Common says racism won’t end with Donald Trump

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When Common heard about Ava DuVerynay’s project 13th, which looks at mass incarceration in the United States, he asked her if he could write a song for the documentary.

He wrote “Letter to the Free” during the last week of July and into August, drawing from the current divisive political climate and the history of oppression facing black people in the United States.

“I was influenced by this whole political climate, the conditions of mass incarceration, and the injustices going on that even allow us to have a group called Mothers of the Movement,” he recalled. “They continue to drive me towards art that can be a part of the change.”

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Common also spoke about the supporters of Donald Trump and the racism that is showing its ugly face in the United States, though he claims that it neither began nor will end with Donald Trump.

–Ku Klux Klan urges America to take back country on Election Day–

“I look at these things as finally surfacing and getting out in the open. Those negative forces weren’t courageous enough to come out before because they didn’t have any leader to latch on to,” he said. “You take the racists in our country right now and see that they are supporting Trump, who has not shown any of the qualities to be a great leader, and you think, wow, he is unfit to be president. He’s not even going to run the country better for them because he doesn’t have the intelligence to be president.”

But even if Trump wins the presidency on Election Day, Common has hope for the country.

“Look, we know it will be a bad situation if Donald Trump becomes president, but we gotta keep working and finding out what to do, because the world isn’t going to end,” he explained. “People say he’ll push a button and end the world, but there are still great people in this country, so I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I still have hope.”

Grio fam, it’s Election Day, and we encourage you to get out there and rock the vote!