Jesse Williams keeps it real with BET acceptance speech as the members of the audience were moved to tears.
The actor‚ who’s best known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery in Grey’s Anatomy and for his outspoken activism‚ received the Humanitarian Award on Sunday. While delivering his confrontational and powerful acceptance speech‚ Jesse Williams hardly shied away from slamming the unfair treatment of black people across the United States.
“This is for the real organisers all over the country. The activists‚ the civil rights attorneys‚ the struggling parents‚ the families‚ the teachers of students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do‚” said Jesse Williams‚ who linked arms with Ferguson activists to protest the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 and produced Stay Woke‚ a documentary which traced the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement.
He then chided everything from the police killings of unarmed black citizens to how black culture is commodified.
“Yesterday would’ve been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday‚ so I don’t want to hear anymore 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 then going home to make a sandwich‚” Jesse Williams scorned.
“Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Darrien Hunt‚” he continued.
“Now the thing is though‚ all of us in here getting money‚ that alone isn’t going to stop this. Now dedicating our lives‚ to get money‚ to give it right back for 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.”
Jesse kept on‚ receiving a continuous round of applause‚ while leaving some audience members‚ Jamie Foxx included‚ in tears.
“There has been no war we have not died in the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. No tax they haven’t levied against us. And we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow conditional here. ‘You’re free‚’ they keep telling us. ‘She would’ve been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.’“
“Freedom is always coming in the hereafter‚ but‚ you know what the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now. And let’s get a couple things straight—the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job. Stop with all that‚” he further explained.
“If you have a critique for our resistance then you better have an establish record of your critique of our impression. If you have no interest‚ in equal rights for black people than do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.”