One thing you’ll always hear when celebrities speak about politics is folks telling them to “stay in their lane” or “stick to acting/singing/sports.” But of course, this is America, where everyone has a right to speak, and so celebs aren’t about to stay quiet just because someone on the internet asked them to.
John Legend is no exception. The guy feels quite passionately about the state of the world, and he’s going to speak his mind.
John Legend is not mincing words when it comes to President Trump’s rhetoric.
The smooth singer took the president to task in a recent interview with NowThis, calling on the resident of the Oval Office to do more to combat white nationalism on the heels of the horrific mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques, seemingly prompted by President Trump’s downplaying of the threat posed by white nationalists.
In the interview, Legend called on the president to “apologize for demonizing Muslims.”
“He needs to apologize for demonizing brown people who have tried to come here and have a better life,” Legend continued. “He characterizes their desire to come here and work and feed their family as an invasion.”
Legend called out President Trump’s use of that term, “invasion,” in particular, a term also used in the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto.
“That rhetoric of invasion, that rhetoric of violence, of scaring white people to think that these brown people are coming to rape and kill their families, that rhetoric is inspiring people to do these kinds of massacres,” he said.
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In a press conference following the New Zealand shooting, President Trump said he didn’t think that white nationalism was a growing threat.
Although he condemned the shooting, President Trump said that he thinks “it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” according to CNN .
Legend disagreed, and said that in fact some of the rhetoric about white supremacy being spread comes directly from the White House.
“Well, I think what’s clear is there is an issue around the world and particularly in this country, in America, when it comes to evil rhetoric and ideology of white supremacy,” he said.
“This ideology and this rhetoric has been spread, a lot of it on the internet, but a lot of it has been either endorsed or tacitly kind of winked at by our president.”
Most infamously, President Trump sparked a huge backlash when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” following the Charlottesville white supremacist rally in 2017 that left one protester, Heather Heyer, dead.
“When people of such influence and such stature are endorsing such a hateful and evil ideology, it emboldens those who will go out and do something evil and nasty like what happened in New Zealand,” Legend said.
“So the president needs to own that he’s been wrong using this rhetoric and anyone who’s encouraged him or cheered him in this kind of rhetoric needs to apologize as well. And they need to make it clear that it’s not acceptable for us to use this kind of violent rhetoric that leads to this kind of violent action.”
So Legend is calling on President Trump to not only apologize for his words, but also repudiate white nationalism in strong, clear terms.
“Our American president needs to say this is evil. I don’t endorse it. I don’t embrace it. I’m not winking at it. I’m not equivocating about it. This is evil and I speak out against it.”
On Twitter, Legend also made sure to say that he didn’t think President Trump caused “all of this.”
“It’s been around well before his tenure,” Legend wrote . “But his rhetoric has certainly fueled and inspired these killers’ sick minds. He needs to condemn this evil ideology and take real steps to fight it.”
Check out Legend’s full interview below.
