In the wake of protests across the U.S. over racial injustice, a 12-year-old boy’s song about the realities of being a young black man has become a rallying cry for change.
Keedron Bryant, a gospel singer who competed on NBC’s fourth season of Little Big Shots, shared a video on Instagram on Wednesday with a simple caption: “just singing what’s on my heart…hope this blesses someone.”
Bryant sings: “I’m a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around and I see what’s being done to my kind every day, I’m being hunted as prey.”
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“My people don’t want no trouble, we’ve had enough struggle. I just want to live. God, protect me, I just want to live.”
His video on Instagram includes the hashtags, #ijustwantolive #blacklivesmatter #ijustwannalive.
The acapella performance, which he shared a few days after the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd, has received over two million views and has been shared by many celebrities including LeBron James, Lupita Nyong’o, Janet Jackson, Eva Longoria, David Oyelow and Kandi Burrus.
Former President Barack Obama also mentioned the video in a message he released on Friday in response to Floyd’s death.
My statement on the death of George Floyd: pic.twitter.com/Hg1k9JHT6R
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 29, 2020
Bryant’s video comes as people call for justice for Floyd who died at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd died at the hospital on Monday after the white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes as the 46-year-old yelled: “I can’t breathe.”
Reports said the officers responded to a call from a grocery store that claimed Floyd had used a forged cheque. His death, however, is just one example of the ongoing systemic racism in America where black people find themselves being killed during encounters with white police officers.
