Pharell Williams tells Jimmy Fallon black people are facing 'historical injustices' during coronavirus
Pharell Williams was a guest on tonight's (April 15) episode of 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'. Addressing how infrequent their meeting have become, Jimmy joked that the last time they saw each other he had a mustache and Pharell had triplets.
On being asked by Jimmy as to how he's holding up during the coronavirus quarantine, Pharell mentioned that he and everyone he knows is doing okay but he cannot take his mind off the problems plaguing people of color (PoC) in this period. Pharell used the show as a platform to highlight the injustice being meted out to people of color in these difficult times and he spoke at length about this during his time on the episode.
"I am very grateful but it's hard to be complacent with that just because you are okay and the people that you know and love are okay. It's like man! It's tough, people are having a very tough time. Families are having a tough time, companies too. There is a lot of loss of life and there is a lot of misinformation out there too. So it's tough" mentioned Pharell.
Pharell also spoke about postponing his cultural music festival, 'Something in the Water' that was slated to happen between April 23-25, due to the outbreak."
'Something in the Water' started because the Chief of Police wanted to sit down and talk about license solutions because there were some alleged problems about kids coming in for their spring breaks and it happened to be HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and University) students. "When they told us there was a problem we were like what problem? These were kids not on the street, not necessarily causing problems as much as they're trying to celebrate getting ready to take their next exams and then we found out it was not necessarily them it was just like people who were not students trying to take part in the festival, he explained.
"I just thought why not have a community festival that does more than bringing people who like to listen to music, together, but actually charge some of the sponsors to go out and do some of the things to show that while these people contribute to your bottom line every quarter, you care about them too. We raised $14M directly and another $7M indirectly that went on to show that we could be a beehive in the 757 area, that's where I am from, the 757, Virginia Beach. So when this (coronavirus) started happening we decided while we are not going to entertain we are going to get out there and continue to look after 757, continue to bring people together, continue to be catalysts of change. We hooked up with the World Central Kitchen and in the past month, they fed 1.3M people."
He continued: "I am glad you asked about something in the water. We are going to do it in a huge way in the 757 and try to ensure food for people who are food insecure at the moment and it is awesome that we get to have our local restaurants with amazing food in the 757 to stay afloat, stay open and able to cook for these people."
Pharell also came back to the misconceptions about some people being affected by the coronavirus. He mentioned that there's a narrative going around that black and brown folks, lighter and darker, don't know how to care for themselves and are twice as likely to contract asthma and other ailments. He mentioned that healthcare is disproportionate and PoC are facing the brunt of the same. "There are historical injustices with health care with people of color", Pharell exclaimed. "Those things systemically contribute to disproportionate access and it is definitely affecting people of color in a different kind of way. I am glad you asked me this question so that we could use your platform to get it out that we are human beings and if we would've been treated like that from the beginning, we wouldn't have disproportionate problems but we do"
Later on, Jimmy also praised Pharell for staying ahead of the curve in terms of fashion and also mentioned that he thought about him when people were advised to start wearing masks because Pharell has been donning them as an accessory for a very long time. The 'Happy' artist credited Japan and its people for the same. He mentioned that he's been going to the country for over 20 years and when he first got there he wondered why do Japanese people wear masks. His mind was blown when he came to know that they do so in case they are sick and want to protect the others from contracting the disease. He also mentioned that he learned wearing the mask and putting his hands together and bowing down to people from Asia.
Additionally, Pharell also mentioned that an estimated 91% of children coming from "disproportionately affected" families from around the world are out of school and he is working with Global Citizen to help them.