Below is the op-ed John Legend wrote for Billboard magazine where he breaks down the effects of structural racism, the wealth gap,
voting restrictions and the criminal justice system. Very well written and something that needed to be said by a celebrity/entertainer
When Common and I wrote the song "Glory"
for the stunning new film Selma, we drew inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and his contemporaries who strived and sacrificed to achieve racial
equality in the face of seemingly hopeless odds. As I watched the final version
of Selma, I did so with the backdrop of the streets of many of our major cities
filled with protesters, crying out for justice after yet another unarmed black
person's life was taken by the police with impunity. After the events of the past
few weeks, in Ferguson, Mo.; Staten Island; Phoenix; and Cleveland, things feel
eerily the same. While it is important to recognize and acknowledge racial
progress through the years, it is also clear that we are far from King's dream
of equality and justice for all.
Slavery ended 150 years ago. The most egregious
elements of Jim Crow were deemed illegal 50 years ago. But the problems of
structural racism are old and ongoing. We still have a huge wealth gap rooted
in decades of job, wage and housing discrimination. Voting restrictions that
disproportionately affect the poor, minorities and youth are in place and
growing. A persistent gap between black and white student achievement points to
an education system that fails to provide a ladder of opportunity for everyone.
African-American communities are being crushed by a criminal justice system
that over-polices us, over-arrests us, over-incarcerates us and
disproportionately takes the lives of our unarmed youth because of the simple
fact that our skin, our blackness, conjures the myth of a hyper-violent negro.
I did an album with The Roots in 2010 called Wake
Up! We wanted to use music to encourage young people who were politicized by
the election of President Barack Obama to continue mobilizing. We covered songs
from the 1960s and '70s by artists like Nina Simone and Curtis Mayfield as
inspiration and a blueprint. They marched. They wrote songs. They met with
political leaders. They provided financial support. They risked arrest.
Today, I am part of a generation of artists who
benefit from unprecedented access to our fans. Tools like Twitter and Facebook
act as a megaphone, allowing us to speak directly and powerfully to millions of
people. Yet our actions, or lack thereof, speak louder: 140 characters cannot
excuse us of our obligation to stand up, sit in or march forward.
Obama recently told the young activists gathered in
the Oval Office to "think big, but go gradual." His words reminded me
of President Lyndon B. Johnson's reluctance to tackle voting rights, as
depicted in Selma. Despite Johnson's qualms, civil rights activists refused to
wait for a more convenient political time. They took to the streets and used
grass-roots organization and the moral force of their argument to create better
conditions so the legislation could pass. We can’t wait for gradual and
incremental change. Our government is a democracy, by the people and for the
people. It is time for the people to wake up, stand up and demand change.
What are your thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment