After Hayley Williams handed over her Instagram handle to Teens4Equality to give young Black female activists her platform, she highlighted a Black female artist who covered one of her Paramore hits from her days.
Williams spoke out on Twitter yesterday (June 8) after several social media users asked the pop-punk singer-songwriter to delete some of Teens4Equality’s Instagram posts, which received major backlash for addressing systemic oppression, police brutality and white privilege. “have seen ppl ask me to delete some posts from TEENS FOR EQUALITY’s ig takeover today. i will not do that,” the 31-year-old musician stated. “their passion is pure and earnest, not calculated. their activism is inspiring!! im proud of them & youth across the country for learning/educating/standing up for BLM.”
In response to Williams’ thread about young people igniting and carrying these difficult conversations sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and other Black people, one fan @theblackstem1 sparked some joy by sharing a two-minute clip of her acoustic cover of “Hard Times.” “it was the perfect song to express how I’ve been feeling lately as a BPOC #supportblackartists,” she expressed while introducing the song she performed on her ukulele.
Williams later shared the passionate, thought-provoking video on her Twitter as a separate post, complimenting, “you just singlehandedly turned ‘Hard Times’ into church.”
Watch this moving cover of Williams’ “Hard Times” below.
