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George Floyd death: Harry Styles and Halsey among celebrities joining Black Lives Matter protests

Headshot of Lily Hoffmann
Lily HoffmannThe West Australian
Sophia Bush at a Black Lives Matter protest.
Camera IconSophia Bush at a Black Lives Matter protest. Credit: Sophia Bush/instagram/supplied

Michael Jordan, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Harry Styles are just some of the celebrities that have publicly backed the Black Lives Matter movement since George Floyd’s killing.

The death of Floyd, an African-American man, in Minnesota sparked ongoing protests in the US last week, after a now-viral video showed him begging police officer Derek Chauvin to stop kneeling on his neck.

Chauvin continued to push his knee into Floyd’s neck, restricting his breathing for nearly nine minutes, until he died — the vision prompting Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.

Seth Rogan and Steve Carell each donated $1,000 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, while Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend donated $200,000 to the bailout of protestors.

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Styles shared a link to the change.org petition titled “Justice for George Floyd” with his 34 million Twitter followers along with some of Floyd’s last words during his arrest, “Please I can’t breathe. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. They’re going to kill me.”

NBA legend Jordan expressed his support for the black community despite having a history of taking a passive back seat on controversial issues, even recently addressing it in the hit Netflix documentary The Last Dance.

“I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry,” Jordan’s statement began.

“I see and feel everyone’s pain, outrage and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of colour in our country, we have had enough.

“I don't have the answers, but our collective voices show strength and the inability to be divided by others.”

But A-listers didn’t just offer up cash, they also joined protesters in the US in response to Floyd’s death.

Paris Jackson— Michael Jackson’s daughter— singer Halsey and Youngblud, Machine Gun Kelly, Sophia Bush, Ariana Grande and John Cusack all joined protestors on the ground over the weekend, with Cusack even releasing a video of a police officer “coming at (him) with batons” as he joined the movement in Chicago.

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“Today started out beautifully, seeing people come together with peace and harmony in their hearts. It broke my heart to see it all go up in flames. Violence is not the answer,” Jackson wrote.

Halsey described having rubber bullets fired at her while she held her hands up, before police continued to fire gas at the crowd.

“Do not underplay these rubber bullets bc you have been told they are ‘not lethal,’ I had to bandage a man who looked like his entire face had exploded today.

“So before you say, from the comfort of your home, that we’re exaggerating, please consider the injuries some have suffered,” she tweeted to her 12 million followers.

Halsey live tweeted as she protested, having to update fans to confirm that she was not arrested but that “there were ppl I had to get to safety as many of them have VISAs.”

“Myself and many of my peers were shot, gassed and antagonized. The frontline was calm and did not provoke,” she said.

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