In the wake of a Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown, and then, this week’s grand jury decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in the death of Eric Garner, a number of celebrities have spoken out.
Since the Garner decision earlier this week — which has incited protests in New York and beyond — a number of celebs have come with particularly pointed and powerful statements. They take varying approaches and touch on an array of the issues raised by the recent news, but they’re all worth our time.
Here we’ve gathered 11 of the most powerful call-outs that we’ve seen.
1. Jon Stewart
“I think what’s so depressing is that none of the ambiguities that exist in the Ferguson case exist in the Staten Island case.” Stewart said in his moving response. “And yet the outcome is exactly the same. No crime, no trial, all harm — no foul.”
2. Diddy
To caption an Instagram video, Puff wrote about the importance of organizing, strategizing and creating change. But his actual video said it all. “It’s enough,” he said, exasperated. “It’s enough, man.
3. Yasiin Bey
In a recorded statement for Stop Being Famous, the Brooklyn native waxes on the issues. “From a global perspective, where are we?” he wondered. “We’re at a critical time. We’re at a watershed moment for humanity. I imagine we’ve been here before, and I imagine that we’ve probably been here for longer than we realize.”
4. RZA
On our first album the song cream described our condition & we lost friends to police brutality then. Now 20 years later same thing come on
— RZA! (@RZA) December 3, 2014
The Wu-Tang producer — and Staten Island native — posted a string of passionate tweets when the news broke. “We all should respect law and order because that’s keeps us civilized without chaos,” he wrote. “The problem is who we are appointing to uphold our laws. … It puzzles me that the brutal behavior inflicted by the men we look to serve and protect us does not affect the hearts of their community.”
5. Stevie Wonder
During a show in Seattle, the musical legend weighed in on the grand juries’ failure to indict the two officers. “Guns are too accessible to everybody,” he said. “I do understand that something is wrong, real wrong. And we as family, Americans, all of us of all colors, need to fix it with a quickness real soon.”
6. Charlamagne Tha God
Colin Gray/MTV
The radio personality penned a thoughtful op-ed for MTV News this week. “You can’t get so consumed with hate that you become what you despise,” he wrote. “How hypocritical is it of you to hate someone for the color of their skin because they hate you for the color of yours? If I let one situation, one experience make me hate a whole race of people then I have become what I despise. I would become what so many of us feel has caused situations like the Michael Brown case in the first place, which is a prejudiced person.”
7. Kenny Smith
The retired NBA player and current TNT analyst disagreed with his colleague Charles Barkley’s take on the recent events, and penned an open letter to him in USA Today. “Mike Brown wasn’t about race relations, nor Trayvon Martin or even Hurricane Katrina for that matter,” he wrote. “It’s about trust. Do I trust you to help me off the island? If so, do you have my best interests at heart? Do I trust that you will you send a ship or allow me access to build my own ship?”
8. Kxng Crooked
The Slaughterhouse member decided to sort through his thoughts in song form, releasing “I Can’t Breathe” on Friday, which mixed anger, sadness and confusion. How many tears gotta fall? “How many peers gotta fall?/ The cops kill instead of capture/ A black man of that stature/ How many fears were involved?/ How many cheered what they saw?/ See, equality’s the problem/ How many years ’til it’s solved?” he rapped.
9. Mack Wilds
David M. Benett / getty Images
The singer and actor, who grew up in Staten Island and knew Garner (or, Big E, as he called him), contemplated how he could talk to his nephew about the grand jury decisions and their ramifications. “I think we’re in a really messed up place and I’m not even going to lie to you, I’ve spent plenty of nights trying to figure out what would make this better,” he told MTV News. “What could we possibly do to try to make this better? What could someone do to make my nephew feel more comfortable going outside or make my cousins feel like they’re not a mark every time they walk outside? And it sucks because I really don’t have an answer. I don’t know what we could possibly do.”
10. ?uestlove
In an Instagram post, the Roots’ drummer contemplated the responibility musicians have to use their voice and challenged fellow artists to do so. “We need new Dylans. New Public Enemys. New Simones. New De La Roachas. New ideas!” he wrote in the lengthy caption, later adding, “I mean real stories. Real narratives. Songs with spirit in them. Songs with solutions. Songs with questions. Protest songs don’t have to be boring or non danceable or ready made for the next Olympics. They just have to speak truth. I laugh & have fun w ‘Bitch You Guessed It’ like everyone else. But my soul is aching man. Seriously just ONE or Two songs that change the course. This is something I feel the need and urgency to put out there. #EricGarner #MikeBrown #JusticeForAll #FeedMySoul #HandsUpDontShoot #ICantBreathe.”
11. Michael B. Jordan
Fruitvale Station..all to familiar
— Michael B Jordan (@michaelb4jordan) December 3, 2014
The actor’s tweet was simple but frustratingly moving for anyone who had seen “Fruitvale Station,” the 2013 movie starting Jordan, or knew the story of Oscar Grant, whom Jordan played in the film. Grant was shot and killed by a BART officer; in his case, though, the officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
11 Powerful Reactions From Celebrities Following The Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision That You Shouldn’t Miss
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