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Wendy Williams, Jesse Williams, And Understanding What’s Really Important Following Alton Sterling’s Death

By Jonathan Brown
Published on: 11:59 PST, Jul 6, 2016

For the second time in less than a week, an African-American celebrity has expressed disdain and confusion over the creation of Black-owned corporations and award ceremonies.

On Wednesday, just hours after the world learned of the senseless killing of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man who was shot multiple times by police for selling CDs out of his car, talk show host Wendy Williams opened up her daily gabfest with an update on the online petition to have actor Jesse Williams fired from the hit series Grey’s Anatomy.

https://youtu.be/8IUTwaIWPBc?t=3m24s

As reported here on the Inquisitr, the viral complaint form was created as a counteraction to the actor’s powerful acceptance speech at last week’s 2016 BET Awards. After stating that most found his words to be “poignant,” the 51-year-old wife and mother seemed to relay that she wasn’t one of the people who sided with him.

“You know, I would be really offended if there was a school known as a historically white college,” Williams says. “We have historically black colleges. [What if] there was the National Organization For White People Only? We have the NAACP [the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People].”

Unfortunately, no one on her staff relayed to her that there is such as a thing as the NOWPO — it’s just referred to by a shorter, more-repetitive acronym. But, that’s not the point.

As usual (and understandably so), the clapback on social media was insane and quick, with most folks hilariously, and at times, crudely reminding her of the Black audience that pays her bills by tuning into her show every Monday through Friday.

Mind you, those are some of the more PG-rated responses.

However, one person in particular, a Twitter user who calls himself Civil Savage, managed to catch this writer’s attention from a totally different angle. With just one truthful hashtag, he reminded myself, and every other person of color out there, just what we all need to be focusing on right now.

Today, we lost another Black person, another member of our near-extinct community, due to those who are not mentally or emotionally equipped to serve and protect us. And although emotions are higher than high right now, Wendy Williams should not be the target of such scorn.

On the contrary, Wendy should be left alone, completely and totally. The time has come to shut her, Fox News Channel co-host Stacey Dash, Raven-Symoné, Whoopi Goldberg (who moronically seconded Raven’s ridiculous “I’m not an African-American” statement, and knew full well what such a comment implied), and anyone else who has the gall to even begin to think that they’re above our struggle, out. For good. This is not a game, folks. We’re in the fight of our lives, and we need warriors, not deflectors, to lead and be part of this pack.

The stories of Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Grey, and the many, many others who have been taken away from the world due to the actions of reckless police officers and the occasional racist are not the first, second, or hundredth of their kind. The tales of racism experienced by true icons, both familial and otherwise, as well as those who walk among us today (so sorry you had to deal with that, Rayne and Mojito) prove why such events as the BET Awards, or collegiate schools as Howard University or Spelman College, are wholly necessary.

Even with so many of us walking around this “land of the free and home of the brave,” our lives are continuously, repeatedly, and loudly disregarded and relegated to a near-invisible echelon of importance. This isn’t news, people — and Wendy, at one point in her life, knew this as well. She probably still does, but for whatever reason, she has decided to (as so many others outside of our melanin shades have) discard the “strange fruit” after using our attention, our power, and as Jesse Williams put it, our “magic,” to build her holier-than-thou pedestal.

We’ve wasted far too much energy and attention on people like Wendy Williams. The struggle is real, y’all, and we need to put all of our focus solely on it, and not on those who allow their bank accounts and makeup team to warp the way they treat the same collective they were born from. Peace out, Wendy. You’re dismissed.

[Photo by Brad Barket/Stringer/Getty Images]

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