ACTIVISM IN TRUMP’S AMERICA
Alicia Keys honoured in Montreal
American musician Alicia Keys said social activism is needed now more than ever under Donald Trump’s U.S. administration.
At a news conference in Montreal, where Keys was awarded Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2017, the 15-time Grammy winner was asked if American social activists felt they had an ally or foe in the White House.
Keys deliberately took a long pause before answering the Trump question. Without mentioning the president’s name or a particular social issue, such as race relations, she answered: “I think that we have spent a lot of time thinking that other people are going to solve our issues.
“And I think that’s a part of what we now recognize ... it is time to change that mentality, that we are the energy that we need, we are the voice we need, and the louder we become and the more clear we become on what it is we want, on an array of issues we won’t stand for, there will be no choice but to become our ally. That’s how I see it. “
Keys, a mentor on The Voice television show, was then asked if U.S. social activists feel they need to be more vocal under the Trump administration?
“Yes, I think it has obviously brought to light so much of what is often swept under the rug or made to seem better than it actually is. So now for the first time ever, it’s all out in the open. It’s not better than we thought it was. There is way more work to done.”
Keys’ call to action came while she was being honoured for using her successful singing career as a platform to champion human rights causes in the U.S. and abroad.
She co-founded Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit organization that provides treatment and care to children and families affected by HIV in Africa and India.
In 2014, she co-founded the We Are Here Movement to encourage young people to mobilize for social change on issues such as gun control and criminal justice reform.
Through music and film, she has also sought to bring attention to the plight of global refugees.
Keys said she was inspired mostly by her own single mother, but also by other music artists who used their craft to advocate social change.
“I’ve always been inspired by some of the great artists who, to me, are the ones who do this beautiful dance between political and social awareness, and also use music as a beautiful vehicle to remind people of our own personal power. People like Nina Simone and Bob Dylan and John Lennon and Bob Marley are great inspirations to me because they have this uncanny ability to really take their music like a beautiful magic that allows us all to lose our colour, and lose our religion for a moment, and lose our language differences.
“For one moment, our differences are gone and we can just feel the truth. And that is what it’s all about.”
Keys was honoured along with six individuals involved in the indigenous rights movement in Canada.
The honourees were Cindy Blackstock, Delilah Saunders, Melanie Morrison, Senator Murray Sinclair, Melissa Mollen Dupuis and Widia Larivière.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general, praised the work of those who’ve fought to bring justice and end discrimination of Canada’s indigenous people.
Shetty also implored Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do more for Canada’s First Nations.
“We have a very important voice in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the global stage, who is raising very important questions of diversity, how much it’s a social strength,” Shetty said.
“But then, of course, its one thing to speak on the global stage, you also have to set your own house in order. Here, there is a long way to go in Canada.”
Keys also noted the shameful treatment of indigenous peoples around the globe.
“There is so much discrimination and there so much institutionalized racism and that’s here and it’s in America,” Keys said.
“And no matter where you go, it seems like the native indigenous original people tend to be the most disregarded. And it’s absolutely intolerable and complete unacceptable.
“Y’all know in my own country it’s a mess.”
The louder we become and the more clear we become on what we want ... there will be no choice but to become our ally. That’s how I see it.