Beyonce Fires Back at Harry Belafonte With List of 'Unselfish Work'
'They Have Turned Their Back on Social Responsibility,' Said Belafonte
Beyonce Knowles has responded to criticism that she and her husband Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter do not use their celebrity status to help minorities.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, legendary singer and social activist Harry Belafonte, 85, said that many famous and high profile minorities do not do enough for their communities and "have turned their back on social responsibility."
"They have not told the history of our people, nothing of who we are. We are still looking ... It is all- excuse my French -- s---. It is sad. And I think one of the great abuses of this modern time is that we should have had such high-profile artists, powerful celebrities. But they have turned their back on social responsibility," Belafonte told THR.
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"That goes for Jay-Z and Beyonce, for example. Give me Bruce Springsteen, and now you're talking. I really think he is black," he went on.
Beyonce, 30, who rarely responds to public criticism, fired back at Belafonte's remarks by emailing a list of what her rep described as being "an abbreviated list of the unselfish work Beyoncé has done and continues to do," to the Wall Street Journal.
The list included co-founding The Survivor Foundation, "a multi-purpose community outreach facility in downtown Houston"; donating "100K in 2008 to the Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund to aid Texas victims of Hurricane Ike"; performing in "MTV's Hope For Haiti Now! Benefit in addition to making a generous monetary donation," among many other charitable activities.
Just days after Belafonte's statement, the Grammy award-winning singer performed "I Was Here," a song from her fourth studio album "4" at the U.N. General Assembly Hall.
Ironically, the performance was in honor of World Humanitarian Day on Aug. 19, and a music video of the performance will debut on the same day.
