Williams speech at the BET Awards was incendiary, calling out cultural appropriation and the nationwide epidemic of racially motivated police violence. Heavy stuff for an awards show, and it went over great with the audience and many viewers.
The speech also went over great with Shonda Rhimes, who is the creator, head writer, executive producer, and showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy.
But a petition from the section of Americans who didn’t respond well to the speech was created over the Fourth of July weekend. It reads in part:
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? #AllLivesMatter All humans bleed the same color. #EqualConsequences4RacistBehavior
The petition’s creator, Erin Smith, updated her message to add, “A special note to all the people making assumptions: Who said I was white? Who said I’m a Trump supporter? This is not about politics. This is about equal consequences for racist behavior. If this was an Asian, Mexican, Caucasian or whoever saying the same exact words as Jesse Williams did, I would be against it and petitioned them to be fired if they did not suffer the same consequences as others have suffered for their irrational behavior. We’re all human. Why not act that way? Instead of lashing out with immature and obnoxious name calling, do something about getting everyone to look at everyone in the same light. Make a difference!”
Yeah, who said she was white? Whoever she is, Erin Smith plans to deliver her petition to ABC when she has 5,000 signatures, which is close to happening. Jesse Williams seems to have responded with this tweet, which Rhimes retweeted:
And Rhimes’ last comment was this:
Image via Getty.
