In an impassioned post on Instagram, 18-year-old pop star Billie Eilish eviscerated the All Lives Matter movement, writing, “If I hear one more white person say “aLL liVeS maTtEr” one more fucking time I’m gonna lose my fucking mind.”
The message was captioned with the hashtags #blacklivesmatter and #justiceforgeorgefloyd. Like millions of Americans, Eilish was incensed after George Floyd’s killing by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25th. Ex-officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, continuing almost three minutes after Floyd went unconscious. After Floyd died, Chauvin was subsequently fired, but only placed under arrest after several days of sustained protests.
Eilish began her post by writing, “I’ve been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately. I have an enormous platform and I try really hard to be respectful and take time to think through what I say and how I say it.” She continued, “But holy fucking shit I’m gonna just start talking.”
In addition to requesting that All Lives Matter protestors kindly “shut the fuck uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup,” she clarified that “This is not about you. Stop making everything about you.” If there were any doubts about where she stood, she drove the point home.
“If all lives matter why are black people killed for just being black? Why are immigrants persecuted? Why are white people given opportunities that people of other races aren’t? Why is it okay for white people to protest literally being asked to stay home while carrying semi-automatic weapons? Why is it okay for black people to be called thugs for protesting the murder of innocent people? Do you know why???? White. Fucking. Privilege.”
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Billie Eilish concluded with a simple message: “Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Say it again. #justiceforgeorgefloyd.” Check out the full post below.
Eilish is the latest artist to speak about the murder of George Floyd. Taylor Swift took Donald Trump to task for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.” Killer Mike expressed his own towering rage while also pleading with protestors not to burn down their own communities. Meanwhile, Lil Wayne had a slightly different perspective, saying, “If we want to place the blame on anybody, it should be ourselves.”
