{"id":48151,"date":"2016-07-09T17:59:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T17:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=48151"},"modified":"2017-04-06T02:13:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T02:13:01","slug":"can-biracial-activists-speak-to-black-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=48151","title":{"rendered":"Can Biracial Activists Speak To Black Issues?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theestablishment.co\/2016\/07\/06\/can-biracial-activists-speak-to-black-issues-jesse-williams-bet\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Can Biracial Activists Speak To Black Issues?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theestablishment.co\" target=\"_blank\">The Establishment<\/a><br \/>\n2016-07-06<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shannon_luders\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Shannon Luders-Manuel<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theestablishment.co\/2016\/07\/06\/can-biracial-activists-speak-to-black-issues-jesse-williams-bet\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-images-1.medium.com\/max\/2000\/0*kHbQVBEycbZG2l6s.jpg\" width=\"400\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While my first instinct was to celebrate <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jesse_Williams_(actor)\" target=\"_blank\">Jesse Williams\u2019<\/a> recent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bet.com\/video\/betawards\/2016\/acceptance-speeches\/jesse-williams-receives-humanitarian-award.html\">Humanitarian Award from BET<\/a>, my second instinct, which came just seconds later, was to brace myself for the backlash.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Grey%27s_Anatomy\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em><\/a>\u00a0actor and former teacher\u00a0has been a highly visible activist within the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Lives_Matter#Movement\" target=\"_blank\">Black Lives Matter\u00a0movement<\/a>, recently executive producing the documentary\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bet.com\/shows\/stay-woke-the-movement-for-black-lives-matter\/news\/stay-woke-the-movement-for-black-lives-matter-about.html\" target=\"_blank\">Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement<\/a>. <\/em>Yet those born of racial admixture are often viewed as half-as, half-ass appropriators of blackness. We\u2019re often seen as deceitful, dangerous, and damaging to black solidarity.<\/p>\n<p>In his BET\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/arts-and-entertainment\/wp\/2016\/06\/27\/jesse-williams-gave-one-of-the-most-memorable-speeches-in-award-show-history-full-transcript\/\" target=\"_blank\">acceptance speech<\/a>, Williams called out police brutality and the\u00a0racial injustices black people have faced throughout history: \u201cThere has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven\u2019t done. There is no tax they haven\u2019t levied against us.\u201d He added\u00a0that, \u201cWe want [freedom] now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While fallout from his speech continues to\u00a0reverberate\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.etonline.com\/news\/192503_jesse_williams_bet_speech_sparks_petition_to_have_him_fired_from_grey_s_anatomy_shonda_rhimes_responds\/\" target=\"_blank\">dueling petitions<\/a>\u00a0are now raging, calling for him to be fired from\/kept on\u00a0<em>Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em>, respectively<em>\u2014<\/em>his words were\u00a0largely well-received in both black and white spheres. But, like anyone of mixed parentage who publicly rails against racial injustice, some questioned his right to speak at all&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theestablishment.co\/2016\/07\/06\/can-biracial-activists-speak-to-black-issues-jesse-williams-bet\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While my first instinct was to celebrate Jesse Williams\u2019 recent\u00a0Humanitarian Award from BET, my second instinct, which came just seconds later, was to brace myself for the backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,8,23674,20],"tags":[20697,18889,3966,22055],"class_list":["post-48151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-amandla-stenberg","tag-jesse-williams","tag-shannon-luders-manuel","tag-the-establishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48151","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=48151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53275,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48151\/revisions\/53275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}