Miguel addressed the Black Lives Matter movement this past Friday night (July 8) at Wireless Festival and grew so emotional that he broke down onstage.
According to Billboard, the two men killed, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were shot and killed by the police on July 5 and 6. The following day, July 7, five white police officers were fatally shot during a Dallas protest. The police officers in question were Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Aherns.
“We can’t let sh*t just blow over and not take action anymore,” Miguel said to the crowd. “Look, our children will inherit this Earth when we’re gone. What are we leaving for them? What are we doing for them now, not tomorrow? Now!”
Miguel further expressed that he had been able to sleep the previous night, saying, “We cannot rest anymore. We have to do something. We have to say something. I’m sorry if I’m preaching to you. But it’s true.”
Miguel is not the only notable celebrity in the music industry to express support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Beyonce even asked for a moment of silence at a show in Glasgow and projected the names of dozens of police brutality victims on a screen in the background that included Sterling and Castile.
The singer also posted an open letter where she described people feeling “helpless” and “hopeless” from the “robberies of lives” but also urged those reading to believe in the good of the next generation. She described it as a human fight that discounts race, gender and sexual orientation and the most important thing is to include those who are feeling marginalized. She depicted it as a plea towards human beings who fail to value life and not just the police officers.
