Janet Jackson’s latest round of Hawai`i concerts featured a moment where she and her dancers flash the two-handed sign used by protesters against the Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea.
She hadn’t made an actual statement during the performance, when photos of the protesters are also shown on a large screen over the stage. But she said she was compelled to do it.
“To be able to want to take this land -- this sacred land -- it’s wrong. It’s not right at all,” she told Hawai`i News Now. “I stand with them.”
Jackson explained her motivation came from Hawai`i dancers who have performed with her.
“There are a few Hawaiians that have been in my camp for a while, for a good while. More than 15 years. And they explained to me the situation, and I was floored.”
