Atlanta hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri has been rejected by the anti-violence group “Mothers of the Movement”, which is made up of families who say their loved ones have died at the hands of police, to be a part of the Super Bowl LIVE festivities he is producing this week, according to Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA.
“In response to Mr. Dupri’s Instagram photo where he is seated comfortably in a Waffle House with the Lombardi Super Bowl trophy, the Mothers of the Movement respectfully decline the use of his platform,” Gerald Griggs, First Vice President of the Atlanta NAACP, said in a statement representing the group. “In April of 2018, 25-year-old Chikesia Clemons was tackled down on a Waffle House floor exposing her breasts.
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“Last year, Former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick lost his job for taking a knee, a peaceful protest, against police brutality in black communities,” he continued. “It is only January 30, 2019, and there have already been 56 people killed by police in America, including 21-year-old Jimmy Atchison in historic southwest Atlanta. The father of two was shot in the face. He was unarmed.”
Dupri posted a video on Facebook showing him meeting with the group on Jan. 5. The group spoke with Dupri to express why boycotting the NFL was essential to the black community. At the end of the meeting, the mothers agreed to come to Dupri’s concert to raise awareness about police brutality.
“Take a Knee is the biggest protest since the 60s,” said the mother of Nicholas Thomas says in the video Thomas was shot and killed in 2015 by a Smyrna, Ga. police officer.
Thomas’ mother said that her granddaughter wonders where her father his years after the shooting.
“She walks around to young men ‘are you my daddy? when is my daddy coming back home,'” she said in the video. “I have to explain to her every day that he’s never coming back.”
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Dupri, like Travis Scott, Gladys Knight, and others, has taken heat for participating in the Super Bowl festivities instead of boycotting. Dupri invited the mothers to take part in the Super Bowl LIVE concert series – which he is producing – so they would have a bigger platform to share their message.
The group declined on Wednesday, citing the Instagram video next to the Lombardi Trophy as the primary reason for the about-face.
“At the end of the meeting, all parties had agreed that the mothers would speak during JD’s concert to raise awareness about the unnecessary police violence and brutality in the black community,” the statement said before ending with a very pointed message. “We refuse to stand alongside any individual who does not have the best interest of our community in mind.”
