Chris Brown, 31, didn’t write a lot when captioning his June 2 Instagram post, but he didn’t really need to. Since “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” the black square Breezy uploaded – along with the black “heart” emoji — said it all. The “Loyal” singer was participating in Blackout Tuesday, a demonstration meant to disrupt “business as usual” within the music industry following the death of George Floyd. Chris’s involvement in Blackout Tuesday came days after he shared a video of Black Lives Matter protests (soundtracked by his song, “Die Young). On May 31, he shared a video of protesters kneeling with their fists raised, each one repeating George Floyd’s name over and over again.
In addition to this #TheShowMustBePaused / Black Out Tuesday post, Chris shared a clip of what appears to be a Black Lives Matter protest to his Instagram Story. In the videos, protesters gathered around and sing along to “Changes” by 2Pac. “I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself / Is life worth living, should I blast myself? I’m tired of bein’ poor and even worse I’m black / My stomach hurts, so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch / Cops give a damn about a negro / Pull the trigger, kill a n—-a, he’s a hero / Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares / One less hungry mouth on the welfare,” rapped Tupac Shakur in 1998, and two decades later, the song still resonates.
Chris is the latest but likely the last celebrity to participate in Blackout Tuesday. Cardi B, Rihanna, Drake, LeBron James, Travis Scott, Steph, and Ayesha Curry were some of the stars posting black squares to their Instagram profiles on June 2. The demonstration, created by two black female music executives, is about business and celebrities taking a pause to stand against the “racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard.”
Blackout Tuesday “is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week,” the organizers said via their official Instagram. “It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective, and productive conversations bout what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community.” The protest initially targeted the music industry because it is a “multi-billion dollar industry…that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission to hold the industry at large [accountable.] To that end, it is the obligation of these entities to protect and empower the Black communities that have made them disproportionately wealthy in ways that are measurable and transparent.”