And Here’s The Powerful Speech Jesse Williams Gave At Last Night’s BET Awards
At last night’s BET Awards, actor and noted hot piece Jesse Williams won the Humanitarian Award for his dedication to many important social issues including the Black Lives Matter movement. Jesse used his time at the mic to give a sermon about cultural appropriation, gentrification, fighting for equality and much more. The house came all the way down several times during Jesse’s speech. If Samuel L. Jackson, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award last night, was wearing his signature Kangol hat, that shit would’ve flown right off of his head. Because Samuel L. Jackson said that Jesse’s speech was something his ears haven’t heard since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The video of Jesse’s full speech auto-plays, so I put it after the cut, but here’s what he said at the end of his speech:
“We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil — black gold! — ghettoizing and demeaning our creations and stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.
Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real. Thank you.”
Many were inspired by Jesse’s words including Justin Timberlake who watched it and tweeted this simple slow clap:
@iJesseWilliams tho…#Inspired #BET2016
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
JT didn’t leave it at that….. His mentions quickly filled up with people asking him if this means he’s going to stop “appropriating our music and culture” and if he’s going to apologize to Janet Jackson for pretty much throwing her nipple under the bus and letting her take the fall for the exposed Super Bowl titty knob that SHOCKED THE WORLD in 2004. Justin responded, and he served his response on a platter made of pure condescending assholeness:
Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
Oh, that sweet soul Justin Timberlake, wasn’t ready for what came next. Twitter didn’t even let Justin protect his Keratin-straightened locks before dragging him to the depths of Hell and back again. I kept waiting for JT to tweet, “#NOTTHEHAIR! #NOTTHEHAIR!”
I feel misunderstood. I responded to a specific tweet that wasn’t meant to be a general response. I shouldn’t have responded anyway…
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
He then made it look like he didn’t even listen to Jesse’s speech by telling everyone to join hands and sing, “Kumbaya, my loooooooord,” in falsetto:
I forget this forum sometimes… I was truly inspired by @iJesseWilliams speech because I really do feel that we are all one… A human race
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
That didn’t really work and so he apologized before calling it a night.
I apologize to anyone that felt I was out of turn. I have nothing but LOVE FOR YOU AND ALL OF US.
–JT
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
I’m waiting for Orville Redenbacher to announce that we’re officially in a popcorn drought because the country’s entire supply was eaten during Twitter’s dragging of Justin Timberpuddle. And none of that popcorn was eaten by Janet Jackson, because she and her right nipple were too busy cackling over this.
And back to Jesse, here’s pictures of him, along with pictures of Samuel L. Jackson, at the BET Awards last night: