{"id":39093,"date":"2014-12-28T03:01:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T03:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39093"},"modified":"2014-12-28T15:05:51","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T15:05:51","slug":"outspoken-about-ferguson-jesse-williams-may-be-this-generations-harry-belafonte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39093","title":{"rendered":"Outspoken about Ferguson, Jesse Williams may be this generation\u2019s Harry Belafonte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outspoken about Ferguson, Jesse Williams may be this generation\u2019s Harry Belafonte<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2014-08-20<\/p>\n

Soraya Nadia McDonald<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nHarry Belafonte, left. (NBC via AP) Jesse Williams, right. (Christian Alminana<\/a>\/AP<\/em>) <\/small><\/p>\n

There are many ways to get celebrity activism wrong when it comes to a situation like the one that has emerged in Ferguson, Mo.<\/a><\/p>\n

Appearing to be uninformed<\/a> is a huge no-no, as is calling for a plan<\/a> when you don\u2019t have one \u2014 sorry Nelly<\/a>. But if one can offer fiery rhetoric absent sanctimony and full of razor-sharp opinions, well, people take notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enter Jesse Williams<\/a>, the actor who plays the hunky Dr. Jackson Avery<\/a> on ABC\u2019s \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy<\/a>.\u201d Williams appeared on CNN\u2019s<\/a> \u201cState of the Union\u201d Sunday. Clad in a hoodie<\/a>, he may have looked like Facebook<\/a> founder Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, but once he opened his mouth, he sounded like Harry Belafonte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, radical, Occupy Wall Street<\/a> protester-supporting, Fidel Castro<\/a>-befriending, Colin Powell<\/a> and Condoleezza Rice<\/a>-shunning Harry Belafonte.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice have been beating the hell out of black people for a very, very, very long time, before the advent of the video camera,\u201d said Williams, who also spoke out after the deaths of Trayvon Martin<\/a> and Jordan Davis<\/a>. \u201cAnd despite the advent of the video camera, there\u2019s still an incredible trend of police brutality and killing in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Williams, 33, seems best suited to continue the legacy of black Hollywood<\/a> activism associated with Belafonte. In his memoir, \u201cMy Song<\/a>,\u201d Belafonte wrote, \u201cI wasn\u2019t an artist who\u2019d become an activist. I was an activist who\u2019d become an artist.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outspoken about Ferguson, Jesse Williams may be this generation\u2019s Harry Belafonte The Washington Post 2014-08-20 Soraya Nadia McDonald Harry Belafonte, left. (NBC via AP) Jesse Williams, right. (Christian Alminana\/AP) There are many ways to get celebrity activism wrong when it comes to a situation like the one that has emerged in Ferguson, Mo. Appearing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,26,20],"tags":[17765,11978,18889,773,18888,18887,18886,2875,2581],"class_list":["post-39093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-ferguson","tag-harry-belafonte","tag-jesse-williams","tag-missouri","tag-soraya-mcdonald","tag-soraya-n-mcdonald","tag-soraya-nadia-mcdonald","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}