Ellen Degeneres sat down with Pharrell Williams to discuss how there’s no room for hate in 2017.
The out TV host had booted singer Kim Burrell from the show’s lineup after recent antigay remarks went viral after being posted to YouTube.
From The Advocate:
“[Burrell] made a statement, she was doing a Facebook Live, and she said some very not nice things about homosexuals, so I didn’t feel like that was good of me to have her on the show to give her a platform after she’s saying things about me,” DeGeneres told singer Pharrell Williams, who had been set to perform with Burrell on the talk show.
“I say it all the time, to me, when I say be kind to one another, I feel that,” she added. “Because as someone who has received a lot of hate and prejudice and discrimination because of who I choose to love, I just don’t understand anyone who has experienced that kind of oppression, or anything like that, it only gives me more compassion. It gives me more empathy. I don’t ever want anyone to feel hurt because they’re different.”
The gospel singer raised a firestorm of controversy for blasting same-sex love in a December sermon, which went viral after being posted to YouTube.
“That perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women,” said Burrell. “You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis in your face — you are perverted. You are a woman and will shake your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.”
Williams — a producer of Hidden Figures, a biopic that shows how three African-American women overcame segregation in 1960s Virginia to help NASA win the Space Race — condemned Burrell’s remarks on social media, along with the film’s stars. He reiterated his message of inclusion on The Ellen DeGeneres show in a clip released Thursday.
“There’s no space, there’s no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 and moving on,” the artist said.
“Whenever you hear some sort of hate speech and you feel like it doesn’t necessarily pertain to you because you may not have anything to do with that, all you got to do is put the word ‘black’ in that sentence, or put ‘gay’ in that sentence, or put ‘transgender’ in that sentence, or put ‘white’ in that sentence and all of a sudden it starts to make sense to you,” Williams said. “I’m telling you, the world is a beautiful place, but it does not work without empathy and inclusion. God is love. This universe is love and that’s the only way it will function.”
“And I get it, sometimes the divisive stuff works in life. We’ve all learned that lesson. We learned that lesson last year that sometimes divisiveness works,” he continued. “But you have to choose what side you’re on. I’m choosing empathy. I’m choosing inclusion. I’m choosing love for everybody and just trying to lift everyone. Even when I disagree with someone, I’m wishing them the best and hoping for the best because we can’t win the other way.”
Not only did Burrell lose out on the ELLEN booking, but her Texas radio & TV shows have now been cancelled. Hate doesn’t pay, does it?
