Actor and activist Jesse Williams appeared briefly on The View, February 23, where he compared the media’s coverage of the Parkland shooter to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The liberal Grey’s Anatomy star claimed that the media always spun shootings in favor of the white “oppressor class” while it demonized black kids shot by police.
Host Joy Behar editorialized from the beginning by asking Williams about a recent episode of the ABC drama that felt like it was “ripped from the headlines because it was about a young black boy being shot by a white police officer.”
Williams explained the episode by telling the liberal hosts that the show tried not to “preach to one side of the audience.” However, he went on to argue that they had to fix the narrative out in the culture on police shootings. Williams claimed the media portrayed young blacks shot by police as older and more dangerous than they were, while they “infantilized” whites who went on mass shooting sprees, such as we saw in Parkland.
“While adults, adult white men are infantilized, made small and young and soft and we need help and they're just a lone wolf. This thing. It's always convenient for the oppressor class,” he argued:
A terrific writer who is also a doctor, Zoanne Clack, wrote that episode. And we worked very closely together on the content, on the material, on the outcome, on the relationship between the law enforcement officers and the family and there are unfortunately so many real-life examples for us to pick from and try to be able to -- most important is to be effective in the story telling. Not to be right or preach from one side of the audience but do something that’s realistic and impactful and can allow for some humanity to creep in particularly around young black bodies, young black boys. That we are often always projected to be older than we are. Tamir Rice was twelve years old but reported as a 20-year-old. While adults, adult white men are infantilized, made small and young and soft and we need help and they're just a lone wolf. This thing. It's always convenient for the oppressor class. It's something that we paid a lot of attention to. And tried to be as productive and honest as possible.
It’s hard to know where Williams is getting this information. As Newsbusters has documented, the media has heavily covered police shootings of young black men and aided in spreading false information about the cases to stoke racial tensions. The most obvious case of this was the false “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” saying that spread like wildfire because of the media’s participation in it, even though what it stood for never actually happened.
Williams has played Dr. Jackson Avery on Grey’s Anatomy for the past six seasons and has used his celebrity platform to speak out in very incendiary ways, off screen, before. Most famously in 2016, he gave a scathing five minute rant at the BET Awards blaming all white people as “abusers” of blacks. He also falsely claimed in that speech that more black people were killed by police when actually the opposite is true.
Back in September, the actor appeared on MSNBC to condemn the NFL’s punishment for anthem protesters, calling the national anthem a “scam” and compared the U.S. to North Korea.
To read the full transcript, click expand below:
The View
2/23/2018
SUNNY HOSTIN: Wow. "Grey's anatomy" star Jesse Williams did not hold back when he accepted the B.E.T. Humanitarian award back in 2016 and now he's celebrating that creativity and culture in an addictive new app I'm already obsessed with called "Blebrity." Please welcome Jesse Williams. [ Cheers and applause ]
HOSTIN: Well, you know, everyone -- not everyone knew you were an activist. A tried and true activist I knew but a lot of people didn't until you made that impassioned speech at the B.E.T. Awards. But you have been doing it for a long time, you’ve been an activist for a long time. When you see kids now standing up for their rights, standing up for their lives in terms of the gun debate, when you see the me too movement, black lives matter, what do you think?
WILLIAMS: I think it's a beautiful thing. I think folks are moved when it's their time and they feel like -- what's that phrase, pressure busts pipes. People have to feel something in their life that makes them want to do or say something and I think the more young folks that get comfortable telling the truth and being women in public, being gay in public, being black in public and not having to make ourselves smaller just to move through this life and deal with being made uncomfortable over and over and over again, we have a voice for a reason. So it's beautiful.
JOY BEHAR: Or threatened.
WILLIAMS: Yeah.
BEHAR: You have been playing Dr. Jackson Avery for six seasons on "Grey's anatomy."
WILLIAMS: Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
BEHAR: And a recent episode really felt like it was ripped from the headlines because it was about a young black boy being shot by a white police officer. I'm curious what the conversation is off stage when you have an episode like that.
WILLIAMS: We talked a lot about that. A terrific writer who is also a doctor, Zoanne Clack, wrote that episode. And we worked very closely together on the content, on the material, on the outcome, on the relationship between the law enforcement officers and the family and there are unfortunately so many real-life examples for us to pick from and try to be able to -- most important is to be effective in the story telling. Not to be right or preach from one side of the audience but do something that’s realistic and impactful and can allow for some humanity to creep in particularly around young black bodies, young black boys. That we are often always projected to be older than we are. Tamir Rice was twelve years old but reported as a 20-year-old. While adults, adult white men are infantilized, made small and young and soft and we need help and they're just a lone wolf. This thing. It's always convenient for the oppressor class. It's something that we paid a lot of attention to. And tried to be as productive and honest as possible.
TAMAR BRAXTON: It was a great episode. I saw that. It was really powerful.
WILLIAMS: Thank you.
BRAXTON: Very well written. You have a game called blebrity. Why did you get into gaming?
WILLIAMS: Because we like to have fun, too. Life is hard. Life is hard. There’s a lot going on. I think there's real value in this kind of re-establishing particularly for me a black normalcy. We don't always have to be demonstrably upset or going through some incredible highs and lows or peaks and valleys or being Martin Luther King or Jackie Robinson to be worthy of a movie. We just have a regular daily life. It's a regular game for Americans and folks all over the world. It’s just the revolutionary act of not excluding black and brown people.
