Pharrell Williams calls for economic equity on MLK Day

Popular musician Pharrell Williams called for economic equity during an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Virginian-Pilot reported. 

During the Urban League of Hampton Roads’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. awards program on Monday, Williams said big businesses should invest in minorities and noted that some are already doing that. 

“Not all businesses,” Williams said at the event. “The smart ones — the ones that will be here in 50 years.”

Williams mentioned the Japanese-based financial and venture capital group SoftBank, saying it was investing in founders of color, who can help create generational wealth and change their communities for the better, according to The Virginian-Pilot. 

Williams also urged businesses and philanthropists to support the Urban League and thanked the local chapter for its work in financial wellness, health and housing. 

Williams recently penned a letter to the Virginia Beach, Va., government blaming it for the racial tension in his native city and expressing his disappointment in its response to the death of his cousin Donovan Lynch, who was shot by a police officer in March 2021.  

“The toxic energy that changed the narrative several times around the homicide of my cousin, Donovan Lynch, a citizen of Virginia, is the same toxic energy that changed the narrative around the mass murder and senseless loss of life at Building Number 2,” he said in the letter.