If last week’s police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile taught us anything, it’s that black lives can be taken for any number of senseless reasons. A new collaboration between Alicia Keys, Mic, and the We Are Here Movement attempts to highlight just how easy it is to be killed for being black, in a video featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Chance the Rapper, Bono, and more all speak in “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black in America,” each representing a victim of police brutality and the unjustified cause for their murder. In the case of Philando Castile, he died for merely “riding in your girlfriend’s car with a child in the back,” Beyoncé says. “Selling CDs outside of a supermarket,” Taraji P. Henson says in disbelief, on behalf of Alton Sterling.
More than a dozen celebrities — including Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Kevin Hart — have signed a petition urging President Obama and Congress to “right our historic wrongs and heal the wounds of systemic racism so that all Americans have the equal right to pursue happiness,” adding their names next to that of a black person killed by police. Most poignantly, Rihanna’s signature represents “All Black People.”
