On Monday (June 8), Will Smith kept the conversation regarding racial injustice alive when he released his “No Justice, No Peace” montage on social media.
The two-minute clip includes former President Barack Obama’s recent speech on George Floyd and some enlightening commentary by Smith himself. “You’re always gonna have a fight you’re going to see coming. There’s a historical river that is running red with the blood of truth-tellers. The beauty of being American when we’re scared is we reach for our higher selves and not our lower selves,” says Smith.
The montage features moments from protests all around the country and 12-year-old Keedron Bryant’s impassioned viral song “I Just Want to Live.” Revolutionary activists, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, also intercut into the reel to help bolster the importance of equality.
“Dr. King was a young man when he got involved. Cesar Chavez was a young man. Malcolm X was a young man. The leaders of the feminist movement were young people. The leaders of union movements were young people. You’ve communicated a sense of urgency that is as powerful and transformative as anything that I’ve seen in recent years,” Obama says in the clip.
Watch Smith’s “No Justice, No Peace” montage below.