Alicia Keys is facing a pile-on from MAGA supporters after she spoke about women’s rights on America’s 250th anniversary.
The “Empire State of Mind” singer, 45, shared a July 4 video on Instagram acknowledging the holiday in which she pointed out that “women still don’t have an explicit guarantee to equal rights under the U.S. Constitution.”
“Can you believe that?” she said. “I couldn’t even believe that was real. I mean, women are not asking for special rights, just equal rights. Let’s turn outrage into authorship. If it’s the 250th celebration of the country, isn’t it time to update some things?”
The songwriter then encouraged her followers to share ideas about what rights all Americans should have and to “reimagine what’s possible” — which sparked furious reactions from Republicans who accused her of igniting division by criticizing the Constitution.
“Dear Alicia Keys, Name one right that women DON’T have in America?! I will wait. Please know that women are FREE to join men working on offshore oil rigs, on deep sea crabbing and fishing vessels, logging trees with gigantic chainsaws, underwater welding for bridge construction and underground mining,” conservative comedian Rob Schneider wrote in part on X.
Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele, who is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, wrote in a similar message on X: “Hey @aliciakeys … please name one right men have that women don’t… I’ll wait…”
MAGA pastor Jordan Wells added, “Sorry Alicia, but women in America already have equal rights — and then some. You’re not ‘updating’ anything, you’re just manufacturing division for clout.We’re celebrating 250 years of freedom, not rewriting history to fit the victimhood script. Turn that outrage into reality: America doesn’t need more activism, it needs truth.”
One Instagram user commented under Keys’s post on Instagram: “Does anyone know what in the world she is talking about? It’s like the amount of whining over things that aren’t real is exhausting! Who is going to let her know that woman can do anything under the law that men can do?”
Keys’s representatives did not immediately return The Independent’s request for further comment.
The “Girl on Fire” singer has been a longtime advocate for women’s rights and an outspoken critic of Trump. After Trump’s inauguration in 2017, she was one of the key speakers during the Women’s March on Washington, D.C.
In her video, Keys specifically pointed out that the Equal Rights Amendment, which is a constitutional amendment that would block discrimination based on sex, has not yet been adopted into the Constitution — meaning that, as she said, women are not explicitly guaranteed the same rights and protections as men in the country’s supreme law.
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