Jesse Williams slammed the Change.org petition to get him fired from Grey’s Anatomy. According to the actor, the petition doesn’t make any sense.
“Because you keep incessantly promoting their cowardly intolerance! Not a single sane sentence in their claim. Not One,” Williams, who plays plastic surgeon Jackson Avery on ABC’s hit medical drama, tweeted Wednesday, July 6.
The petition, which now has more than 20,000 signatures, accuses the 34-year-old Butler star of spewing “racist hate speech against law enforcement and white people” during his 2016 BET Awards acceptance speech for the humanitarian award last month.
“If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams’ actions,” petition creator Erin Smith argues in the post.
Following Williams’ politically charged speech about cultural appropriation and civil rights, the actor — who also produced the new documentary Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement — received a standing ovation from the crowd. His boss, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes, has also stood behind him.
“Um, people? Boo don’t need a petition,” the Grey’s Anatomy creator tweeted Monday, July 4. “#shondalandrules.”
Williams, 34, also tweeted about Alton Sterling on Wednesday. Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed by white officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, on Tuesday, July 5, after an anonymous 911 caller reported he was allegedly threatening people with a gun outside a convenience store. The shooting has since sparked outrage and the case is being investigated by the Justice Department.
“In the interest of time, would ye noble patriots please provide a list of infractions punishable by spontaneous public execution? Thanks!” Williams tweeted. “Upon receipt of this list, we’ll return to our quarters and study up, eager to enjoy freedoms of white mass murders. #LIFEHACK … You chumps will NEVER provide this list … We see through you.”
