Jesse William's BET Awards Speech Requires Action Not Social Media Likes

If you didn't watch the BET Awards last night, then you definitely missed out. Grey's Anatomy star Jesse William’s received one of the highest honors of the BET Awards, the Humanitarian award and his speech was extra LIT!

Williams basically went in about the whiteness of America and their continued racism and cultural appropriation of the black community. My favorite line from the 4 plus minute speech was “Just because we are magic doesn't mean we are not real” SCREAMS #blackgirlmagic.

Now as inspiring and motivating as his speech was, it is now up to US to make his words a reality. Who I mean by “us” are the black people who are living in these situations daily Don't get me wrong I love when celebrities make a stand and support a cause for our people. However, they are usually only indirectly effected by what's happening.

They live in suburban gated communities, they frequent in what could be consider some of the safest nightlife and dining spots, and their families are usually not surrounded by poverty and hurt. Let me be clear I am not knocking them for being successful I actually LOVE seeing my black people make moves. However, majority of the people that are living in some of these EVERYDAY truths are not rich and famous.

The “US” are the middle class working families, the ones whose cousins and brothers are out in the streets being killed. The ones who are working in corporate America and deal with racism on a daily basis.  The “US” are the black people trying to get degrees and make a legal and safe living for ourselves and our families.

Our black celebrities are only a catalyst to the movement once they make a stand but it is up to us to do the work. We must participate in programs that help educate our youth, we must clean up the neighborhoods that we live in and stop waiting on the government to do something.

It is our duty as black citizens to start taking care of US. No government program, speech, or social media post can do that if we are not putting real effort and action behind it. We are living and breathing these things everyday so when will we wake up and do something different?

So many people complain about the media and how black people are portrayed in it. Listen, it's 2016 and we have a lot of control of what we watch and post. We don't want the media to show us fighting or doing illegal things yet we continue to post fight videos, guns, drugs, women half naked twerking, and young children using foul language and disrespecting their elders on social media. Sharing a post is just as bad as creating one.

The media is only giving us what we are simply asking for and that is ignorance and shame. Don’t solely be inspired by Jesse Williams speech to just stand by your blackness and be proud of your skin, but be inspired to make a change, be inspired to get out, uplift ,and inform those around you.Take this time to change a life and promote positivity of the black community in a way that white people and America could never imagine. It is our time to come together as one and make a significant shift in the world.

It is up to us to be the change that we want to see.