Advertisement

Wendy Williams: Here’s why people say Jesse Williams’ BET speech is racist

Wendy Williams is under fire for comments she made about Jesse Williams' BET Awards speech. Getty Images

Wendy Williams is under fire from the black community after she made controversial remarks about Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams‘s speech at the BET Awards last month.

During her BET show Wednesday, Williams was discussing the online petitions circulating to get Jesse fired from Grey’s, and how those only started up because people interpreted his speech as “racist against white people.”

WATCH: Justin Timberlake faces backlash after tweet responding to Jesse Williams’ BET speech
Click to play video: 'Justin Timberlake faces backlash after tweet responding to Jesse Williams’ BET speech'
Justin Timberlake faces backlash after tweet responding to Jesse Williams’ BET speech

“I must say to you, he was on BET and his speech was very poignant on the one hand, on the other hand, you know, I would be really offended if there was a school that was known as a historically white college. We have historically black colleges,” she said.

Story continues below advertisement

She also referred to the multiple national organizations in the U.S. specifically for black people (like the NAACP), and pointed out that white people don’t have the same thing.

“What if there was the National Organization for White People, only? There’s the NAACP,” she asked rhetorically.

READ MORE: New Iron Man is a 15-year-old black woman, says Marvel

“Look, everybody’s quiet,” she said to the stunned audience. “You’re leaving me out here to dry by myself? One wrong word — I’m choosing my words carefully, but what I am saying is racism sucks and we can all do better in our own households, educating our children to make to make it better. National speeches like this will always rub people up the wrong way, just like, you know, white people might be offended because Spelman College is you know, a historically black college for women.”

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Williams was subsequently lambasted on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Luvvie/status/750719939959525377

Story continues below advertisement

https://twitter.com/SARR_J/status/750837747414360065

The Change.org petition calls for Jesse to be fired over the speech in which he criticized police in America, saying: “We know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day.”

WATCH: Jesse Williams delivers a speech at the BET Awards on June 26
Click to play video: 'Jesse Williams delivers powerful BET Awards speech about racism'
Jesse Williams delivers powerful BET Awards speech about racism

Started by a woman named Erin Smith, the petition takes issue with the fact that Williams, an African-American, was not punished in any way for his allegedly “racist” speech.

Story continues below advertisement
“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,” reads the petition. “There’s [sic] been no companies making a stand against his racist remarks and no swift action condemning his negative attitude.”
Story continues below advertisement

Sponsored content

AdChoices