R&B legend Stephanie Mills is here for everybody and everything Black! The “Something About The Way You Make Me Feel” singer has always been passionate about her love for all things Black people and Black culture. But as with everything, that there is always room for growth, and Stephanie Mills is expressing the lack of support for the Black community.
What’s worse, the lack of support WITHIN the Black community. In 2019, Stephanie Mills gave an account of an unfortunate recent experience she had involving a racist encounter at Laguardia Airport in New York. The singer recalled to The Breakfast Club getting a baggage cart along with her hairstylist and trying to manage the heavy load while an employee watched. Noticing his lack of attention, Mills’ hairstylist asked the man for help. The man would continue to ignore them while instead, choosing to help a white woman. Stephanie Mills then reveals that the man was “Spanish, or something else,” when Charlamagne inquired about his race. She then touched on how Black people tend to mistreat one another. “We are the worst against each other,” said Stephanie Mills. “We don’t support each other the way we should. And we should. And then we always want to cry. I hate that.”
With all that has been happening to Black people in recent times, Stephanie Mills was inspired to release new music. Most of Mills’ music and major hits in the past were all feel-good, dancy tunes that you could often groove, or make love to. The single, “Do The Right Thing” was inspired by the passing of George Floyd, as well as Black-on-Black crime, which she says she is “tired of.”
In a separate interview with The Breakfast Club, Mills asks questions about why it’s so hard for Black people to genuinely support one another. “Why are we crabs in a basket? Why do we not lift each other up?” Stephanie Mills asks. She then sheds light on the belief that it is trendy and “profitable” to tear other Black people down. A practice, she says, that she has “no respect for.”
Outside of the call to action for Black people to “Do The Right Thing”, the singer believes in our community and continues to love everything Black people. “I love being Black. And I love being a Black woman,” Stephanie Mills stressed on Fox Soul’s The Tammi Mac Late Show. “And, I’m not afraid to say it,” she added.
We love to see it!
The singer also speaks on the current state of the world, saying that things have not gotten better, but in actuality worse. Despite Black people having more visibility in the world, Stephanie Mills admits that in many ways we are celebrated, but she believes we are more tolerated. “You get a new [Black person] every month or so… we’re disposable,” she said.
