PHARELL WILLIAMS: WHY AREN'T WE TALKING ABOUT MICHEAL BROWN'S "BULLYISH" BEHAVIOR?
The award-winning songwriter gave his thoughts on the unrest in Ferguson after a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s shooting death.
Pharrell Williams
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Grammy Award-winning producer Pharrell Williams has previously gotten flak for his comments on race, such as when he told Oprah that “the new black doesn’t blame other races for our issues.” But that didn’t stop the singer-songwriter from voicing his thoughts on Monday’s grand jury decision in Ferguson, Mo., although he said he didn’t want to “get ... in trouble.”
In an extensive interview with Ebony, the star wondered why there wasn’t more discussion about why Michael Brown exhibited the behavior he did in the convenience store, which Williams described as “bullyish.”
“It looked very bullyish; that in itself I had a problem with,” Williams said, referring to released surveillance video that allegedly shows Brown forcefully stealing cigarillos from a store shortly before he was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson. “Not with the kid, but with whatever happened in his life for him to arrive at a place where that behavior is OK. Why aren’t we talking about that?”
However, he did say that Wilson should have been held accountable for shooting Brown. “I believe that [the] Ferguson officer should be punished and serve time. He used excessive force on a human being who was merely a child. He was a baby, man. The boy was walking in the middle of the street when the police supposedly told him to ‘get the f--k on the sidewalk,’” Williams told Ebony. “If you don’t listen to that, after just having pushed a storeowner, you’re asking for trouble. But you’re not asking to be killed. Some of these youth feel hunted and preyed upon, and that’s why that officer needs to be punished.”
The songwriter also blasted police departments’ use of force in the inner city, questioning their use of equipment—such as “mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.” He also lamented the fact that President Barack Obama himself has not made an appearance in Ferguson.
“I felt like the president should have gone down there. I think sending Attorney General Eric Holder was a kind gesture, but the president should have gone. He didn’t have to go and take a side; all he needed to do was show his presence and everybody would have straightened up. But he didn’t go. I won’t fault him. He’s a man with a lot of weight on his shoulders, but I personally would have gone because being a ‘man of the people’ means you’re right there with them in it,” Williams said, citing the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.
Read more: http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/20...
Pharrell Williams
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Grammy Award-winning producer Pharrell Williams has previously gotten flak for his comments on race, such as when he told Oprah that “the new black doesn’t blame other races for our issues.” But that didn’t stop the singer-songwriter from voicing his thoughts on Monday’s grand jury decision in Ferguson, Mo., although he said he didn’t want to “get ... in trouble.”
In an extensive interview with Ebony, the star wondered why there wasn’t more discussion about why Michael Brown exhibited the behavior he did in the convenience store, which Williams described as “bullyish.”
“It looked very bullyish; that in itself I had a problem with,” Williams said, referring to released surveillance video that allegedly shows Brown forcefully stealing cigarillos from a store shortly before he was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson. “Not with the kid, but with whatever happened in his life for him to arrive at a place where that behavior is OK. Why aren’t we talking about that?”
However, he did say that Wilson should have been held accountable for shooting Brown. “I believe that [the] Ferguson officer should be punished and serve time. He used excessive force on a human being who was merely a child. He was a baby, man. The boy was walking in the middle of the street when the police supposedly told him to ‘get the f--k on the sidewalk,’” Williams told Ebony. “If you don’t listen to that, after just having pushed a storeowner, you’re asking for trouble. But you’re not asking to be killed. Some of these youth feel hunted and preyed upon, and that’s why that officer needs to be punished.”
The songwriter also blasted police departments’ use of force in the inner city, questioning their use of equipment—such as “mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.” He also lamented the fact that President Barack Obama himself has not made an appearance in Ferguson.
“I felt like the president should have gone down there. I think sending Attorney General Eric Holder was a kind gesture, but the president should have gone. He didn’t have to go and take a side; all he needed to do was show his presence and everybody would have straightened up. But he didn’t go. I won’t fault him. He’s a man with a lot of weight on his shoulders, but I personally would have gone because being a ‘man of the people’ means you’re right there with them in it,” Williams said, citing the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.
Read more: http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/20...
Sister Muhammad.
In this time of mixed feelings after announcement that the shooting officer Darren Wilson will not be locally charge by the grand jury in Ferguson is one thing but to involve the President is another.
President Barack Obama did right to send Attorney General Eric Holder down to Ferguson and not go there himself. The President has the state of the world’s affairs to attend to and not to deal with appearing there himself. True, The President would carry a lot of weight however, with all this happening in Ferguson where 65% of the population is BLACK and have a white elected Prosecutor, a white elected Mayor and three Blacks on the peoples force, should not have never happened, if the Black people used their power of the vote. That is where the weight is.
We as a people have so work to do. Our vote counts and the people of power know that.