Due to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed detained black Minneapolis resident who was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during a “routine arrest”, protests and riots have erupted all over the nation—inciting looting and creating city wide curfews in order to put an end to the unrest. In Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Jose, New York, Atlanta, Sacramento, etc—people have begun to express their frustrations with the supposed “equal system of justice”.
In an effort to take a united stand against the systemic oppression of black males that involves racism and police brutality, the music industry—which evidently makes majority of its money from the exploitation of black males, has finally decided to speak out, and perform a nationwide blackout today titled, #THESHOWMUSTBEPAUSED, and will cease operations for the day.
Labels and companies such as Columbia Records, Universal Music Publishing Group, Interscope Records, Motown, Warner, LVRN, Pulse Music Publishing, Atlantic Records, and countless more have dedicated their social handles to spreading awareness and saying “NO” to racism, bigotry, and social injustice.
In addition, Spotify has decided to add an 8-minute and 46 second moment of silence to certain selected podcasts, while Apple Music replaced their Browse, For You, and Radio Tabs, with a sole radio station dedicated to playing and celebrating black music.
So today if you see a black bubble as the profile picture for some of your favorite artists, labels, companies, etc, or maybe your favorite radio station won’t be broadcasting as planned—understand that they are choosing to voice their opinion to end a prejudice and racist system.
Peace.
Love.
Respect.
Photo: Instagram
By Matt Koger
