This past week, Mary J. Blige made headlines when the teaser for her new talk show The 411 featured an interview with Hillary Clinton.
The most noteworthy (and cringe worthy) moment of the clip released by Apple Music showed the R&B legend belting out Bruce Springsteen’s American Skin (41 Shots).
You’ve got to understand the rules
If an officer stops you, promise me you’ll always be polite
And that you’ll never ever run away
Promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight
While the song is about the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, in this social climate where police brutality towards minorities is a hot button topic, many felt those lyrics seemed to be promoting respectability politics in the wake of public outcry.
“I’m a singer first,” she told the Associated Press. “That’s the only way I can express myself and… the only way I can get that reaction from [Clinton] is to sing it. I didn’t warm up, I just sang… It was organic and that’s how it went. And hopefully, I believe she felt it, I think she did.”
— Mary J. Blige curses out ‘haters’ criticizing her awkward Hillary interview —
Questionable song choices aside, there were some real issues addressed during the sit down, particularly questions about how the country should handle violence against black people.
“Where do we go from here?” Blige asked humbly.
“We have to put ourselves in each other’s shoes, feel the pain that a mother and a father feel when their son and daughter can go out the door and they don’t know what’s gonna happen to them,” Clinton responded. “I particularly want white people to understand what that’s like and to feel that they must be part of the solution.”
Clinton also conceded that law enforcement needs more rigorous training to learn how to remove implicit bias and deescalate tensions in the communities they serve.
Check out the full interview below.
