Spice and other Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta stars, including Karlie Redd, joined protesters in Atlanta yesterday.
Almost every corner of the world has been affected by the murder of George Floyd and female entertainer Spice is now the first Jamaican celebrity on the frontline. It’s no surprise either — the dancehall queen shared her views on the current uprising via her Instagram Live just days ago defending the protests as outlets of expression and calling on Caucasian celebrities to step up and do more. Leading by example, “as a black woman, as a black mother with a black son.”
Spice can be seen in her latest Live at the helm of a protest in the final hours of #BlackoutTuesday in her signature blue, and with a clear call to action. With no mic or megaphone, Spice loudly chants, “What do we want?” which evokes a clear, quick response of “Justice” from the thousands rallied behind her. “When do we want it?” she follows up, and the crowd sends back an assured “Now!” The caption and closing chorus is “Black Lives Matter”, the mantra of a movement dating back to the 2013 death of African American teenager Trayvon Martin in a similarly senseless scenario.
The movement and hashtag are a means of rallying support and disseminating information when all too often, black citizens lose their lives at the hands of fairer counterparts or cops. Spice has touched on racial tensions before in her music, and is actually clad in a ‘Black Hypocrisy‘ shirt during the march where she is heard declaring ” No justice, no peace!” ‘Black Hypocrisy’ is the name of Spice’s 2018 single dealing with the effects of colorism and Colonialism, highlighting how those oppressive concepts still influence social relations and have affected her personally.
Representing for a cause that is near to her heart and dire to world progress, she stepped up to the plate, making full use of her platform even though she’s not an American citizen. “My heart is inexplicable at the moment…we are tired, we are fed up. They are killing black people one behind each other, just the other day they killed Arbery,” she stated, referring to Ahmaud Arbery, whose life was also violently cut short by a white father and son in February.
Insisting that “what we need to do now is start support each other,” she listed the names of “white celebrities with status’ whose silence was deafening against the growing outcry — Taylor Swift, Tom Cruise, Justin Timberlake. Justin Beiber, Leonardo DiCaprio and others.
Spice also shared the date, details, and dress code for her next protest scheduled for Thursday in Atlanta during one of the funerals for George Floyd.
