Jesse Williams is under fire this week for the racially charged speech he gave at the BET Awards, where he received a Humanitarian Award. Williams is an actor known for playing Dr. Jackson Avery of Grey’s Anatomy.
There is now a petition circulating to get him fired from Grey’s Anatomy. Obviously, he has offended people because over 4,600 people have signed it at the time of this writing. The petition said:
“Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams’ actions. There’s been no companies making a stand against his racist remarks and no swift action condemning his negative attitude. Why was Burke’s character fired from Grey’s Anatomy after his inappropriate homophobic slur, but nothing for Jesse Williams? Why the one-way street? Why the support for a hater? Why the hypocrisy?”
He received some backlash from RWNJ Stacey Dash on her blog, according to Hollywood Life:
“Sorry, Mr. Williams. But the fact that you were standing on that stage at THOSE awards tells people you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Just spewing hate and anger … That chip on the shoulders of people like you will weigh you down and keep you from flying free. But true freedom is never free. You have to know how to fly. If anyone is making you feel this way its you. Living in a psychological prison of your own making. If anyone is GHETTO-IZING anyone, it’s people like you letting the BETs and other media outlets portray us in stereotypes.”
Shonda Rhimes, creator of the show, tweeted this about the speech:
In woods. Far from wifi. Get signal! What'd I miss? "Just because we're magic doesn't mean we're not real." @iJesseWilliams' speech. YES.
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) June 28, 2016
There is a counter petition by Dawn Murphy. This restored my faith in humanity. The counter petition has gotten over 18,000 signatures. It says:
“Jesse Williams is a bright man, passionate spokesman and a committed advocate of black people and #BlackLivesMatter who took a public stand on BET Awards show, risking his job and career for his beliefs. Now is the time for us to stand for Jesse and petition Shonda Rhimes and the other decision makers at “Grey’s Anatomy” and ABC to support this brave leader, not just by not firing him or in any way diminishing his role or pushing out, but by openly standing with him and speaking against hate in any form. Don’t just tell the racists, “No”. Show them!”
Here is a taste of what he said:
“This is for the real organizers all over the country. The activists, 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. There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done, there’s been no tax they haven’t levied against us, and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here.”
Jesse Williams didn’t do anything wrong. He doesn’t deserve to be fired. Watch the entire speech below.
Featured Image: Screenshot Of YouTube Video.
