On Friday (May 29) evening, Rihanna spoke out on the deaths of several African Americans, focusing primarily on the killing of unarmed Minneapolis resident George Floyd by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes despite protests from Floyd that he couldn’t breathe.
“For the last few days, the magnitude of devastation, anger, sadness I’ve felt has been overwhelming to say the least! Watching my people get murdered and lynched day after day pushed me to a heavy place in my heart! To the point of staying away from socials, just to avoid hearing the blood curdling agony in George Floyd’s voice again, begging over and over for his life!!! The look of enticement, the pure joy and climax on the face of this bigot, murderer, thug, pig, bum, Derek Chauvin, haunts me!! I can’t shake this! I can’t get over an ambulance pulling up to an arrest, a paramedic checking a pulse without removing the very thing that’s hindering it! Is this that fucking normal??? If intentional MURDER is the fit consequence for “drugs” or “resisting arrest”….then what’s the fit consequence for MURDER???! #GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor”
Rihanna is one of many artists to voice frustration in the midst of a pandemic that has also seen a rash of controversial police killings of civilians.
