Singer Billie Eilish denounced the "All Lives Matter" cause Saturday in a statement posted to Instagram in response to the death of George Floyd.
Eilish, 18, wrote that she spent the past week trying to figure out a way to "address this delicately," referring to proponents of the "All Lives Matter" world view. Eilish, who has more than 63 million Instagram followers, said that she strives to use her "enormous" platform to be respectful and to carefully think through what she says and how she says it.
She then said that if she hears one more white person say, "All lives matter," she would lose her "f------ mind."
"No one is saying your life doesn't matter," Eilish wrote. "No one is saying your life is not hard. No one is saying literally anything about you.
"This is not about you," she continued. "Stop making everything about you. You are not in need. You are not in danger."
Eilish, whose full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell, said she would explain it as she would to a child.
"If your friend gets a cut on their arm are you gonna wait to give all your friends" a Band-Aid first "because all arms matter?" she asked. "No," she said, adding that you would help your friend who was bleeding because they are in pain and in need.
Eilish provided another example, asking if a person's house was on fire and someone was trapped inside, "are you gonna make the fire department go to every other house on the block first because all houses matter???"
"No," she said, because they don't "f------ need it."
The post was written almost entirely in caps.
You are privileged whether you realize it or not, Eilish wrote.
"Society gives you privilege just for being white," she wrote. "You can be poor, you can be struggling..and still your skin color is giving you more privilege than you even realize and nobody is saying that makes you better than anyone."
This allows white people to live without having to worry about surviving, simply because of their skin color, Eilish wrote.
"If all lives matter," she asked, "why are black people killed for just being black? Why are immigrants persecuted? Why are white people given opportunities that people of other races aren't?"
Eilish questioned why white people can protest stay-at-home orders while carrying semi-automatic weapons, as some have at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, and why black people are labeled "thugs" for protesting "the murder of innocent people."
"Do you know why?" she asked. "White. F------. Privilege."
Eilish said that white privilege affects other minority groups and that in this moment "we have to address hundreds of years of oppression of black people."
Full coverage of George Floyd's death and protests around the country
"The slogan 'Black Lives Matter' does not mean other lives don't," Eilish wrote. It is "calling attention to the fact that society clearly thinks black lives don't f------ matter."
"And they f------ do!!!!!!" she wrote, before repeating "black lives matter" four times.
She ended the statement with "#justiceforgeorgefloyd."
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest. The officer, Derek Chauvin, and three other officers involved in the arrest were fired the day after Floyd's death. Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Floyd's death has set off mass protests against police brutality.
The Black Lives Matter movement was started in the summer of 2013 by black organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi after George Zimmerman was acquitted of the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Eilish's post has been liked nearly 6 million times and drawn support in the comment section from other celebrities, including director Ava DuVernay, Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton and singers Trey Songz and DeathbyRomy, who commented, "I hope this clears s--- up for some people."
Model Tess Holliday responded: "Thank you. All lives can't matter until black lives matter."
Eilish was not alone in aligning herself with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Over the weekend, companies like Netflix, Twitter, HBO and Nordstrom also expressed support for the movement.
Twitter changed its profile image on the platform to black and added “#BlackLivesMatter” to its description.
Netflix posted on Twitter on Saturday: "To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up."
