] in a predominantly white space, I felt like I needed to alter and change who I am in order to fit in," she admits. "I realized exactly who I am is enough. And it started with that."

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Guyton points out that there were "some other unfortunate circumstances" that led to her rise in the music industry: "I hate this, but it wasn't until [the] George Floyd [protests] that people started to take notice of me."

"That's a casualty that is very unfortunate, that it took that for people to see me in that space," she continues. "That's something I've had a hard time kind of accepting because that's not how you ever want people to ever be like, 'Hey, she's been here,' but I have been here. ... For people to have noticed me, it took that and it took me standing up and saying, 'Enough.'"

Fortunately, taking that stand is what brought Guyton the success she has today. Through that, she has been afforded a lot of unique opportunities, including being able to team up with 3M's School Zone Safety initiative.

3M is committed to making school zones safer for families in its latest endeavor, which will ultimately allow children to get to and from school with ease. The company sets out to improve the existing systems at 100 schools across 23 countries, with the first of them being Robert Churchwell Elementary in Nashville — a place that Guyton visited as part of the initiative.

As a mother to 14-month-old son Grayson, Guyton wants to ensure such environments are safe for not just him but all children.

"What 3M technology is doing is they are making school zone safety a priority. And they're going globally and creating safer school zones in a hundred schools," she says. "They're really servicing under-serviced students and kids. That's something that's really important for me as a new mom."

Explaining how she's "happy to be a part of it," Guyton adds: "I just love that 3M is taking that initiative and servicing the last ones that we think about. It's always first is first, last is last. And now, it's the last will be first — and that's something that's important to me as well, as it's a lot of minority children."

Please visit 3m.com/schoolzonesafety to learn more about 3M's School Zone Safety campaign, the importance of this cause and to see how you can get involved.