Jesse Williams’ speech from last week’s #BETAwards has created so much more dialogue centered around race relations in America, which is great, but some people have mistaken his words for racism. How is motivating a group of people to continue challenging systematic oppression “racist”?
Anyway, a person by the name of Erin Smith has started a petition to get Williams fired, citing that he’s “racist” and that “If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised.” Well, the petition’s bio is the perfect example of someone who hasn’t got a clue as to the closeted and publicized injustices of people of color in this country.
The reason why Jesse Williams made that speech is because it was necessary and because the dialogue has to continue in order for people to get confident enough to stand up to a powers and principalities such as racism, white supremacy and cultural appropriation.
This man has put his as well as his family’s safety at risk by doing the work that he already does, so what sense would it make for him to go on national television and be publicly racist? Huge companies like ABC and Fox understand and agree with what Williams had to say which 1.) is why he hasn’t been fired and 2.) is why these companies are all working so diligently to diversify themselves with shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Blackish, Fresh Off The Boat, How To Get Away With Murder, Scandal, etc.
I don’t think this petition is going anywhere, so maybe we should start a petition for Jesse Williams to have his own show. What do you think, Roommates?
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source: https://www.change.org/p/abc-sign-petition-to-fire-jesse-williams-from-grey-s-anatomy-for-racist-rant
