Selah Marley, the granddaughter of reggae icon Bob Marley, has lost her way.
There is sadness in Jamaica, in the Caribbean, and indeed in the freedom loving world, that Selah Marley, the granddaughter of Bob Marley – a fighter for freedom, justice and equality throughout the years – would see fit to associate herself with the phrase, “white life matters”.
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It is a phrase that epitomizes a white supremacist response to the fight for black freedom, freedom for people of color around the world that generated the phrase “Black Lives Matter”. The white supremacists have used this phrase, white life matters, as part of their promotion and part of their opposition to freedom and justice in the United States.
It is a phrase that has generated fear across this country with the activities of white supremacists and growing militants responsible for the slaughter of so many young black men that it is with such sadness to see this young woman, a granddaughter of Bob Marley, embracing this phrase, wearing it at a fashion show, and out of, we hope, just ignorance, to be embracing this kind of slogan, a slogan that is a direct opposite of her grandfather’s intent that makes a mockery of black freedom, and is a slogan that even the Ku Klux Klan has embraced as part of its publicity campaign.
Selah Marley, the daughter of Singer Lauren Hill and Rohan Marley, Bob Marley’s son, has a right to her own views and opinion, but not one that is so abhorrent to what her grandfather stood for, and what is of such significance to people of color and Black people, to be embracing this kind of racism, outright racism that white supremacists have embraced and adopted.
To be following a misguided Kanye West by wearing this ‘White Life Matters’ tshirt, young Miss Marley is betraying the very essence of her grandfather’s lifelong work of fighting for injustice, freedom, and the rights of people in general and black people in particular. She is totally out of sync with her grandfather’s legacy and out of sync with the current thinking of today’s young people who are at the forefront of fighting for freedom and justice, and certainly out of sync in embracing the white supremacist slogan of White Life Matters, a group that has nothing in common with her grandfather, and certainly nothing in common with what the fight for freedom means. It is a repressive and racist group that sees nothing but the use of violence against Black people and Jewish people wherever they are.
It is a sad development to behold – this young woman has lost her way and has denied her heritage.
