Five days after the BET Awards, people are still talking about Jesse Williams’ show-stopping speech while accepting the Humanitarian Award. He chose a mainstream, televised venue to draw attention to police brutality and institutionalized racism, and his oration went mega viral. In doing so, Williams not only showed the BET audience that he was more than worthy of their gong, but he informed upon other networks that aired the awards. The message took over social media and cable news, and Williams’ speech will be remembered for many years to come.
Naturally, any wave-making phenomenon will cause ripples over time. And the overwhelmingly positive reaction was bound to be countered by some negativity as one critic tried to dismantle Williams’ points to no avail. Now, Fox News’ Stacey Dash is here to add her bit. Dash has made no secret of her distaste for BET (and Black History Month), and she seemed particularly bothered by this section of Williams’ speech:
“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. Ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, then stealing them, gentrifying our genius, and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is … just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.”
Dash took to her Patheos blog to call Williams’ speech “racist” against white people. And she got rowdy right out of the gate:
“You’ve just seen the perfect example of a HOLLYWOOD plantation slave! Sorry, Mr Williams. But the fact that you were standing on that stage at THOSE awards tells people you really don’t know what your talking about. Just spewing hate and anger.
Because you my man are just like everyone else hustling to get money. But your cognitive dissidents has you getting it from THAT BYSTANDER whom YOU DONT NEED. Yes. BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION is WHITE OWNED.”
At least no one can accuse Dash of not being consistent on issues of race. Her words speak for themselves, so perhaps we should move along to another current Dash story. The Clueless star has been called out after debasing poor women for not busting their tushes. In 2015, she told Meredith Vieira that the gender pay gap doesn’t exist, and women should just “work harder for it” if they feel they aren’t paid enough. Well, the Daily Mail has uncovered Dash’s 2004 bankruptcy documents, which reveal she once subsisted upon a $6,000 monthly stipend from her then-fiancé. Oh boy.
(Via Patheos, Raw Story & Daily Mail)