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Politics and Activism

Thank You, Jesse Williams

How Jesse William's speech is more than just an acceptance speech.

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Thank You, Jesse Williams
nationalreview.com

It's been said again and again, and somehow people are just not understanding. By people I mean, well, people who don't think black people deserve what every other white person in America is getting, which is freedom. Sure, you may think blacks are getting treated fairly and we are free, but you are wrong. This is wrong, what is going on is wrong. What was said by Jesse Williams at the BET awards may sound repetitive, but that's only because it will continue to be said and acted upon until America decides to wake up and make a change.

If you missed what happened, Jesse Williams received the Humanitarian Awards at the BET awards last Sunday. He began by saying, "I learned what the schools were afraid to teach us", speaking on what he learned from his parents. You learn all about how things happened in America for whites, then for the month of February you learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and all that he did during the Civil Rights movement, and then maybe some chapters in a history book. What happened before that, during, and after? Black people have fought and died in every American war, but somehow the whites are the heroes. There was an endless amount of suffering that black people endured and are continuing to endure in America. He continues with saying, "a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do." The education system is not built for black people to succeed and be able to further themselves. Black people need to stop fighting against each other and realize we are all fighting the same fights and facing the same oppression every day. When you learn about where you came from and how you will be stronger and that's exactly what they don't want. They don't want blacks to realize that we are the most versatile, powerful, outstanding race there is and ever will be.

Black women were particularly called about Williams because they having continued to put themselves before everyone else. They make sacrifices that no other human has ever made. If you ask any child with a black mother about the sacrifices she's made for her children is incomparable and unbelievable, she will continue to raise her children until the day she dies. A black woman is the best thing to happen to anyone and anyone who has no respect for her and the things she does is not worthy of her presence.

This is when things are getting kind of hard to comprehend for some people but it is the reality, "we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day". The amount of black people that have lost their lives for innocent acts that a cop wouldn't think twice about killing a white person over. There may be a short period of time where cops may try to bring about change with installing cameras on their uniforms, but there is no genuine change that will be able to come about. We haven't come far at all with the deaths committed by white cops against innocent blacks day after day.

"The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That is not our job." We should not have to adjust our fight for freedom to make white people feel as if they aren't harming us and doing anything wrong because they are. There is no more rationality in the situation, we cannot continue to try to be "careful". We are making moves, and we cannot do it cautiously or carefully. If you are going to say something negative or how we won't be able to do it, there is no need to say anything all. We are making history, as we always have and will continue to do, but this time, we will be recognized for it. It will be known. We will not continue to be pushed aside, and used for our unique qualities. The lives of blacks that have not lived to see this day matter, the lives we live matter. Thank you, Jesse Williams, for continuing to say what has been said time and time again.

"Just because we're not magic, does not mean we're not real."

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