Chuck D fires back at #OscarsSoWhite's "Fight the Power": It's "a call to making change eventually not just applauding the thought"

On Twitter, the Public Enemy frontman talked protesting the Grammys, "Driving Miss Daisy" and music education

Published February 29, 2016 7:20PM (EST)

Flavor Flav and Chuck D. of Public Enemy at Radio City Music Hall, Sept. 8, 1994   (AP/Malcolm Clarke)
Flavor Flav and Chuck D. of Public Enemy at Radio City Music Hall, Sept. 8, 1994 (AP/Malcolm Clarke)

Those of you who made it until the final credits of last night's Oscars were treated to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," the Public Enemy anthem that also played as Rock took the stage. It seemed a fitting bookend to a night of #OscarsSoWhite racial humor and awareness, spurred by Chris Rock's confrontational hosting which had the rich, white majority in attendance praying to avoid being one of the ceremony's awkward reaction shots.

Public Enemy's Chuck D, however, took exception to the #OscarsSoWhite narrative. On Twitter, he argued that the issue of diversity in film and music industries is the result of a systemic lack of cultural appreciation for the arts in the black community:


By Brendan Gauthier

Brendan Gauthier is a freelance writer.

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2016 Academy Awards Chris Rock Chuck D Public Enemy