#BlackLivesMatter: Celebs react to police killing of Alton Sterling

07 July 2016 - 17:15 By Sefiso Hlongwane
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Singer Drake
Singer Drake
Image: ©AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel DUNAND

Numerous celebrities are sharing their disgust and angst over the death of Alton Sterling, a black man fatally shot by police outside a convenience store in Los Angeles, US on Tuesday.

In a moving open letter published on his Instagram page on Thursday, Drake responded to the tragic incident, commenting on the "strained relationship" between US police and "black and brown communities," adding that the death left him "disheartened, emotional and truly scared."

  •  

"I’m concerned for the safety of my family, my friends and any human being that could fall victim to this pattern," he wrote.

Addressing the #BlackLivesMatter movement, he added: "It’s impossible to ignore that the relationship between black and brown communities and law enforcement remains as strained as it was decades ago. No-one begins their life as a hashtag. Yet the trend of being reduced to one continues."

  • WATCH: Jesse Williams delivers a politically-charged acceptance speech at the BET AwardsJesse Williams moved audience members to tears during his powerful acceptance speech at the 2016 BET Awards. 

Drake was joined  by a host of celebrities, including singer and activist John Legend and rapper Macklemore, in expressing outrage at the latest police-related deaths of Anton and Philando Castille - who was killed a day after Anton.

Taking to Twitter, an impassioned John, wrote: "We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops.

"So many people work so hard to find a reason why executing a human being during a routine traffic stop is ok. IT'S NOT OK."

While Mackelmore questioned "what do we do in times like these," in a lengthy Instagram post.

"It's a question for everyone, but specifically white people.

"The systematic oppression that enables a murder like this, will be corrected once white people care enough to change it. Alton Sterling didn't create this problem. This is hundreds of years of conditioning," he added.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now