Stevie Wonder Talks Breonna Taylor, RBG, Trump In New Video Statement
Stevie Wonder has shared a lengthy video statement touching on Breonna Taylor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Donald Trump, and the George Floyd protests. “You can feel there’s a beat to this drumming and it’s off. Even if you’re not a musician, you can hear when the music is not right,” he began. “Can you tell that life is out of tune? Do you feel our reality is off beat, out of sync? Listening to spirits that conflict against the truth we know to be true.”
“Truth: Mail-in voting is, and has always been, safe. The current president uses the system,” he continued. “Truth: Black and brown people want safety just like everybody else. Truth: You better believe people have come to our communities, co-opted our cause, incited violence. The community knows it, even if you don’t and won’t report it. Truth: No amount of money has ever brought a life back. Ask yourself: Why so long for Breonna Taylor?”
“Why would we accept anyone calling a fallen soldier anything less than the ultimate hero?” he asked, referencing Trump’s comments calling soldiers killed in war “losers.” “Why can’t we hear love — the greater truth — as opposed to being consumed and bombarded by conspiracies and lies? Where’s our love for each other? Where’s our love for our country? … You say you’re sick and tired of us protesting. I say, not tired enough to make a change … You say you believe that ‘all lives matter.’ I say I don’t believe the fuck you do.”
“Do as John Lewis said. Do ‘good trouble,'” he concluded. “And for me ‘good trouble’ is bringing our nation, this nation, back together again. And the way do that is to vote justice in and injustice out. We just can’t put November in the hands of fate, but we can put it in our hands. The universe is still watching us. And now, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is watching us, too. So please, let’s do life. It is worth living and loving and being together.”
Watch the full seven-minute video, entitled “The Universe Is Watching Us — Stevie Wonder In His Feelings,” below.