Is Stevie Wonder Right To Boycott Florida After Zimmerman Trial?

The recent George Zimmerman/ Trayvon Martin verdict has produced a lot of passionate and aggressive opinions on both sides of the fence. There are many who think the prosecution never proved the charges and the defendant was right to get acquitted and there are others who think Martin’s murder will go down as one of the great injustices in the history of the United States legal system. Let the record show Stevie Wonder falls into the latter category.

The beloved musician was performing a concert in Quebec City on Sunday evening when he decided to air his thoughts publically. Here’s a portion of what he had to say, as per E! News

"I know I'm not everybody. I'm just one person. I'm a human being. But for the gift that God has given me and for whatever I mean, I've decided today that until the 'Stand Your Ground' law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again. As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world."

On the one hand, it’s easy to see where Wonder is coming from. There are a lot of people out there who don’t understand why it’s legal for someone to pull out a gun during a fistfight they’re losing, and there are a lot of people who think a stand needs to be taken as opposed to letting this case pass without a whisper. By vowing to avoid Florida and other such states, Wonder is no doubt hoping other artists will join him, which will lead to a noticeable lack of high end talent and put pressure on lawmakers.

On the other hand, however, it seems a little ridiculous to deny fans in an entire state concerts because of laws an overwhelming majority of them never asked for. I get why you wouldn’t play at a lawmaker’s house, but those people didn’t do anything. In addition, every single state in the union has some really stupid laws. In fact, if a performer refused to play in every state with some legal nonsense on the books and refused to play anywhere where a perceived legal injustice occurred, there would be nowhere left to play.

What do you think? Is Wonder making the right decision with his vow, or is he making a foolish decision by announcing this vow? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.