Did you protest yesterday? Porsha Williams did. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star was one of what appears to be thousands of demonstrators to march on the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Friday demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and every other Black person killed or otherwise harmed by police violence.
In a CBS46 interview, spotted on Twitter by I Don’t Want to Die Poor author Michael Arceneaux, Williams said that she wanted justice for Floyd’s family and that she wanted to see every cop present for his death—not just Derek Chauvin, the white cop who pinned Floyd down with his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes, even as Floyd became unresponsive—arrested and charged with murder.
“We are done, we are tired, and we are not going to take it anymore,” Williams told CBS. “What is going on here in Black America is not OK. We are not OK. We just want to live, and I am here today to make sure that everybody understands that Black lives matter.”
The Atlanta protest, one of at least 30 such demonstrations on Friday, per CNN, transformed into an uprising by night’s end, with multiple arrests made and at least one cop car being given a beautiful new makeover (i.e., set on fucking fire). If you weren’t there and want to help get the arrested protesters out of jail, you can donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund’s bail support efforts here.
Williams is one of countless celebrities to speak out against Floyd’s killing and racist police violence on social media, which is literally the least anyone with a huge platform could do right now, as Kehlani noted this morning:
In an Instagram post from last night, Rihanna shared that the “devastation, anger, [and] sadness” she has felt over the past week “has been overwhelming to say the least.” Beyoncé, meanwhile, called on her 147 million Instagram followers to sign one of four petitions demanding that every cop present for Floyd’s death be arrested and charged, not just Chauvin.
The formerly apolitical Taylor Swift called out Donald Trump for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism,” and Lady Gaga canceled her Chromatica listening party to…tell people to register to vote?? No offense to electoral politics, but—actually, wait. No. Full offense to electoral politics!!!! Telling people to respond to state-sponsored racist violence by registering to vote so that they can participate in an election five months from now is fucking useless, Gagá! If you’re a multi-millionaire pop star, you should probably be using your immense wealth to bail out protesters, or at the very least using your gigantic platform to reprogram the more racist segments of your fanbase. Honestly, a Chromatica listening party might be even more useful right now than nebulously telling people to register to vote.
Speaking of celebrities using their wealth to bail out protesters…I’d like to see more of it, frankly! Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, and the Safdie Brothers have all been matching donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which has been bailing out arrested protesters in Minneapolis this week. “Wow, how wonderful,” I said to the broom that has kept me company over the past 79 days of quarantine, whose name is Camille. But then I realized it was a $50 donation that these extremely rich people were all matching—a paltry sum for any of them, I would imagine. “This is actually not wonderful,” I told Camille, beautiful in her unassuming, gray-handled way. Camille was so humiliated on their behalves, so mortified by the stinginess on public display, that she hasn’t spoken a word since.
[The Hill]
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