Jimmie Allen: ‘We Need to Check Our Hearts’ Over Racism
Jimmie Allen turned to social media to express his concern over racism in America, saying, "We need to check our hearts" if the current situation does not bother everyone.
The "Make Me Want To" hit maker posted on Saturday (May 30) as protests and riots broke out all over the United States in the wake of the events in Minneapolis this week, where a 46-year-old African-American man named George Floyd died at the hands of a white police officer named Derek Chauvin on May 25. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death after a video emerged showing him kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd first protested that he could not breathe, then became unresponsive. Floyd was pronounced dead at an area hospital afterward.
Allen expresses concern not just for the situation, but for his own young son, Aadyn, in his post, writing that it's everyone's job as human beings to point out when people are treated poorly, regardless of their race or whether it affects us directly.
"If we see it and it doesn't bother us, we need to check our hearts," he writes, adding that he's concerned over "the continued non value of life towards black men in America," especially as a black man raising a black son.
"The uncertainty of his safety turns my stomach," he states, adding, "I challenge everyone to love each other and let our hearts speak louder than the injustice. Love so hard that it suffocates the hate."
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