Jaden shined during his performance of his latest single “Boys and Girls” on Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. The four-minute live performance featured the 22-year-old lyrical musician coming across in front of a gigantic T.V. screen that also exhibited appearances from the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter protests.
During Jaden’s performance, he paid tribute to police brutality victims
During the late-night performance, the names of Black men and women who were murdered by police officers who died in the hands of authority, or were abused by accused racist citizens were revealed for the audience. The lives of Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Samuel DuBose, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, George Floyd, Jamar Clark, Trayvon Martin, Emmitt Till, Oscar Grant, and Breonna Taylor were highlights of the people listed.
Jaden then ended the Kimmel performance by putting up his fist in the air and prompting spectators to vote in the upcoming general election on November 3. “We just want justice, are we really asking too much? We just want to change the world and spread our love,” sings Jaden in the bridge of “Boys and Girls.”
In an earlier interview, Jaden discussed his thoughts on equal representation, innate racism, and peaceful protesting.
“I’m voting because I haven’t been happy with the leadership. I don’t feel as though I’m being represented or that I’m being listened to, or that the Black community is being represented or listened to at large. Things need to change, starting with how we treat the people of color in the nation, and how we’re allowing these systems of racism to still exist and for us to still follow them. That’s the main thing that keeps me up at night. Everybody has different ways of balancing themselves out—I try to get enough sleep and get into the ocean as much as possible.”
