Last night at the BET Awards, Jessie Williams, he of “Grey’s Anatomy” and the Ferguson protests, won the Humanitarian Award.
And then he said (519 words):
“This is for the real organizers all over the country, the activist, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do. It’s kinda basic mathematics: the more we learn about who we are and how we got here the more we will mobilize.
“This award is also for the black women in particular who have spent their lives nurturing everyone before themselves – we can and will do better for you.
“Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So what’s going to happen is we’re going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours. [Standing ovation.]
“I got more, y’all. Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear any more about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television, and then going home to make a sandwich.
“Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner, Sandra Bland.
“The thing is though, all of us here are getting money, that alone isn’t going to stop this. Dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back to put someone’s brand on our body – when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies?
“There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There is no job we haven’t done, there is no tax they haven’t levied against us, and we have paid all of them.
“But freedom is always conditional here. ‘You’re free!’ they keeping telling us. ‘But she would be alive if she hadn’t acted so … free.’ Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but the hereafter is a hustle: We want it now.
“Let’s get a couple of things straight. The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander – that’s not our job so let’s stop with all that. If you have a critique for our resistance then you’d better have an established record, a critique of our oppression.
“If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do: sit down.
“We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, 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 mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold! – ghettoizing and demeaning our creations and stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.
“Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.
“Thank you.”
See also:
He just sealed his fate…The white supremacists will black ball him in Hollywood.
He seems to be willing to sacrifice is acting career for the betterment of civil rights. And for that, i take my hat off to him.
There aren’t many black people that are willing to do that in hollywood, he is one of the select few.
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The man was on fire for us. He used his presence as a gracious sacrifice and I am enlightened.
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What Sondis said!
and this:
“The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander – that’s not our job so let’s stop with all that.”
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I like him because he could easily go the way of the other clueless new blacks in the entertainment industry and being biracial could dismiss Black people altogether but he uses his platform to address the injustice of Black Lives Matter in this racist country. Being in Hollywood that to me is risky so I have the utmost respect for him he’s wonderful.
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But I wonder if this will hurt his career because one can’t be too down with Black empowerment in Hollywood?
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Mesmerizing. Just think, if most black entertainers had half the balls Jesse had and were willing to back it up by putting their money where their mouth is, I shudder…It would be the start of something huge!
I had no idea Jesse was an activist, but I love him even more now than I did before. Devastatingly handsome and with a cause..swwooooon 😀
Is it true they banned his speech all over the internet?Hmm, stinks..
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He was brilliant and it made me proud. I don’t think he cares if he’s blackballed. As he said in the video that played before he accepted the award, he was a teacher first. He had no desire to act; it just sort of happened. It has given him a great platform and it’s been wonderful to see him using it this way over the last few years. I look forward to more of the same.
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Mary Burrell:
“But I wonder if this will hurt his career because one can’t be too down with Black empowerment in Hollywood?”
Mary, he’s finished. They will black ball him for certain, being he just insulted the white supremacist entertainment industry and the white people within it.
White people will boycott him by now going to any movie with him in it or refuse to tune into Grey’s anatomy TV Show. Because when a black man speaks out against racism/ white supremacy, white people’s feelings get hurt ( white fragility ).
The only reason why he’s lasted this long is because he has blue eyes and light skin, this is why white people identify with a bi-racial person if they look, undeniably half white because if he had been brown or dark skinned with dark brown eyes, he would have been cast out! Want an example?
On the very TV Show Jesse Williams stars,”Grey’s Anatomy”, they cast out and black balled dark skin black actor, Isiah Washington!!
Hows that for irony? Jesse has been all over white media, standing with black lives matter and he is still working in Hollywood, yet Washington was shown the door with the quickness! So he enjoys a level of privilege in being a bi-racial man with blue eyes.
Again, he’s a man with dignity and integrity……
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Well, Isaiah Washington did scream at fellow cast members and call one who was gay a “faggot”. Shonda Rhimes, the proud black woman, who is the producer and head writer for that show, has a notoriously low tolerance for such shenanigans in her casts, whether they be black or white. He did that to himself.
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That speech was on FIRE!
my favorite part:
Know your HISTORY people !!!
Yes, white people will be upset (as usual) because they will totally miss the POINT about Jesse’s speech
— the point being, that this speech was not meant for them (white people)
Jesse was talking to us African descendants (black, mixed, etc) who are asleep and those of us who are already awake
but mostly, he was reminding everyone listening that while we might be “awake” — we are all still “chasing paper” (money) and that “American Dream”
willing to compromise pieces of our integrity in order to climb the ladder because the devil demands his due, and our money goes back into the very system that feeds the beast
Jesse Williams dared to speak his Truth, I hope he can rise above whatever the Hollywood media machine is about to throw at him
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After decades of Black women publicly being called every foul name in the English language to a global audience…thank you, Jesse Williams.
Those public servants should also not be able to retire as millionaires because a coven of White Supremacists pay them rewards for killing Black folk.
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/darren-wilson-reportedly-receives-a-large-bounty-of-financial-support-for-killing-michael-brown/
Thank you, Jesse Williams.
