Harry Belafonte has been a civil rights activist since the 1950s, and the 89-year-old singer continues to be a powerful voice in the call for racial justice today. His social justice organization Sankofa teamed up with directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Ren to create a short film centered on police brutality. “Against The Wall” features black public figures like actors Michael B. Jordan, Danny Glover, and Michael K. Williams, pundit Van Jones, journalist Marc Lamont Hill, and visual artist Sophia Dawson. They are seen leaning against what appears to be a wall as audio connected to police-involved shootings plays. That audio includes 911 calls, police radio, and news reports related to the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, and Terence Crutcher.
The video also includes audio from an interview Belafonte did with MSNBC, in which he explains:
You cannot just go about, if it’s once or twice you can say it’s an accident or a coincidence, but when you have as large a population of murdered young men in the streets of America and they’re all black or of African American descent, I think there is somebody sending us a message. And we should respond to that message.
After audio of gunfire rings out, the last few moments of the video reorient the image of Michael K. Williams so that it’s clear he’s actually lying on the floor. The final title card reads: “Black is not a weapon.”