Celebrities of all kinds have been weighing in on the tragic news that a grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Mike Brown. And recently Pharrell spoke in-depth with Ebony about his thoughts on the matter and he criticized President Obama for not being more present in the drama.
“Wow. I do not want to get myself in trouble, but 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. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. led by example,” said Pharrell.
The music maestro also gave his thoughts on video that allegedly shows Brown stealing from a convenience store and shoving a store clerk just minutes before his death.
“It looked very bully-ish; that in itself I had a problem with. 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?” Pharrell said.
“The boy was walking in the middle of the street when the police supposedly told him to “get the f— on the sidewalk.” If you don’t listen to that, after just having pushed a store owner, 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,” he added.
Perhaps President Obama could have been more involved in the Ferguson tragedy, but there have been innumerable conversations about Brown’s “thuggish” and “bully-ish” behavior already. And while the effects of nihilism on black youths is definitely a topic worth discussing, right now it’s just a smaller component to the national conversation we need to have about systematic oppression, racism and brutality that is killing black people and leading to the slew of black youth who feel that same nihilism that Pharrell is discussing.
But that isn’t all that Pharrell had to say on the matter. Read his thoughts on Darren Wilson after the cut. –nicholas robinson
