*Singer and songwriter Charlie Wilson appeared on HLN’s “Michaela” this week to discuss Tulsa, Oklahoma’s long history of racial tension and the 1921 Tulsa race riots. Wilson, also known as Uncle Charlie, and the former lead vocalist for The Gap Band, explained to host Michaela Pereira how the riots impacted him as a young man.
“… I didn’t know what the word riot meant,” recalled the Tulsa native. “So I asked [my grandmother] what the word riot means. ‘That’s when people burns things, burn your house down and they come and kill your family.’ … I was shocked to know that it happened.”
When Pereira asked Wilson to comment on current cases of police brutality, he responded, “[We] have a new lynching … When you are handcuffed they can taze you to death. They can kick you in the head … Dead is dead whether you are lynched or kicked to death.”
Peep the clip of the segment below, in which Michaela discusses Tulsa’s Black Wall Street of the 1920’s. It was a thriving community that was obliterated by jealous, racist whites.
Watch:
READ RELATED STORY: Charlie Wilson Releases Memoir, Talks Darkest Moments
Country legend Dolly Parton told Loni Love in an episode of “The Real” that she’d love to duet with Snoop Dogg, Page Six reports.
“My husband loves him, by the way . . . so, it’s possible. It’s possible. My husband likes him as a person. My husband just relates to him somehow. He’s the coolest guy!” she said.
The diva also explained why she feels pressure to always look beautiful. “I was not a natural beauty. That’s one of the reasons I have to do whatever I can. So, if my hair don’t do what I want it to do, I’ll wear a wig, and if I ain’t as tall as I need to be, I’ll wear high heels, so I try to be as pretty as I can be . . . [it’s] not real, but my heart is.”
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