Alicia Keys and her We Are Here Movement have teamed up with Mic.com for the release of a new video titled, “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black in America.” If the title isn’t powerful enough, the words of Hollywood stars and music’s biggest names, like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Pharrell, Queen Latifah and more, will strike you at the core.

In this video, each artist identifies a black victim of police violence in the US, highlighting the everyday actions that led to their deaths. These actions include holding a wallet, failing to signal during a lane change, driving a car with a broken taillight, and more.

This video comes in response to the recent deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, whose names have been added to a long list of black people in America that have been killed by police officers. The We Are Here Movement is speaking out against these injustices in an effort “to manifest a world community built on true equality, and to put an end to the injustice of poverty, oppression, and hopelessness.”

“The time for change is now,” said Alicia Keys in a call to action at the end of the video. “We demand radical transformation to heal a long history of systemic racism so that all Americans have the equal right to live and to pursue happiness.”

Keys also made waves with her stirring video for World Refugee Day, which flipped the refugee crisis on its head by imagining Los Angeles coming under attack and shows her fleeing to Mexico with her family.

We Are Here was founded by Keys and focuses on the issues of equality and justice, women and children, and climate and consciousness.

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Demand Equity

Alicia Keys' Video Explores How Black People Are Killed in America

By Krista Watson