Alicia Keys really did it for the culture during her performance at the NFL’s season opening night. Alicia presented black excellence as she sung the black national anthem while honoring the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.While Alicia’s performance was powerful, her power moves with the NFL League stole the show.
On the NFL’s season opening night, it was announced that the NFL would be partnering with the multi-talented singer songwriter to launch a $1B initiative to help black businesses. The initiative will be the beginning of systemic change needed to create racial equality.
During an interview with Billboard Alicia Keys says, “The initial goal of $1 billion is to ensure a substantial commitment,” Keys says. “Even with that it does not come close to closing the economic gap. The next steps are to reach out to different industries to invite them to invest in racial justice and create a multi-billion dollar endowment across business sectors.”
Alicia Keys is using her influence to create major change within the black community, enabling the achievability of generational wealth. “As an artist, I’m always thinking about how I can use my platform to further racial equity,” Keys says in the Billboard interview. “This fund is one of the answers and our goal is to empower Black America through investing in black businesses, Black investors, institutions, entrepreneurs, schools, and banks in a way to create sustainable solutions.” Keys says further.
As of lately, the NFL has been making more strides to push the dial towards eradicating social injustice. According to The Grio, “the NFL has become more willing to use its platform to effect policy and bring awareness to issues of racial injustice. It is a departure from their stance on Colin Kaepernick more than four years ago when he took a knee to protest the shootings of Black men by police. His actions led to a backlash from the league, President Donald Trump, and others who believed he was disrespecting the military and the flag.”
Since then, the NFL has readjusted their stance, partnering with JayZ’s Roc Nation last summer to enact social justice initiatives, in addition to pushing harder for social change this year. According to Billboard, “Following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in late May, Goodell and the NFL doubled down on their commitment to address systemic issues in American society, with some on- and off-field changes that will go into effect this year, with phrases like “End Racism” and “It Takes All Of Us” painted in end zones, for example.”
It is wonderful to witness history being made.
