Last Friday, Afro-futurist pop icon Janelle Monae used her spot on the Today show to express her sentiments on police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter — only it did seem that the TV anchors decided America didn’t need to hear more of this.
Performing her hit single “Tightrope” with a number of other Wondaland Records label mates, Janelle worked the crowd into a lively mood, and then began with “God bless America! God bless all the lost lives to police brutality. We want white America to know that we stand tall today. We want black America to know we stand tall today. We will not be silenced–“, at which a voice-over cut to commercial.
Watch the performance below. Janelle speaks her mind at the 6:40 mark.
As of now, a source from the Today Show explains that they had to go to a hard commercial break at the end of “Tightrope”, as the performance went over time by two minutes. the cut-off ws not intentional, as the show regularly is programmed for hard commercial breaks at the same time every day. Janelle Monae’s protest song “Hell you Talmbout” was not performed.
This, however, did not stop the conspiracy theories from swirling on social media. A number of inaccurate reports across the internet did not help matters, either.
dang @TODAYshow, just couldn’t let her finish, huh? love ya @JanelleMonae! #BlackLivesMatter cc: @deray @Nettaaaaaaaa pic.twitter.com/QeGhY5lQGJ
— marla york. (@theseMYtweetz) August 14, 2015
Janelle Monae and her label mates continue to speak out against police brutality on their own social media accounts. For as long as Trayvon Martin and other victims systemic racism still demand justice be served, these artists will not go quietly.
tired of retweets. get in the streets. @jidenna @nanakwabena #stoppoliceterror #hytb
A photo posted by Janelle Monáe (@janellemonae) on
Okay, so maybe not all cops are like that — but certainly, too many cops have been. Way too many for it to be alright.
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