John Legend has the voice of an angel,Tahong and now he's using it to speak up about the recent #TakeAKnee protests which have divided U.S. politics.
SEE ALSO: #TakeAKnee protests are about police violence, not the military or the ConstitutionIn an article written for Slate, Legend lays out why the protests are not a display of unpatriotic feeling, but rather a statement against racial inequality and police violence. He neatly dissects the accusation that kneeling constitutes an attack on the flag, pointing to the flag's symbolic value.
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Legend takes direct aim at President Trump's grandstanding on the issue, saying "Trump may love the flag, but he doesn’t love anything it’s supposed to stand for." He also takes Trump to task for acts Legend argues are unpatriotic, an example being his encouragement of Russian hacking during the 2016 election.
He goes on to highlight the history of protest in America, stating that "Protest is patriotic [...] If we quell protest in the name of patriotism, we are not patriots. We are tyrants." He points to the social activism embodied by such protests, exerting pressure on the political elite, especially in the case of the Civil Rights Movement. Beyond activism he argues that protest is inherently valuable as it stimulates a dialogue about racial inequality, because as he puts it, "every time someone takes a knee or raises a fist, viewers must grapple with the why."
The piece has attracted a lot of support on Twitter, with over 6,600 retweets at the time of writing. Twitter users expressed gratitude at Legend's use of his celebrity status to speak out:
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For more detail check out the article itself. It's sharp, concise and above all important. Some are levelling criticism at Legend, claiming his celebrity status means he is removed from the injustice he decries, but as he points out:
"I sing for a living—no one would want me on their NFL team. But if I could, I’d take a knee on Sundays. Because these conversations are necessary for progress."
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