Actor Michael B. Jordan gave a powerful call to action during Saturday's Black Lives Matter demonstration in Los Angeles, telling Hollywood insiders they "need to go on notice."
Rich Fury / Getty Images
"We are in the heart of Hollywood right now, one of the world’s most powerful industries and I am an active member of that. And they need to go on notice," he said. "Anybody that deals with me, if you have racist beliefs, if you have a racist bone in your body, if you're not with me, if you don't stand with me and people that look like me, you don't need to be with me. I use my power to demand diversity but it's time that studios and agencies … do so."
"You committed to a 50/50 gender parity in 2020, where is the challenge to commit to black hiring? Black content, led by black executives, black consultants … So let us bring our darkness to the light? We're done with discrimination," he added.
Insecure star Kendrick Sampson also made an appearance during the event.
"I want you to spread the word, this is factual: The police system that we know today is based on slave-catching," Sampson said. "... The policing system started with a bad seed. It has grown a bad tree and it bears bad fruit ... We need to imagine a world free of police terror. We call ourselves an industry of creatives. Where the fuck is your imagination?"
Check out footage from the event below.
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Kendrick Sampson, "Insecure" Star, Hit By Rubber Bullets & Batons At Protest
Kendrick Sampson was on the front line of protests in Los Angeles, and videos show the actor being beaten by police.
Insecure and How to Get Away with Murder actor Kendrick Sampson has been using his voice to speak on Black Lives Matter and issues pertaining to the black community for years. So, it wasn't surprising that when protests were being organized following the police-involved killing of George Floyd, Kendrick Sampson made sure that he was on the ground and in the crowd among members of his community in solidarity with supporters worldwide.
Bennett Raglin / Stringer / Getty ImagesLast weekend, Kendrick joined marchers in Los Angeles and for those tuned in, he streamed much of his experiences on Instagram Live. There were a few of his fans among the protesters, as well, but instead of approaching the actor for an autograph, they filmed him being beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department.
"Glad I y’all witnessed this," he tweeted. "Esp the video of them actually targeting us. He didn’t try to ricochet the bullets of the ground - one tactic - he pointed the gun DIRECTLY AT ME. I actually got hit 7 times with rubber bullets and many with batons. My boy has stitches. #DEFUNDPOLICE."
In a recent op-ed for Variety, Kendrick Sampson detailed his experience and why it's important for him to stand for marginalized communities. "I’m still working through stuff that happened when I was a kid, stuff that happened at Standing Rock four years ago, working through these videos of public Black death, these lynchings that we’ve continued seeing, so I don’t know the scope of the trauma that I experienced Saturday," he wrote. "I feel very strong and I’m really exhausted at the same time. But I also feel a resolve to move forward. I feel like we need to liberate folks and we cannot let up." Check it out below.
