Rihanna Receives Prestigious NAACP President’s Award

CLF founder, Rihanna, asked fans and audience members to “tell your friends to pull up” in her acceptance speech at the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday, February 22.

“I’m lucky I was able to start the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012,” she said. “And if there’s anything that I’ve learned, it’s that we can only fix this world together. We can’t do it divided."

In receiving the organization’s prestigious President’s Award, in recognition of her business and public service achievements, Rihanna provoked the audience with a call for unity and action that went viral overnight.

"How many of us in this room have colleagues and partners and friends from other races, sexes, religions?" she asked. "Well then, you know, they want to break bread with you, right? They like you? Well then, this is their problem too. So when we're marching and protesting and posting about the Michael Brown Jr.s and the Atatiana Jeffersons of the world, tell your friends to pull up."

She concluded her powerful speech beckoning all of us to “imagine what we could do together.” We certainly can!

Watch her full acceptance speech online.