Stevie Wonder In London: ‘Black Lives Matter Because We Are The Original People Of This World’

Stevie Wonder
Simone Joyner/Getty
Liam Deacon

Motown singer Stevie Wonder has told a huge crowd in London, that “black lives matter… because we are the original people of this world” as the city descended into three days of chaos caused by Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

The superstar did not, however, address the deaths of five white police officers who were slaughtered in Texas on Friday by a black activist who wanted “to kill white people”.

“All life does matter, but the reason that I say black lives matter is because we are the original people of this world,” Mr. Wonder told the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park.

“So in essence, everyone here has some black in you. You’ve all got some soul in you so stop denying your culture,” he added.

The singer warned the 65,000-strong crowd of “this horrible time we’re living in” as he opened his set. Adding:

“I encourage you to choose love over hate. It’s just that simple. Choose love over hate, right over wrong, kind over meanness. Hope over no hope at all”.

On the same weekend as Mr. Wonder’s statements, London descended into chaos as Black Lives Matter “shut down” Parliament Square on Friday, Brixton on Saturday, and Oxford Street and the U.S. embassy on Sunday.

Roads were blocked for up to six hours as activists climbed roofs and demonstrated about “racist police” and “police violence” in “solidarity with our American brothers and sisters”.

In Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday night, before the Dallas shootings, singer Beyoncé also paused a concert to hold a minute’s silence for the two men and “countless others” killed by police in the U.S.

She paid tribute to victims of police shootings — including Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, who were killed earlier this week — but has not spoken out against the massacre of policemen in her home city on Friday.

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