Last week, Black Hollywood converged in front of city hall in Los Angles to have a conversation with Black Lives Matter organizers about how they can help bring awareness and raise the volume of the cries of the community under attack. Rolling out got a chance to talk to several of them about their feelings. Read what Eva “The Diva” Marcille and Dondre Whitfield had to say about it below.
Eva Marcille: Just because I work over the hill in Hollywood does not detach me from the realities that are going on. LAPD has been the largest gang as long as I’ve ever lived, and I grew up in a gang-infested environment. So, I’m here today to say that just because we’ve made money and just because we’re on TV screens, it doesn’t take away our humanity. And we are here to say that we stand united with all the causes. We stand united with #BlackLivesMatter here occupying downtown and city hall to bring some type of resolution and some type of answer, and some type of justice to what’s going on. Just because the sun rises and it’s a new day, we still have the same issues. So, we need to get healthy here in our city.
Dondre Whitfield: I wouldn’t even be here without those that came before us to put their lives on the line, to put their careers on the line — and everything else for that matter — on the line. I wouldn’t even be here if it were not for that. I can’t sit here and worry about whether Hollywood is going to still value me because all I’m simply saying is that Black lives matter. Me sitting here saying that Black lives matter does not mean that police lives don’t matter, Caucasian lives don’t matter. What we’re saying is that, hey, we want to end all violence. Because we say that Black lives matter doesn’t mean that we want to bring violence to any other group of people, whether that be a social group, whether that be a race or religion, none of that. What we’re simply saying is that all of that ends here and now. We want it to stop right now.
