Famed Christian rapper Lecrae delivered a passionate message to those who have used the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, proclaiming that it's "like spitting in the face of black folk."
The message, which included the hashtag #philandocastile — the name of a 32-year-old man who was fatally shot by a cop during a traffic stop this month — accompanied a photo that read, "I won't keep calm I have a black son."
Lecrae, who is black, went on to say that he believes that the #AllLivesMatter hashtag comes off as extremely unsympathetic and selfish to an individual who is in mourning amid ongoing battles.
While the rapper said that all lives absolutely do matter, he believes that it's obvious that black lives don't seem to matter to some people in the U.S., and that true faith requires Christians to stand up for people who are oppressed.
"No one goes up to lung cancer patients and says, 'Folks with breast cancer matter too! #AllCancerPatients matter,'" the Grammy Award-winning artist said. "That's insensitive."
Lecrae added that some of the reaction and debate over the recent deaths of Castile and another black man, Alton Sterling, left him feeling as though many are ignorant to the effects of racism and the abuse of authority in America.
He then proceeded to proclaim that privilege is the problem.
"Many can't see that racism has stained this country because they are privileged to not see it," he continued. "Also Christians saying that 'preaching the gospel is all we need' ignores how sin affects infrastructures and societal systems."
In the end, Lecrae said people were free to unfollow him and that, even if they do, he'll still love them.
The rapper's Instagram post, which came before a sniper killed five Dallas police officers, was followed up by a number of other messages urging compassion and peace amid the ongoing furor.
One of those messages was a post that included a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and a quote from the civil rights icon.
"Constructive anger becomes passion to change and fight injustice. Destructive anger becomes rage and reciprocated ignorance," Lecrae wrote last Friday. "The Dallas shooting doesn't solve our issues, nor does it negate them."
He also posted an example of what he said was a "good cop," and urged unity to help solve societal problems.
Lecrae has long spoken out about race relations, appealing to his Christian faith to make a case that America continues to experience both “systematic oppression” and “systematic racism.”
The rapper told The Blaze in a 2014 interview that he believes the societal problem involves both systems and individual responsibility.
Watch that interview below:
“At the end of the day … it’s never one-sided. There’s no knight in shining armor who did everything right and one side is the side that has it all together — that doesn’t exist,” he told the outlet. “I think everyone has to take responsibility and look at all the different issues instead of shifting the blame. We can say it’s the system’s fault, but what about the individual responsibility? I think it’s both.”
My family on July 4th 1776. pic.twitter.com/R9DzWkqDWc
— Lecrae (@lecrae) July 4, 2016
And as The Huffington Post noted, Lecrae also recently caught attention for a tweet that he sent July 4 showing slaves in a cotton field and read, "My family on July 4, 1776."
He later explained in a Billboard op-ed that he wanted critics of the Twitter post who believed that it was divisive to understand that "there’s a difference between creating division and exposing the division that’s being ignored."
"I want people to know that (racism) is bigger than just caring for your community. This is a moral issue across the board for humanity," he wrote.
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