Shortly after the BET Awards aired and Black people across America felt a boost of pride and moral in Jesse Williams’ Humanitarian Award acceptance speech, a petition to get Williams kicked off of Grey’s Anatomy was launched. According to the petition creator, who one could assume was not African American, Williams’ speech gave off “racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people.” The complaint was followed with the never failing “if this was a white person…” comparison.
The petition received over 5,000 signatures out of their 7,000 signature goal. Doesn’t matter though, because Shonda Rhimes isn’t letting Jesse go.
It took Shonda Rhimes a few days to catch Jesse’s speech, since she was vacationing without wifi. But when she did, she took no time at all to tweet her approval. Following the news of the petition, Shonda took to Twitter once again. “Um, people? Boo don’t need a petition. #shondalandrules,” she tweeted.
With Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, and Channing Dungey, entertainment president of ABC, both being black women, this petition doesn’t hold much weight. So as Jesse said, “if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.”
