(AllHipHop News) The video of Killer Mike’s passionate speech about his reaction to the Ferguson grand jury’s decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown went viral almost instantly. During the on stage address, the Atlanta rapper shared he is fearful for his children and referred to the current state of social affairs “us against the machine.”
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Killer Mike went into further detail about his response to Wilson not facing criminal charges in an interview with Tom Power. The Run The Jewels member shared what happened for him the moment he heard prosecutor Bob McCulloch reveal Wilson will not be arrested. He compared having to speak on the death of Brown with his children to his grandparents having to speak with him on the killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.
The creator of the critical acclaimed album R.A.P. Music spoke on the need for racism, poverty, militarization, and the prison-industrial complex to be confronted as well. He also expressed his belief that the African-American community is just as valuable to the American system as any other race and what he sees as being the burden of being Black in this country.
In a portion of the Q&A, Mike said:
We’re not a bad people. We’re the same as any other community. We love one another. We do stupid things. We’re humans. We’re just human beings. To live in a country in which – the legacy is we were brought here. And since we’ve been brought to this country, we’ve been nothing but good for this country. Economically, it was built on the back of slavery. Civil Rights not only helped us, it helped push along women’s rights. It helped open up rights for immigrants that were there. To this day, African-Americans are fighting on behalf of legal and illegal immigrants.
There’s never been a time in American history from the day Crispus Attucks was one of the first person killed in the American Revolutionary War to right now – there’s never been a time in this country that Blacks have not been a positive contribution to this country. Even with that said, our skin is a scarlet letter. And that is just a tremendous burden to have to bear. It adds so much stress and anxiety to your regular life that you’re always tuned into a frequency that you don’t necessarily want to be a part of. It’s paranoia and fear, not only about the general world, but even about the people who run the municipalities that are over your life.
To listen to full interview click here.
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