Last week, former Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones posted a lengthy video on her social media channels urging those protesting in the wake of George Floyd’s death to channel their justifiable anger into action at the voting booths in November.
“I love that you guys are protesting and see how quick you did it. But I’mma tell you to get the fuck what you really want, we’re going to have to fucking change the system,” said Jones—who participated in the 1992 Los Angeles riots when she was 22. “And to change the system, we have to fucking vote. So as hard as you guys are going and protesting, I pray to the good lord that you all go this hard when it’s time to vote. Really, because that’s what they don’t want you to do. They want you to do this shit, so they can call us thugs and say, ‘Oh we’re going to start shooting when they start looting.’ That shit pisses me the fuck off.”
Asked by Seth Meyers on Tuesday’s episode of Late Night how she feels about the protests that have crowded streets in cities around the country, Jones said the destruction of property and police escalation tactics have her feeling “saddened.”
“It makes me sad because I’m looking at this, and I’m knowing that this is not going to work. It’s not going to do anything,” she said. “We have a president that’s standing up there calling us thugs and sending out National Guard—he’s not listening to anything that anyone’s gonna say. I think the only thing he’s gonna listen to is votes, and this is why I was telling everybody if you’re gonna change something, you have to fight the same fight that they’re fighting. You have to get into their ring. You have to get educated and you have to vote. It’s almost like I wish we would have pulled a gangster move and not did nothing, and waited until November and stormed his ass.”
Jones said she understands the mindset of those protesting, however, because she felt the same way 30 years ago. “There’s probably nothing you can say to them right now that’s going to make them not want to protest. There was nothing you could’ve said to me back then. I was ready to burn it down,” she said. “At that time, we really thought we were doing something.”
After Meyers asked Jones whether she was worried her message would get lost despite her visibility as a celebrity, Jones said she didn’t necessarily care. “I’m going to use my platform to make sure everyone understands the importance of voting,” she said—specifically in the presidential election in November. “When you don’t vote, you’re voting for him,” she said. “A non-vote is a vote for Trump. A lot of people are making a good argument: we don’t have nobody to vote for. Yes, we do. We have somebody other than him. We have to get him out.”