Say It Loud: Celebrity Activists Who Speak Out On Social Injustices

Yasiin Bey, aka, Mos Def

Rap music veteran Mos Def is known to express his social consciousness in his music, but he has also lent his voice and rhyming talents to speak on behalf of victims of Hurricane Katrina and political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal. Recently, Yasiin Bey, the actor and activist formerly known as Mos Def, submitted to  the type of force-feeding imposed on hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay — and it  wasn’t pretty. The Brooklyn-born entertainer joined with the human rights group Reprieve to  demonstrate what the hunger strikers are enduring at the U.S. military lockup.  The demonstration was videotaped and posted online early this month. In the graphic footage, Bey, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, writhes in his restraints, then wretches and coughs as a feeding tube is inserted up his nose and down into his stomach. When the tube comes out and is about to be re-inserted, Bey pleads for those  administering the feeding to stop and partially breaks free from his  restraint.