Jesse Williams Speech

On June 26, 2016, Jesse Williams accepted the Humanitarian Award onstage during the 16th annual Black Entertainment Television Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. The modern day activist was rewarded for his “commitment to furthering social change,” and his work in raising awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. Williams acceptance speech took a turn from the cliche “thank you mom, thank you dad, thank you chair, and thank you table...etc.” to dedicating the award he worked hard for to black people in general. Williams spoke out about cultural appropriation, racial issues, and social injustice. The poetic speech was a call to action for black people to stand up and fight for equal rights and justice in America.

His audience was primarily people of color so his speech was not only a call of action but a speech of empowerment, encouragement, and acknowledgement. Williams strategically uses a drop of ethos, a dash of logos, and a dose of pathos to cajole his people into fighting for what they believe in.
The Black Lives Matter movement was created in 2012 as a response to the senseless killing of Trayvon Martin. Police brutality has been an ongoing spotlighted controversy since the death of Trayvon Martin. There have been countless more cases where a police officer abuses their power, kills an unarmed black man, and receives no serious reprimand. The 2016 BET Awards premiered just 20 days after the unjustified killing of Philando Castile, and 21 days after the death of Alton Sterling so the grieving was still fairly new. Castile was fatally shot in Minnesota after being pulled over in St. Anthony Minnesota. Sterling was shot several times at close range in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The pattern was overwhelming in the black community and Black Lives Matter protests and riots erupted across the nation. William’s speech channeled that frustration and unrest to push his objective that a change needs to come and the black community has to stand up and fight for that change. His audience was mainly other wealth members of the black community like himself who obviously agree with his point of view, but he also addressed the national audience since the award show was televised on a popular television network. Jesse strategically uses the feeling unrest to motivate his community to take a stand because “ a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.”
To begin, Williams is no stranger to activism.

Jesse Williams works with other activists in The Advancement Project, a "multi-racial civil rights organization" founded in 1999. He executive-produced the BET original documentary Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement. According to BET, The film "chronicles the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement through the first-person accounts of local activists, protesters, scholars, journalists and celebrities," He also appeared in the documentary, which premiered in May on BET. He protested and marched in Ferguson the unjust killing of Michael Brown...and the list goes on an on. In his award-winning speech, Williams confesses, “I just want to thank [my parents] for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us.” Here, Williams alludes to the fact that he has been enlightened on social injustice issues since youth. With America’s Eurocentric curriculum, students are not privy to that knowledge. Furthermore, Jesse builds up his image not only as aware but also as humble. “Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.” This statement paints Williams as a humble figure who is doing what he does for

the betterment of other people and not for fame and popularity. His powerful claim at the end shows that he is confident and unwavering in his beliefs. Jesse’s confidence builds his credibility along with the several other ventures of activism previously stated. He makes a successful but limited attempt in building his credibility in the short, but powerful one minute speech.
Subsequently, Williams proceeds to call to action using practical reasoning. He begins his sentence with “It’s kind of basic mathematics…” Here, he is telling the audience how simple it is to create change. He continues with, “the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.” Basically saying if you add 2 to 4 it must be 6 -- the most simplest equation. Additionally, Williams addresses his audience. He explains to them that just getting money is not going to help the cause. Money does not elicit change, people do. Moreover, William discusses possible critics of his call to action. He asserts, “the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down...The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.” Jesse Williams silences critics before they attack with logical statements, as well as providing a solution to the problem that blacks are facing today.
Consequently, Williams appeals to emotion the most in his speech because it is the most helpful to get his point across.

His primary emotion that he appeals to is frustration and anger. He states, “yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.” Jesse Williams strategically names those unjustly treated by the law enforcement and states that not much has changed since slave labor times, which is how the black community feels. He matches the frustration of everyday people who are not as well off as the A-List stars in the room. This helps him to continue to be successful in pushing his change objective. He tapped into frustration, grief, and anger. Negative emotions are easier to create than positive ones. These emotions conjured up will be the driving force in continuing Williams’s efforts. Williams goes on to say, “There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here.”

Williams asserts that blacks deserve freedom after everything that they have went through as a people. Finally, Williams alludes to Nina Simone’s Strange Fruit, which discusses the lynchings of blacks: “gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.” Here, Jesse plugs into the emotion of grief once again as the audience thinks of slavery times and the horrific lynchings, as well as taking a dig at people who culturally appropriate. They love the culture, but not the people. Williams uses frustration, anger, grief, and sadness to push his claim that something needs to be done and done now.
Jesse Williams famed speech went viral in a matter of seconds. The poetic vibe and use of slang appealed to the younger audience, while the serious issues and acknowledgement of the mothers of the victims of police brutality appealed to the older generation. Williams speech was successful in getting his speech across, but he was not successful in his call to action. In this point of society, things are important and popular for a second and then the hashtag stops and the message is forgotten. The black community wants change but the work, consistency, and unity it takes to get that change might not be worth it to some. Jesse ends his speech with, ‘…just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.” as a reference to the #BlackMagic movement. This plea to the rest of world to explain to them that we are real, we matter, and we are no different is the perfect ending to such an emotional speech. That strong use of pathos coupled with logos and ethos helped to allow his message really resonate with those that listened.