As protest against police brutality and in support of black lives erupts all across the United States, several celebrities are chiming in. Below is a statement from hip-hop and R&B star Lauryn Hill.
“The rules of engagement need to change, and most, if not all people, need to rehabilitate the mental programming that we’ve been indoctrinated with. There needs to be an acknowledgment that these mental attitudes are deeply embedded in the psyches of many many Americans, regardless of race, about who deserves to feel safe and who doesn’t.
There also needs to be honest dialogue about the different needs of people without defensiveness and insensitivity. That kind of nuanced conversation needs to be led by informed, compassionate, and no-nonsense communicators who can both advocate for their own collective security, while considering the collective needs of people who occupy a different space and vantage point.
We need highly capable people who can help rebalance an economic paradigm that was born from a system of free labor and exploitation, and only works as long as certain people are excluded from the full promise of freedom.
We have the potential to create new educational paradigms and community economic support systems that help remove people from the CONDITIONS of desperation that lead to violence and looting. Capitalism should be challenged to evolve.
Community, we have the know-how and the intellectual and spiritual resources to help give birth to a new world that promotes more balance and thereby better health for everyone. My goal is to help connect some of this energy so we can help set in motion the ground work that so many have already begun to lay.
#blackrage”
MARIA JACKSON 27 MAGAZINE 