{"id":47983,"date":"2016-06-27T18:42:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T18:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47983"},"modified":"2016-10-26T22:36:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T22:36:54","slug":"how-jesse-williams-stole-bet-awards-with-speech-on-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47983","title":{"rendered":"How Jesse Williams Stole BET Awards With Speech on Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Jesse Williams Stole BET Awards With Speech on Racism<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2016-06-27<\/p>\n

Katie Rogers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Jesse Williams<\/a> accepting the humanitarian award at the BET Awards<\/a> on Sunday in Los Angeles<\/a>. Credit Matt Sayles\/Invision, via Associated Press<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The BET Awards<\/a> Sunday featured tributes to Prince<\/a> and Muhammad Ali<\/a>, and a performance by Beyonc\u00e9 and Kendrick Lamar<\/a>. But this year, the actor Jesse Williams<\/a> commanded the spotlight with an impassioned speech<\/a> calling for an end to police killings, racial inequality and cultural appropriation.<\/p>\n

His was far from the only political statement of the evening: With the words \u201cDon\u2019t Trump America\u201d written on his back, the singer Usher<\/a> used his performance to make a statement against Donald J. Trump<\/a>. And when Taraji P. Henson<\/a>, the star of \u201cEmpire<\/a>,\u201d accepted her best actress award, she also warned the audience about Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

Since 2009, Mr. Williams has been played the role of Dr. Jackson Avery on \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy<\/a>.\u201d When he is not working on the set of the hospital drama, Mr. Williams, a former teacher, champions causes related to civil rights. He starred in and produced \u201cStay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement<\/a>,\u201d a documentary that premiered last month on BET<\/a>. He produces Question Bridge<\/a>, an art project about the experience of black men in America, and works with Sankofa<\/a>, an organization dedicated to ending racial injustice.<\/p>\n

The child of a white mother and a black father, Mr. Williams told The Guardian<\/em> last October<\/a> that his parents had shaped his activist roots, and said that being biracial allowed him to see both sides of a cultural divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have access to rooms and information,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cI am white and I am also black. I am invisible man in a lot of these scenarios. I know how white people talk about black people. I know how black people talk about white folks.\u201d…<\/p>\n

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

How Jesse Williams Stole BET Awards With Speech on Racism The New York Times 2016-06-27 Katie Rogers Jesse Williams accepting the humanitarian award at the BET Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. Credit Matt Sayles\/Invision, via Associated Press The BET Awards Sunday featured tributes to Prince and Muhammad Ali, and a performance by Beyonc\u00e9 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,23674,20],"tags":[24309,18889,20791,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-47983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-bet-awards","tag-jesse-williams","tag-katie-rogers","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47983","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=47983"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47988,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47983\/revisions\/47988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}