RZA. pic.twitter.com/yNlsC6Vwt5
— deray mckesson (@deray) January 7, 2016
RZA recently sat down on Bloomberg TV’s All Due Respect show to talk about the current presidential race, and his feelings on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
It didn’t take long for the legendary Wu-Tang producer to begin making eye-popping comments, qualifying his “Black lives matter” statement with “All lives matter,” before mentioning that he stopped eating meat because “their lives matter too.” As the interview continued, he mentioned that even though “Trump keeps it real,” he’d love to see Clinton succeed Obama in the Oval Office, calling that a “one-two punch.”
If that wasn’t enough, in another clip from the interview, RZA begins speaking about his–and Black people’s in general–relationship with law enforcement, revealing that as a child, thanks to his being a fan of shows like Starsky & Hutch and Baretta, he wanted to be a cop; at that time you invited a cop into your home for cookies and milk. He then unleashed this tidbit, which basically finds RZA saying that if Black people dressed better and carried themselves with more respect, cops and other authorities wouldn’t have negative stereotypes of them, and unnecessary force being used wouldn’t be such a common occurrence.
If I’m a cop and every time I see a young black youth, whether I watch them on TV, movies, or just see them hanging out, and they’re not looking properly dressed, properly refined, you know, carrying himself, conducting himself proper hours of the day—things that a man does, you’re going to have a certain fear and stereotype of them. I tell my sons, I say, if you’re going somewhere, you don’t have to wear a hoodie–we live in New York, so a hoodie and all that is all good. But sometimes, you know, button up your shirt. Clean up. Look like a young man. You’re not a little kid, you know what I mean? I think that’s another big issue we gotta pay attention to. Is the image that we portray that could invoke a fear into a white officer, or any officer.
Maybe RZA should tell the families of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Laquan McDonald and Trayvon Martin that their sons should’ve worn suits, ties and been a little more respectful. Maybe then they’d be alive today. You can watch two clips from the interview here.
