As a passionate of the demonstrations and protests continue across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death, celebrities are using their social media platforms to promote a long-term form of protest: the vote. In an interview in Late Night With Seth Meyers, former Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones is sat down to explain the importance of taking voting seriously and talk about your personal experience with participation in the 1992 riots of Los Angeles.
“There was nothing you could have said to me at that time — I was ready to burn it,” Leslie said to Seth. Similar to protests happening today, in 1992, THE riots that took place after four police officers were acquitted of violently beating after 25 years of Rodney King, despite the existence of widespread footage that showed otherwise. “We have a president who is standing there calling us thugs and the sending of the National Guard — that is not listening to anything that someone is going to say,” Leslie added. “I think that the only thing that is going to listen to is votes, and this is the reason why I was saying to all the world if you’re going to change something, you have to fight the same fight we are fighting.”
Leslie went on to discuss the powerful effects of voting can have in the country and in the society as a whole, making it clear that every vote counts. “I think that we all need to realize that we are all human beings living on the same Earth, and we need to start working together before we have nothing.”
