Queen Latifah said she believes racism is “still alive and kicking” as she spoke at VH1’s “Hip Hop Honors: All Hail the Queens.” The 46-year-old star urged Black women to “demand respect” of others in order to help change the world’s outlook on race.
“Listen, we all know that the world — and our world — is really tense right now. [There’s] a lot of tension, a lot of angst, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain. I’m hoping that we can somehow manage to channel all of these emotions that we have in a positive way by not taking no [for an answer] and really do something to change our world. … Racism is still alive and kicking and we have to change that. … We’ve got to change this attitude and we must demand respect as women,” she said.
The “Bessie” star went on to add, “There’s so much going on out in the world. I just really appreciate a night where we can just pause and celebrate something that’s really great. All of these queens in this building, we built hip-hop. And there’s no way that I can allow us to be erased from the history or future of hip-hop, so understand that this has been happening for a long time and it will continue. I ask you to listen and open your ears to some music from the females in this game. We can show you a couple of things about music.”
