Alicia Keys, T.I., Offset, & More Call For A Racial Healing Commission From Biden Administration
After the last four years, it’s hard to believe: We’re actually within 48 hours of having a new president. Of course, after the strife of recent times, the Biden-Harris administration has a big challenge ahead in terms of turning the country in a new direction. Today, for MLK Day, a group of artists got together to send a message to the incoming administration, urging them to establish a commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation in its first 100 days in office.
The commission was introduced Rep. Barbara Lee last year. Today’s video leads up to discussing it by gathering 17 musicians — including Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, T.I., Rapsody, Khalid, Vic Mensa, Ty Dolla $ign, Offset, A$AP Ferg, and more — reflecting on lives lost to systemic racism in the last several years. It’s entitled “17 More Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America,” and it follows a similar 2016 video helmed by Keys, called “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America.”
The video was backed by the #breathewithme Revolution and the Black Music Action Coalition. The organizations hope the commission leads to “restorative and reparative action in order to achieve racial justice.” Separately, Stevie Wonder also released a video supporting the commission earlier today. Watch both below.