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John Legend, safely in his $17.5m Beverly Hills mansion, urges his hometown to embrace 15,000 Haitian migrants

September 13, 2024 | | Print Article

Pop singer John Legend came under heavy fire for lecturing residents of his Ohio hometown to embrace the invasion of Haitian migrants and their “dietary preferences.”

The 45-year-old music star, who is from the city of Springfield, angered social media users who blasted him as another out-of-touch celebrity for pontificating on the migrant issue amid reports of pets being eaten while secure in his multi-million dollar Beverly Hills mansion.

In his video message, Legend referred to the “interesting man named Donald J. Trump” who made headlines this week when he brought up reports of migrants eating household pets in the Ohio town during his ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“So you might imagine there are some challenges with, you know, integrating a new population. New language, new culture, new dietary preferences. All kinds of reasons why they might be growing pains” said the bathrobe-clad Grammy winner with a net worth of over $100 million.

“We had about 15,000 or so immigrants move to my town of 60,000,” he explained. “Now you might say, wow that’s a lot of people for a town that only had 60,000 before. That’s a 25% increase. That is correct.”

“So I think all of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want our ancestors to have when they moved here with our Haitian brothers and sisters,” he said in his statement which was also published in the Columbus Dispatch.

“Nobody’s eating cats. Nobody’s eating dogs. We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment,” Legend continued.

“How about we love one another? I grew up in the Christian tradition we said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and treat strangers as though they might be Christ,” Legend, whose real name is John R. Stevens, stated.

“So, how about we adopt that ethos when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities and don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them,” he concluded.

While many Instagram users gushed over Legend’s words and thanked him for speaking out, there was plenty of backlash from others who didn’t appreciate the lecture from a wealthy celebrity living with supermodel wife Chrissy Teigen in a sprawling West Coast mansion thousands of miles from Springfield.

“Do you live there now?? No. You’re so out of touch with real American people.. it’s happening wake up…,” one Instagram user commented.

“The absolute arrogance of thinking that because you’re a celebrity your voice matters more than the people who are actually living it,” wrote another.

“Maybe they should drop 15,000 immigrants into your neighborhood you live in now and you could experience the hardship yourself,” one user suggested, while another noted, “Celebrities who don’t live amongst us proving their moral superiority. A tale as old as time.”

The reactions on X were no less brutal.

Frieda Powers
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