“Gentrifying our genius”. How often are Black people called “stupid”, “lazy” or “immoral” by people who steal our creations, depended on slave labor and committed mass murder and rape. Just this morning, news outlets were abuzz with the hidden history of Jack Daniels whiskey. The original master distiller was an enslaved Black man named Nearis Green. Clay Risen of the New York Times makes this connection:
“…Slavery and whiskey, far from being two separate strands of Southern history, were inextricably entwined. Enslaved men not only made up the bulk of the distilling labor force, but they often played crucial skilled roles in the whiskey-making process. In the same way that white cookbook authors often appropriated recipes from their black cooks, white distillery owners took credit for the whiskey”.
Thank you, Jesse Williams!
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@Afrofem, thank you for this informative information.
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@Sondis: I agree totally with you.
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@Linda
“Know your HISTORY people !!!”
So very true.
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@Linda: On point as usual.
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Hollywood will accept any social justice advocacy except race.
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Reading this speech gave me chills. If only more were willing to take such risks to fight for the people’s rights.
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I tip my hat to Jesse Williams for a brilliant speech that was well thought out. However, I’m afraid that this deeply well meaning, beautifully pronounced speech will be for naught. The eloquence of an oration has never the instrument utilized to begin the disassembling of an empire.
In the past, we’ve had honorable men who were great orators who also spoke articulately and voluminously about freedom or lack thereof in this country called Amerika, such as: Fred Hampton, Frederick Douglas, Marcus Garvey, George Jackson, Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis and many, many more.
Warning to Jesse: continually watch over your shoulders and be mindful of who pulls up next to you at those unpredictable stop lights. Oh yeah, don’t sit near the windows at those upscale restaurants in Los Angeles!
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Lol. This clown is probably about 2/3 White by blood. And he still calls himself Black? Ha, ha, jokey, jokey!
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Jesse Williams took advantage of the platform given to him at the BET Awards. Thumbs up!
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The trouble with giving out humanitarian awards is that the awardee might care about something more than money.
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deery:
“Well, Isaiah Washington did scream at fellow cast members and call one who was gay a “faggot”. Shonda Rhimes, the proud black woman, who is the producer and head writer for that show, has a notoriously low tolerance for such shenanigans in her casts, whether they be black or white. He did that to himself.”
Nah, not buying it for one minute! there is always a reason to fire a black person at a company, Hollywood ect.
How many white people have said offensive things about black people and still keep their jobs?
Hell, look at white police officers, they kill unarmed black people, brutalize, harass and arrest for no reason and still keep their jobs!
So spare me with giving white supremacy a pass for a so called slight against gays…..
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blakksage:
“I tip my hat to Jesse Williams for a brilliant speech that was well thought out. However, I’m afraid that this deeply well meaning, beautifully pronounced speech will be for naught. The eloquence of an oration has never the instrument utilized to begin the disassembling of an empire.
In the past, we’ve had honorable men who were great orators who also spoke articulately and voluminously about freedom or lack thereof in this country called Amerika, such as: Fred Hampton, Frederick Douglas, Marcus Garvey, George Jackson, Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis and many, many more.
Warning to Jesse: continually watch over your shoulders and be mindful of who pulls up next to you at those unpredictable stop lights. Oh yeah, don’t sit near the windows at those upscale restaurants in Los Angeles!”
You wrote what i was thinking…
We as black people are good for getting hypnotized by speeches.
Speeches never freed any people from oppression and at the end of the day, its only a speech that won’t turn into legislation.
The next revolution by black people has to be won, through naked violence!
Black Lives Matter is the 1st phase…making noise, disruption and chaos!
Black people have to make white people uncomfortable by letting them know that we don’t like our position in society.
Black people have become so complacent, white people think we’re equal to them!
The more of a ruckus we make, shows them we are not happy with our state of affairs.
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It’s true Jesse Williams dropped the mic like Odin in Norse mythology dropped Thor’s hammer but after all of the hoopla what are we going to do with that? Is this going to be the impetus to dismantle the system of white supremacy?
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@blakksage: In my haste to post I see we are on the same page about a rousing speech and oratory gifts dismantling an asymmetrical system such as white supremacy in America. Maybe brother Williams’s speech will inspire more Black youth to keep fighting to let white Americans know Black Lives matter and that Black people are going to keep fighting injustice.
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I have often felt that the reason the FBI spy on African American social justice movements is because they know such movements can escalate into revolutions against the elite. So, they encourage the parrots in FOX news to discredit any social movement that challenges the status quo to preserve the elite at all costs. The elite around the world are still mostly white but the non-white elite are still just as disgusting.
“If you have a critique for our resistance then you’d better have an established record, a critique of our oppression.
If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do: sit down.”
Here, he is also probably talking to the like of Wu Tang Klan who criticize BLM. I think lol. Powerful
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not to be snide, but this guy brought back so many abagond threads to me, again obviously i’m not black. it’s he had the mic
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Reblogged this on Black Girl Wondering and Praying….
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@Afrofem
Thanks for posting this!
