President Trump’s plan to bully black athletes into shutting up about systemic racism ran into another snag on Saturday night when beloved musician Stevie Wonder took a knee before performing at the Global Citizen Festival in New York.
But one knee wasn’t enough for Wonder, who then upped the ante by dropping to both knees and praying for “our planet, our future, our leaders of the world, and our globe.” “I wanted to say that prayer before I serve you my musical meal,” Wonder added, before singing a medley that included “Higher Ground.”
Although Wonder did not directly address the president’s flurry of tweets arguing that football players who don’t stand during the national anthem should lose what he called the “privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL,” Wonder’s gesture unmistakably evoked Colin Kaepernick. And his plea that the audience “interrupt hate, stand down bigotry, condemn sexism, and find love for all of our global brothers and sisters every day,” reads like a direct rebuke of the president. “Tonight, I’m taking a knee for America,” Wonder told the crowd, as his son Kwame helped him to one knee.
Watch the video below:
