10. Alice Walker to Alicia Keys
Alice Walker touched the hearts of millions with her book “The Color Purple”. Since penning the book that spawned the classic film, Walker has become an activist for world rights. When she discovered that Alicia Keys was set to perform in Israel this year, she boldly wrote to the R&B singer to boycott the apartheid country by canceling her performance.
“We have never met, though I believe we are mutually respectful of each other’s path and work. It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists. You were not born when we, your elders who love you, boycotted institutions in the US South to end an American apartheid less lethal than Israel’s against the Palestinian people. Google Montgomery Bus Boycott, if you don’t know about this civil rights history already. We changed our country fundamentally, and the various boycotts of Israeli institutions and products will do the same there.”
Keys respectfully declined and kept her promise to go through with her planned performance.