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Jesse Williams speech was the best and most important thing that BET has ever displayed. EVER. Some real activism. Real words. Real passion. This cant be turned off. This is what happens when you don’t give dam about “your career being ruined”.
His career and position in Hollywood does not supersede his people and injustice towards them. Not one ounce of hesitance shown. Not one apology. Not one curse word spoken. Nothing to taint his message. Injustice against black people took that stage. And every black person should be proud right now
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@THHR
True. Seeing the speech live with views of the audience, his parents and wife made the speech even more powerful. The look of pride on his father and mother’s faces in particular were so uplifting.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeRIUPlxlv4)
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But he kind of left his own mother estranged. I hope he let her know how important it was prior to the speech so she knows he didn’t discredit her in any way.
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@TeddyBearDaddy
“But he kind of left his own mother estranged.”
His mom’s expression during the speech was one of obvious pride in his presentation. I don’t think she was estranged by his words.
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sondis:
Washington had been made to leave the show a couple of years before Williams even came onto it. So one had nothing to do with the other. That being said, he has been getting a lot of hate for his speech from both some black and white folks (mostly white,of course) who completely ignore everything he talked about and call him an anti-white racist,and all this other BS. Check how half of everybody on his IMDb page is going off on him because of what he said:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0930898/board/threads/
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TedyBearDaddy:
He didn’t leave his mother “estranged” form anything. He said that it was BOTH his parents was taught him to be the person he was. And he said in one of the few extensive and really good interviews he did on youtube that the white side of his family didn’t have a problem with him being who is is. Here is one of them right there—some of it is NSFW in terms of language. And nope, he’s not available–he’s married and is a father:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMg6hRkUiDQ)
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One thing you can say about white people is that they’re consistent. Like clockwork they have reportedly got Jesse fired from his show
http://www.farrahgray.com/breaking-news-greys-anatomy-star-jesse-williams-reportedly-fired-speech-bet-awards/2/
They created a petition.
https://www.change.org/p/abc-sign-petition-to-fire-jesse-williams-from-grey-s-anatomy-for-racist-rant
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The Change.org petition comments were full of the usual; White people gaslighting themselves into believing that honesty from a Black person equals a personal attack on them. Because its always all about them.
While there were lots of the “he is a racist” and “all lives matter” knee jerk commentary from White Supremacists that Black folk hear every day in “post racial” America, this gas filled comment floated above the rest for sheer cluelessness:
The entire rant can be found here:
https://www.change.org/p/abc-sign-petition-to-fire-jesse-williams-from-grey-s-anatomy-for-racist-rant/c/476674577
That is a lot of phony hurt and hysteria from a speech that basically said: Black people are real, Black people contribute to this country and Black people deserve better.
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@Afrofem: That was a great post. Man the old adage about “A hit dog will holler ” These racist are howling at the moon. They cannot stand to be called out on their racism. Anytime Black people speak out or celebrate themselves they loose their cotton picking minds. But Jesse knew they were going to come for him and I am sure he knows the consequences since he has been speaking out even before the BET awards. Jesse is a gifted brother and he can go anywhere and Greys Anatomy can take a hike.
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Even Stacy Dash called Jesse a plantation slave. She is too busy getting pimped out by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. And Whoopi Goldberg on The View even said she had a problem with Jesse’s speech because he mentioned cultural appropriation and she was on a rant about hair weaves and how Black people wear weaves that look like white women’s hair. None of that foolishness had nothing to do with the speech Jesse made. The sell out Black people are a disgrace.
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@Mary Burrell
You are so correct. Stacy Dash and Whoopi Goldberg are two “Rented Negroes” that need to shut up and sit down.
Jesse Williams was talking about bootlickers like them when he said:
“If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do: sit down.”
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Just to correct some misinfo floating here – Jesse has not been fired from Grey’s Anatomy and he’s been “dropping the mic” on race and racism for years via social media [getting hundreds of responses and thousands of retweets] so none of the attention he’s getting now is new for him nor his employer. He’ll be okay like he always has been. The people signing the petition are just johnny come latelys who aren’t on the internet or never bothered to do a simple google search. Most just wanted to live in fantasyland and imagine he is some nice little obedient biracial that would never offend their senses and is inherently on their side, aka: white identified.
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@Mary and Afrofem
That is primarily why Stacey Trash and Whoopi Hoberg had so much to say. They mad cause he called them out.
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@Sharina: Those two Toms need to have a whole stadium of seats and follow Jesse’s advice and sit all the way down.
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@Sharina @Mary
Laughing WAY OUT LOUD!
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@JMac
Thanks for the background story.
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Stacy Dash? The same washed up Q-List celebrity turned conservative grifter, who preaches “personal responsibility” while she sponges off her ex-husband (after he kicked her nutty behind to the curb) at the tune of $6k a month? Who has racked up over 150k in debt (and still rising), because she’s such an idiot with money?
THAT Stacy Dash?
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@Franklin
Yeah, that Stacy Dash.
I think she did a poor job of earning her “anti-Black” attack dog money with her silly comments about Jesse Williams speech. No Black people cared about what she had to say and not many White people cared either.
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