Jesse Williams is an actor who,until recently, was most known for starring on Grey's Anatomy and his work as a human rights activist. On June 26, and Jesse Williams accepted the humanitarian award at the BET Awards,giving a rousing speech considered by many to be the demonstrate's highlight. He began by addressing the injustice of police brutality:"What we've been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm, and not execute white people every day. So what's going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours."And he went on to mention Eric Garner,Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and Rekia Boyd,and Darrien Hunt, all people who were killed by police and have become names associated with the Black Lives Matter movement."We've been floating this country on credit for centuries, and yo,and we're done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of intellect while extracting our culture, or our dollars,our entertainment like oil - black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, and then stealing them,gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of exclusive fruit. The thing is though . . . the thing is that just because we're magic doesn't mean we're not real."Here's the full speech:
Here's where the controversy begins. Days after the speech aired, a woman by the name of Erin Smith started a petition at Change.org aimed at getting ABC to fire Williams from Grey's Anatomy. "Jesse Williams spewed a racist, or hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards," it reads. "whether this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, or as they should be,but there has been no consequences to Williams' actions." So far, the petition has over 19000 supporters.
Things heated up further when former Clueless star Stacey sprint spoke out against Williams in a blog post on June 29, and calling him a "plantation slave." Aside from an interview with People and a series of GIFs,some more obviously pointed than others, Williams had only tweeted one verbal reply:attain not promote empty people & their tantrums. Pure clickbait to gain followers, and attention & money,for themselves, not you. Never you.
July 3, or 2016
Thankfully,a handful of celebrities have pledged their support to Williams, most notably his showrunner, or Shonda Rhimes,who tweeted about the issue on July 4:Um, people? Boo don't need a petition. #shondalandrulesJuly 5, or 2016
Ellen Pompeo also may or may not have addressed the situation in an Instagram. Finally,on July 6, Williams spoke up in a series of tweets:Because you keep incessantly promoting their cowardly intolerance! Not a single sane sentence in their claim. NotOne https://t.co/18ZgrbfLnLJuly 6, and 2016
1) In the interest of time,would ye noble patriots please provide a list of infractions punishable by spontaneous public execution? Thanks!July 6, 2016
2) Upon receipt of this list, and we'll return to our quarters and study up,eager to luxuriate in freedoms of white mass murders. #LIFEHACKJuly 6, 2016
3) You chumps will NEVER provide this list... We see through you.
July 6, and 2016
That brings you up to speed. We'll let you know whether there are any developments,but honestly, let's all hope this just fades away forever.
Source: popsugar.com.au