During the BET Awards, Jesse Williams gave a powerful and revolutionary speech. He emphasized the importance of black success, while highlighting the current state of black people. I’ve decided to magnify some of the most powerful aspects of his speech aside my own concerns for the black community.

He began his speech by thanking his parents for, “teaching me what schools are afraid to teach.” This ranks as one of my top concerns because schools run on repeat like broken record players; teaching kids the same African-American leaders as if we don’t go beyond that. History has no limitation as our way of learning should be as such. Our ancestors had countless moments of greatness accompanied with harsh odds against them. Look at where we stand today in terms of their reality.

“Dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back to put someone’s brand on our body—when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.” We’ve become slaves to the money. Walking around with green eyes; starving for a way to get to it. We pride ourselves in Facebook likes and Instagram follows, continuing the cycle of posting on Facebook to book faces as hashtags for the lost. The news feeds if you take the time to look at more than your newsfeed. We’ve grown numb to the bodies slain on pavement with “check point” written in chalk like Call of Duty. Because we’re ignoring our call of duty to change the course of history. It’s sad because death seems like autocorrect. But it’s because we haven’t corrected our automatic assumptions. We’re too busy locking and loading automatic weapons. This world has killed authenticity. We are more addicted to hashtags than a pack of cigarettes and I’m not sure which one is worse. Filters have infected our lungs like the smoke of a barrel. It’s crazy the difference an “I” and an “A” make in peace.

He continues with his speech; “this award is also for the black women…we can and will do better for you.” He was not trying to single out his Caucasian mother, but was acknowledging the fact that they have bent over backwards trying to rebuild the structure of the world. They have become masters at the balancing act of life as they walk on tear drops for fallen black men.

Finnaly, Williams struck gold by stating, “the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander.” Just like the purpose of art is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. We have become all too comfortable with apologizing for things that are not worth an apology. Being black is not an accident. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Being black is not the problem, being ignorant is. Oppressors have been “gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.” Making fun of our watermelon sucking lips as you make your Botox appointment. Calling us no good thugs and gang bangers right before turning up Kanye on the radio. Pot calls the kettle black; kettle calls the pot white. The problem isn’t the color, it’s the function. We continue to stay in the same state of mind; the same state of being and we continue to go nowhere. When will we finally get off the slave ship? When will we have pride in what we are; in who we are?

Thank you, Jesse, for waking up those that choose to stay asleep.

http://www.bet.com/video/betawards/2016/acceptance...