In a time of political unrest, celebrities are often advised by their publicists to keep mum. Should they say something that riles up Twitter, or even be construed as mildly controversial, their career could be kaput. But as will.i.am recently reminded me, sometimes staying silent is worse than not saying anything at all.
But when it comes to speaking out against the non-indictment of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man killed by a white police officer, celebrities are throwing caution to the wind, flocking to social media to express their disbelief and disgust.
From Kevin Hart’s Instagram rant to Jon Stewart’s spiel on The Tonight Show, the following responses reiterate how there will be no peace until there is justice served for men like Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Treyvon Martin, and Tamir Price – just to name a few. Here’s what the celebs had to say:
“SMDH....God the world is crying for your help. This really makes me sad. All I can do is pray & I plan on doing that harder than ever....I'm praying for everyone....I'm praying that we as people can simply do better and evolve. I'm praying that we continue to move forward and not backwards. Because going backwards = scary #Message #Praying”More »
“Non-white human beings are human beings. Human beings you don't happen to like, are human beings. Human beings incidentally, have rights.”More »
“Make sure you do something to let YOUR government know how you feel when something is unjust., not JUST your followers on twitter...”More »
"We are definitely not living in a post-racial society. I can imagine there are a lot of people out there wondering how much of a society we're living in at all."More »
"Deep Hurt. We're Men. Human. We feel pain. There will be one collective cry added to these tears. Then the birth of a New Anger. #EricGarner”More »
“Mike brown, Eric garner two new unfortunate situations. I'm not sure what the out come will be, but I know people are angry. We are all a product of our experience. I have stood in a crowd by myself before. So I keep my personal views to my self. If you don't like it, fuck it PURGE. #SMSaudio”More »
"Even Shaolin is not safe from injustice #BlackLivesMatter we need to work harder for our country and people to achieve #ABetterTomorrow. Not advertising striving! Until we all respect each others 12 jewels of life we will never achieve A bettertomorrow. But repeat bad history. ... On our first album the song cream described our condition & we lost friends to police brutality then. Now 20 years later same thing come on. I have a family and friends who work as policemen and women and they don't condone brutality committed by their peers. They have children... The world get no better if we just let it be... We have to change it you and me. This is not a political issue it's a social and even more, a spiritual. How can men with PhDs not have a eye for proper judgement of justice. I'm not saying that this generation has not eradicated racism more than the previous but the ones who hold the scepter is from previous. It's lik sometime it's hard for me to get out of my daily blunt mentality of my youth but in order to improve my self and my family I did. ... We all should respect law and order because that's keeps us civilized without chaos. The problem is who we are appointing to uphold our laws. ... It puzzles me that the brutal behavior inflicted by the men we look to serve and protect us does not affect the hearts of their community."More »
“if ur desperately trying to justify violence against unarmed civilians in 2014, who do u think you would have been in 1964 or 1944?”More »
"This world just got so much scarier. RIP Eric Garner & God bless his family during this time of blatant & horrifying injustice."More »
"Is there an acronym or a couple of things that you could discipline yourself around, yes there is it’s called STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. […] The only thing you have time for is building and making awesome stuff, and then once you’re successful those police officers and those things – they’ll going to know what you’re doing.”More »
But when it comes to speaking out against the non-indictment of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man killed by a white police officer, celebrities are throwing caution to the wind, flocking to social media to express their disbelief and disgust.
From Kevin Hart’s Instagram rant to Jon Stewart’s spiel on The Tonight Show, the following responses reiterate how there will be no peace until there is justice served for men like Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Treyvon Martin, and Tamir Price – just to name a few. Here’s what the celebs had to say:
1. Kevin Hart
“SMDH....God the world is crying for your help. This really makes me sad. All I can do is pray & I plan on doing that harder than ever....I'm praying for everyone....I'm praying that we as people can simply do better and evolve. I'm praying that we continue to move forward and not backwards. Because going backwards = scary #Message #Praying”More »
2. Jesse Williams
“Non-white human beings are human beings. Human beings you don't happen to like, are human beings. Human beings incidentally, have rights.”More »
3. Iggy Azalea
“Make sure you do something to let YOUR government know how you feel when something is unjust., not JUST your followers on twitter...”More »
4. Jon Stewart
"We are definitely not living in a post-racial society. I can imagine there are a lot of people out there wondering how much of a society we're living in at all."More »
5. MC Hammer
"Deep Hurt. We're Men. Human. We feel pain. There will be one collective cry added to these tears. Then the birth of a New Anger. #EricGarner”More »
6. 50 Cent
“Mike brown, Eric garner two new unfortunate situations. I'm not sure what the out come will be, but I know people are angry. We are all a product of our experience. I have stood in a crowd by myself before. So I keep my personal views to my self. If you don't like it, fuck it PURGE. #SMSaudio”More »
7. RZA
"Even Shaolin is not safe from injustice #BlackLivesMatter we need to work harder for our country and people to achieve #ABetterTomorrow. Not advertising striving! Until we all respect each others 12 jewels of life we will never achieve A bettertomorrow. But repeat bad history. ... On our first album the song cream described our condition & we lost friends to police brutality then. Now 20 years later same thing come on. I have a family and friends who work as policemen and women and they don't condone brutality committed by their peers. They have children... The world get no better if we just let it be... We have to change it you and me. This is not a political issue it's a social and even more, a spiritual. How can men with PhDs not have a eye for proper judgement of justice. I'm not saying that this generation has not eradicated racism more than the previous but the ones who hold the scepter is from previous. It's lik sometime it's hard for me to get out of my daily blunt mentality of my youth but in order to improve my self and my family I did. ... We all should respect law and order because that's keeps us civilized without chaos. The problem is who we are appointing to uphold our laws. ... It puzzles me that the brutal behavior inflicted by the men we look to serve and protect us does not affect the hearts of their community."More »
8. Ezra Koenig
“if ur desperately trying to justify violence against unarmed civilians in 2014, who do u think you would have been in 1964 or 1944?”More »
9. Nicki Minaj
"This world just got so much scarier. RIP Eric Garner & God bless his family during this time of blatant & horrifying injustice."More »
10. will.i.am
"Is there an acronym or a couple of things that you could discipline yourself around, yes there is it’s called STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. […] The only thing you have time for is building and making awesome stuff, and then once you’re successful those police officers and those things – they’ll going to know what you’re doing.”More »
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