Award-winning musician Macklemore has called the combination of rising fascism, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and climate breakdown “the biggest threat to humanity we have ever faced”.
Macklemore: the ‘earth is aching’
At a People’s Forum event this weekend in solidarity with Palestine and Mahmoud Khalil, Macklemore gave a speech calling for persistent action to bring about change. This came amid widespread concern and anger over US president Donald Trump‘s recent arrest of Khalil – a student who became a prominent anti-genocide protester in New York.
Macklemore, who has released several viral songs opposing the Gaza genocide in recent months, said:
This moment is the biggest threat to humanity we have ever faced. The Earth is aching. Systemic oppression is advancing at a rate that none of us can keep up with. But we cannot allow our hearts to become hardened. The people of Palestine have given me the greatest gift. They have taught me… what actually matters in this finite amount of time we have on this Earth. My spirit has has been reminded.
I want to live in a world where standing up against genocide isn’t brave, it’s human. I want to live in a world where using our platforms to condemn ethnic cleansing isn’t a risk, it’s a given. I want to live in a world where advocating for the most marginalized isn’t rewarded, it is expected.
While describing how he initially feared speaking out because of the consequences for his career, he said there was a moment when “the internal pain from being silent” simply outweighed “the risk of speaking up”.
The establishment is scared, because the truth is spreading and people are standing up
Macklemore insisted that people need to keep protesting, boycotting Israeli products, and calling for divestment from companies complicit in Israeli crimes. And he says that the mainstream media has failed to control the narrative for the establishment, which is why both the Blue and Red wings of the corporate party in the USA have been cracking down on dissent on behalf of Israel:
Our history teaches us that the oppressed are never handed their freedom by the oppressor when asking politely. As people, we are far more powerful than our governments want us to believe. And when we infiltrate their systems of oppression with boycotting, divesting and protesting, things change. That is why the Biden and the Trump administration cracked down on Meta, TikTok and demonized students peacefully protesting like Mahmoud Khalil, because this new way of learning and spreading the truth – it’s actually working.
My heart is not the only one that has been opened by Palestine. Millions of people around the world are having the same awakening from witnessing Palestinian faith, resistance and struggle. The narrative is shifting. The people are the storytellers. The old guard of relying on Western media for accurate reporting is in shambles. They want to control the narrative and they cannot.
“Change occurs when we cultivate our own light”
At the same time, the rapper insisted that we need to ask ourselves “how can we be of the utmost service to humanity?”. And Macklemore believes this is primarily to do with acting from a position of love. As he explained:
Change occurs when we cultivate our own light, not dimming ours to match another’s shadow. Change doesn’t occur by calling each other out, but by calling each other in. Change isn’t achieved in righteousness. It isn’t found in resentment. Change doesn’t happen with shaming another. No one has a spiritual awakening from being yelled at. In hearing your own voice reverberate throughout the echo chamber of folks that already feel the same way that you do isn’t stopping Israel and the United States any faster… You can’t force empathy and compassion on another.
You can see Macklemore’s full speech, along with those of his fellow speakers, here:
