The response to Jesse Williams' moving anti-racist speech at the BET Awards was almost universally positive -- but as is often the case when white people feel slighted, there has been some negative reaction, this time coming in the form of a petition to have him fired from "Grey's Anatomy" for making it.
"Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards," someone named "Erin Smith" wrote in a Change.org petition.
"If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American," she continued, "they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams' actions." It's not just that no one is looking out for poor, betrodden white folk -- it's the double standard that's agonizing Smith.
"Why was Burke's character fired from Grey's Anatomy after his inappropriate homophobic slur, but nothing for Jesse Williams?" she asked. "Why the one-way street? Why the support for a hater? Why the hypocrisy?"
And if you're wondering whether she went there -- she did indeed, tagging her petition "#AllLivesMatter" and "#EqualConsequences4RacistBehavior."
Smith was annoyed that many commenters assumed that because she wielded her white privilege like a cleaver in the petition, she was white. She issued a "special note to all the people making assumptions: Who said I was white? Who said I'm a Trump supporter? This is not about politics. This is about equal consequences for racist behavior."
Shonda Rhimes -- the show's creator and one of, if not the, single most powerful showrunner on television this side of Dick Wolf -- replied to the petition on Twitter:
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