While accepting the Shoe of the Year award at the 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards on Wednesday (Dec. 3), Pharrell Williams addressed the recent backlash to his comments about politics and diversity.
“Sound bite this. Since most people don’t like to read or do research anymore, sound bite this,” said Pharrell. “God is the greatest. Sound bite this. I’m from Virginia. Sound bite this. You don’t know what I know. You ain’t seen what I saw. No, you ain’t been where I go. I’m from the mud. As a child, nobody’s been evicted more times than me. Lights turned off, water turned off, and at times, had to pump the water.”
Pharrell recalled that he couldn’t afford his first pair of name-brand sneakers—Adidas low-top Instincts—until he got his first paycheck from McDonald’s at age 16.
“I’m proletariat,” he said. “In fact, I’m lumpenproletariat. Sound bite this. I had to stay on my feet. Sound bite this. But I could never walk in the shoes of my parents, parents, parents, etc, all they had to endure while staying on their feet. Or my ancestors, who arrived as captives, enslaved, who had no shoes yet had to stay on their feet as they landed on the shores of Virginia. As Black and Brown people on this earth, we have to stay on our feet. We have never had a choice.”
He stressed the importance of leveling the playing field, something he has been passionate about through his work with the Black Ambition Prize, which has awarded $85 million to Black and Brown startups.
“That’s where the soundbite of me saying I hate politics [came from], which was in response to the DEI support and donations drying up because of new policies,” he continued. “So yes, I got frustrated, and the sound biters, they caught me lacking. But sound bite this… I will never stop fighting. I will never stop raising money to help level the playing field. Never.”
Pharrell made the comments while he was presented with the Shoe of the Year award for the Virginia Adistar Jellyfish by his frequent collaborator Pusha T.
Last month, Pharrell made controversial comments about the political landscape at the 5th annual Black Ambition Demo Day.
“I hate politics,” he said. “Like, despise them. It’s a magic trick. It’s not real. I don’t believe in either side. Because I think when you pick a side, you are inadvertently supporting division. … Yes, it’s not a popular point of view, but I just gotta say, when I think about it, the wells are drying up.”
During the same talk, he gave his thoughts on supporting businesses based on skin color.
“Do you think for what it is that you do, do you think you’re the best? Do you want the job because you’re black or because you’re the best?” he said, addressing Black people in the audience. “Do you want someone to support your startup because you’re Black or because you’re the best?”
He later told Van Lathan that his comments about DEI and politics were taken out of context.
“He’s talking about right versus left politics, and how right versus left politics typically leave people behind. It is divisive. It’s divisive because it doesn’t get at the heart of an issue. It is a fight for political power,” Lathan explained, noting that Pharrell told him he doesn’t want to be a part of “a fight for political power,” and that he’s more interested in “empowering people to go out and live their dreams and execute the things that they are talented in.”
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