“The white nationalists are walking towards your future – what are you gonna do?”
Pharrell Williams delivered a powerful speech denouncing white nationalists and calling everyone to act against racism, during VH-1’s ‘Hip Hop Honours: 90s Game Changers’ show last night (September 18).
The show was celebrated 90s icons like Mariah Carey, Lil Kim and Jermaine Dupri.
Pharrell was onstage to introduce Hype Williams who was about to collect an award, when he took the opportunity to comment on the current political climate.
The rapper opened his speech calling people out for being bystanders: “For everybody at home watching this and acting like y’all don’t see what’s going on out there, you gotta open your eyes.
“You keep saying you don’t see what’s going on, on television. Open your eyes. And if you look like I look, then you know how we got here.
“But we’re here, and we’re not leaving. So what are we going to do?”
“For everybody else in this country, the human condition is important,” he continued.
“Don’t think just because they’re coming at the African Americans and they’re coming at the Jewish community and they’re coming at the Hispanics that it can’t be you, just ‘cos you look like them.
“They’re using you.”
He went on to warn viewers not to be complacent.
“You should understand that they could change their minds, and it might not be about black, white, big, skinny or small,” he warned.
“It might be about facial features, it might be about hair colour. Don’t act like they didn’t do that before.”
He apologised for “hijacking” Hype Williams’ moment, but was met with applause.
“I know it sounds like hijacking the moment on my Jon Snow shit, and I might be,” Williams continued.
“But they keep talking about a wall. But the enemy is this divisive mentality. It’s on this side of the wall. The white nationalists are walking towards your future. What you gonna do?”
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