Musician Pharrell Williams said in a recent Ebony magazine interview that President Obama “should have gone down” to Ferguson to address the situation.
“I do not want to get myself in trouble, but I felt like the president should have gone down there,” explained Williams. “I think sending Attorney General Eric Holder was a kind gesture, but the president should have gone. He didn’t have to go and take a side; all he needed to do was show his presence and everybody would have straightened up.”
“But he didn’t go,” the musician and producer continued. “I won’t fault him. He’s a man with a lot of weight on his shoulders, but I personally would have gone because being a ‘man of the people’ means you’re right there with them in it. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. led by example.”
Addressing the surveillance video of Michael Brown allegedly stealing cigarillos from a convenience store shortly before he was shot, Williams described Brown’s behavior as “bully-ish.”
“That in itself I had a problem with,” he said of Brown’s actions captured on video. “Not with the kid, but with whatever happened in his life for him to arrive at a place where that behavior is OK. Why aren’t we talking about that?”
However, Williams did add that Officer Darren Wilson “should be punished and serve time” for shooting and killing the unarmed 18-year-old Brown.
“He used excessive force on a human being who was merely a child,” the singer said. “He was a baby, man. The boy was walking in the middle of the street when the police supposedly told him to ‘get the f–k on the sidewalk.’ If you don’t listen to that, after just having pushed a storeowner, you’re asking for trouble. But you’re not asking to be killed.”
Williams added that “the militarization of the police in inner cities” should be examined and potentially reversed if it encourages excessive force.
While the “Happy” singer insisted that racism still exists, he supposed that discrimination will become more about class than race as our country progresses.
“We’re going to start seeing that it’s actually less about race and more about class in the future,” detailed Williams. “As much as we complain about the establishment discriminating against us, we’re going to start seeing that more of us are already in the establishment. After all, our commander-in-chief is black, right?”
