Source: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is still under hood investigation after saying that she’s no fan of the city’s celebrated mumbo sauce condiment but a new gesture might gain her favor. Mayor Bowser signed off on renaming a portion of the street in front of the White House along with artwork that sends a very clear message to President Donald Trump. The Washington Post reports that earlier Friday morning (June 5), Bowser looked on as protestors gathered at the corner section of 16th Street and H Street in Washington’s Northwest section, renaming the street Black Lives Matter Plaza. The action coincides with artist Rose Jaffe‘s Black Lives Matter piece that stretches along 16th Street for two blocks in bright yellow letters. Mayor Bowser hasn’t said ...
After a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, America erupted. Police clashed with protestors, cities imposed curfews, largely peaceful demonstrations spilled over into vandalism, looting, and arson, and white nationalists impersonated legitimate activists to sow distrust and chaos. In the midst of generational turmoil, the rapper Killer Mike delivered a powerful speech that balanced historical awareness, community love, and a rage that threatened to become all-consuming. By speaking directly to his Atlanta neighbors, he gave voice to Americans everywhere. And now that his words have gone viral, the artist born Michael Render is using his heightened platform to push that message forward. On Monday, June 1st, Killer Mike called into the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert&nb...
On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump emerged from his underground bunker and made his first public comments on the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests filling city streets. Well, sort of. Trump only made a passing reference to Floyd’s death, and he failed to mention police brutality, institutional racism, and other societal issues that have allowed such tragedies to become commonplace in America. Instead, Trump threatened to illegally unleash the United States Military on American citizens. Then, after police gassed peaceful protestors, Trump walked to a nearby church for a bizarre photo shoot. The whole thing was one of the more disturbing moments in the three-and-a-half year history of Trump’s presidency, which is really saying something. But there’s at least one person w...
Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington (Debi Del Grande), and Denzel Curry (Cat Miller) Protests are sweeping the nation from coast to coast following the murder of George Floyd, who died while in Minneapolis police custody last week. To express their own rage over police brutality, and the systemic racism in America that allows it, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and Denzel Curry have joined forces on a new single called “PIG FEET”. Producer Martin and saxophonist Washington deliver arrangements of frenetic, and sometimes clashing, jazz to mirror the present-day chaos of this country. Curry, meanwhile, recounts a tale too often told by young blacks. “Helicopters over my balcony/ If the police can’t harass, they wanna smoke every ounce of me,” the Florida-bred MC says. “You tell me life’s a ...
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...
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...
America is a nightmare, a reality that’s hardly lost on Killer Mike of Run the Jewels. In a new op-ed for Colorlines, the rapper and activist has called on black communities across the country to embrace the second amendment. “My message to Black people across the country is the same today as it was a year ago: the only person you can count on to protect yourself and your family is you,” Killer Mike wrote under his legal name Michael Render. “God gave you the right to use whatever tools are available to defend your rights. Nothing—including gun ownership—should be discarded. I encourage gun ownership to my wife, my son and daughters, your sons and daughters and all Black people.” Killer Mike went on to reference several historical figures who shared similar sentiments, particularly Harriet...