Source: Charlotte Observer / Getty One of the greatest athletes and cultural icons of all time has used the power of his global voice. #23 aka Michael Jordan is speaking out against racism and discrimination. As spotted on Bossip, Air Jordan is also seeing the country unravel due to police brutality. The Chicago Bulls legend has released a formal statement detailing his frustration. “I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry,” he said. “I see and feel everyone’s pain, outrage and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people in our country. We have had enough.” MJ continued to urge people to move with love. “We must listen to each other, show compassion and empathy and never turn our backs on senseless brutality. We n...
Like thousands across America and even overseas, Fiona Apple took to the streets this past weekend to rail against racism and the murder of unarmed black man George Floyd. On Sunday, Apple figuratively fetched the bolt cutters during a protest in Santa Monica, as SPIN points out. The musician not only yelled out “Black Lives Matter!” alongside fellow demonstrators, but also held up a sign that read, “COPS: DON’T BE WHITE CHAUVINISTS ARREST THE OTHER THREE!!!”. The handwritten message refers to the three Minneapolis police officers also involved in Floyd’s death last week — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane — who have yet to be arrested and charged. As of right now, only Derek Chauvin, the officer who held his knee down on the throat of a non-resisting Floyd for eight minutes, h...
N.W.A. As the protests over George Floyd’s death and normalized police brutality continue into a new week, we’ve seen everything from celebrities marching in the streets to tone-deaf remixes of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches. Over the weekend, the notorious hacker group Anonymous joined the fray by tapping into Chicago Police Department’s radios and playing N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police”. This past Saturday, the notorious hacker group returned to social media to announce their solidarity with the protestors fighting racism and corruption in the US. “If the police can’t restrain themselves and are shooting reporters, kicking protesters, punching protesters, and engaging in violence — how can anyone expect the people to restrain themselves? People are done being brutalised and murdered,” they t...
Chance the Rapper is coming to the defense of protesters across the nation. The Chicago MC took to Twitter on Saturday (May 30) to address protests in Los Angeles, New York, San Jose, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., where citizens are flooding the streets over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. “If you hold a pen at a publication, this is the time be carefully intent with your words. Do not demonize the people that are being beat and battered in the streets,” Chance wrote. “Damaging property is not violent. But the actions of the state have been. It must be documented justly.” Earlier this week, a video of Floyd’s death surfaced showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd f...
The music industry is calling for a “Blackout Tuesday” in response to the death of George Floyd. On Friday (May 29), less than a week after Floyd was suffocated by a Minneapolis police officer during an arrest, numerous music companies and artists began spreading a message on social media calling for “a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with out community” and “an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change.” “As gatekeepers of the culture, it’s our responsibility to not only come together to celebrate the wins, but also hold each other up during loss,” reads the statement, which is being circulated under the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused. The proposed blackout is set for Tuesday, June 2. Among those reposting the message are Apple ...
Beyoncé and Rihanna have both issued statements regarding the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests taking place in cities across the US. “We need justice for George Floyd,” Beyoncé said in a video message posted to Instagram on Friday night. “We all witnessed his murder in broad daylight. We’re broken and we’re disgusted. We cannot normalize this pain.” “I’m not only speaking to people of color. If you’re white, black, brown, or anything in-between, I’m sure you feel hopeless about the racism going on in America right now,” Beyoncé continued. “No more senseless killings of human beings. No more seeing people of color as less than human. We can no longer look away.” Beyoncé went on to encourage her fans to sign a series of petitions demanding more charges be brought against&nbs...
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 ...
Lil Wayne has addressed the killing of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died with the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin on his neck. In a conversation with Fat Joe on Instagram Live on Friday, Wayne said, “If we want to place the blame on anybody, it should be ourselves for not doing more than what we think we’re doing.” The controversial remarks came after a conversation about the time a police officer saved Wayne’s life. At the age of 12, the precocious rapper discharged a hand-gun and shot himself in the chest. Robert Hooper, an off-duty cop whom Weezy referred to as “Uncle Bob,” appeared on the scene. He said that, on the way to the hospital, Cooper “sat in the backseat with me and held me in his arms.” At the conclusion of that story, Fat Joe asked Lil Wayne about the death of...
Billie Eilish is joining the long list of artists speaking out after the death of George Floyd. On Saturday morning (May 30), as protests over Floyd’s controversial death spread nationwide, the 18-year-old “Bad Guy” singer took to social media to share her frustration over the situation. “I’ve been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately,” Eilish began her post on Instagram. “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…But holy f—ing shit I’m gonna just start talking.” The singer particularly took aim at white people using the phrase “all lives matter” in response to the death of Floyd, a black man wh...
Like many others, Mariah Carey is searching for answers following the death of George Floyd. The iconic singer took to social media Saturday (May 30) to sing a snippet of her 1990 song “There’s Got to Be a Way” while demanding justice for Floyd, a black man who was recently killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. “I wrote this song for my first album. Still looking for answers today. We have to make a change. We can’t be silent,” Carey captioned the video, adding the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Earlier this week, a video of Floyd’s death surfaced, showing officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd for eight minutes. Chauvin was later charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. In her post, Carey encoura...
Anger over the murder of George Floyd boiled over into the streets of America on Friday night. In cities across America, protestors confronted police, leading to tense, often violent scenes which played out live on television. In fact, in Atlanta, one of the more harrowing clashes took place inside the lobby of CNN’s headquarters, as officers struggled to push back protestors seeking to enter the building. During a press conference alongside Atlanta’s mayor on Friday night, Killer Mike made an impassioned plea to residents of Atlanta asking them to not vandalize their city while also expressing rage over the circumstances that led to the evening’s events. “We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” Killer Mike asked. “It is your...
Source: Carmen Mandato / Getty Colin Kaepernick has proven that he is in support of Black liberation by any means necessary, as evidenced by his activism that essentially cost him his NFL career. Continuing his stance against the injustices faced by Black people in America, the free-agent quarterback tweeted in support of the protests that have been sparked by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Thursday afternoon, Kaepernick took to Twitter and shared words of encouragement to the protesters gathered in Minneapolis and across the nation who are outraged at the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other victims of murder fueled by racism. “When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction,” began Kap’s tweet. “The cries for pe...