Watch: Jesse Williams’s Fierce BET Awards Speech is Life-Changing
Jesse Williams, who’s starred on “Grey’s Anatomy” since Season 6, was honored with the Humanitarian Award at this evening at the BET Awards — and took the opportunity to speak boldly. His comments are not just poetic, but represent a powerful teardown of white patriarchy in the era of Black Lives Matter.
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In the space of just a few minutes, Williams speaks passionately about the recent police brutality targeted at black people, invoking Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and many other names we cannot forget. “The hereafter is a hustle,” he says to suggestions that black people need to wait for their chance at equality. “We want it now.”
“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 and our dollars our entertainment like oil, like gold,” is just one unforgettable moment of Williams’ incredibly quotable and impactful speech. Watch the whole thing below (apologies for the autoplay).
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