‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Creator Shonda Rhimes Responds To Petition To Fire Jesse Williams Over BET Awards Speech

Jesse Williams made one poignant speech at this year’s BET Awards which took place last week. The Grey’s Anatomy star received a standing ovation for his words, and the moment was by far the night’s most memorable. The actor and political activist has starred on the series, created by Shonda Rhimes, since 2009, and although his words were praised by many, Williams also met disagreement since speaking them.

Thousands sign petitions to keep Jesse Williams on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ after BET speech https://t.co/tYMAq2VNl8

— TIME.com (@TIME) July 5, 2016

Since the speech that was directed at taking on racism was spoken by the 34-year-old, a petition has been started on Change.org demanding that the actor be fired from the hit show, which has been a long-running staple in the ABC line up. Entertainment Tonight shares the basis of the speech and the words spoken by Jesse at the awards ceremony.

“During his speech, Williams argued for the right to equality and railed against racism in America. ‘Freedom is somehow always conditional here,’ he told the audience. ‘Freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though? The hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.’ Williams also spoke of law enforcement in his speech, stating, ‘We’ve been looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So what’s going to happen is we’re gonna have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function, and ours.'”

The petition that has been started for the purpose of seeing Williams fired from Grey’s Anatomy was begun by Erin Smith on July 1, 2016. Smith states her reasoning for initiating the petition, saying Williams “spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people, [and] if this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired.”

By Tuesday morning the petition had been signed by 7,000 people and Williams had tweeted out in reference to the actions by Erin Smith against him.

“Do not promote empty people & their tantrums. Pure clickbait to gain followers, attention & money, for themselves, not you. Never you.”

The petition also noted the fact that Isaiah Washington was fired from the same show after he made anti-gay remarks towards co-star T.R. Knight, and questioned why Williams’ remarks were not handled in a similar manner by the show’s executives.

Just to demonstrate the level of support that Jesse Williams has on his side, a petition was created in response to Smith’s and received a massive number of signatures amounting to almost three times that of the petition that sought to see Williams fired. The publication shares the details on the counter petition.

“In response to Smith’s petition, a separate one was started by Dawn Murphy the very next day pleading with Grey’s Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes to not fire Williams. It quickly attracted much more support than the one to have him dismissed from the medical drama and as of Tuesday morning received over 20,000 signatures.”

Shonda Rhimes finally broke her silence about the matter after re-tweeting Williams’ tweet and added her own statement, indicating she wasn’t about firing Williams due to his speech. As ET states, Rhimes simply tweeted, “Um, people? Boo don’t need a petition.” So as it stands, Dr. Jackson Avery is not about to go anywhere anytime soon with Shonda Rhimes on his side.

Shonda Rhimes responds to petition calling for ABC to fire Jesse Williams over BET speech https://t.co/qXaWnhpOKG

— TIME.com (@TIME) July 5, 2016

Williams would likely wish to reiterate his words from his BET speech, as relayed by the National Post, and direct them at Smith and those who signed the petition for his dismissal.

“If you have critique for the resistance, of our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest in equal rights for black people, then do not make suggestions for those who do. Sit down.”

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]