Welcome back!
Now, these days, social media has the power
to make and break careers in the blink of a retweet.
So here to catch us up on who's making waves online this week
is
with another installment of Hash It Out.
-♪ ♪ -(bird tweets)
Thanks, Larry.
Last week, I got my life from Jesse Williams' powerful speech
at the BET Awards.
(cheering and applause)
In it, he encouraged black people to continue the fight
to end police brutality.
But not everybody enjoyed the speech.
This past weekend, a petition demanding
Jesse Williams be fired from ABC's
collected over 25,000 signatures.
Wait, 25,000 white people were watching the BET Awards?
(cheering and applause)
Damn!
Here's a snippet of the petition's description.
"Jesse Williams released a cascade
"of inappropriate, unprofessional,
"and racist commentary
"against police officers and Caucasians.
"I have been watching all of Shonda's shows since day one,
"and it kills me to take this stand,
but it is a necessary evil."
All of Shonda's shows since day one? Really?
Even
You didn't even know that was a Shonda show, did you?
-(laughter) -No!
No one did.
I guess you missed the
or the Ferguson-inspired episode of
or
where Viola Davis takes off her wig, which, to be fair,
didn't really have anything to do with racism,
but that scene was black as hell.
(laughter, applause and cheering)
But then, Shonda hit the haters with this tweet.
"Um, people? Boo don't need a petition.
#shondalandrules."
(applause and cheering)
Now is she saying "Shondaland rules,"
or is she talking about the rules of Shondaland?
'Cause there are a lot of rules in Shondaland.
Like, no white after Labor Day unless you're Olivia Pope.
You will give Viola Davis all the awards.
And don't talk back to Shonda
unless you want to end up doing kitty litter commercials.
I see you, Katherine Heigl.
(laughter, applause and cheering)
But this comment takes the loud and wrong cake.
"Jesse Williams' comments were racist,
"and should be fired from
I will no longer watch any Rhonda Rhimes show."
(laughter)
Ma'am, who is Rhonda Rhimes?!
Is that a cross between Ronda Rousey and LeAnn Rimes?
(laughter)
Oh, is this a show about a kickboxing country singer?
BET just got 25,000 more white viewers.
(applause and cheering)
Look, this entire petition and everyone who signed it
is a seven-layer bean dip of nope.
If you think speaking out
against police brutality is anti-cop,
does that means killing black people is pro-cop?
Of course not!
Jesse Williams doesn't hate cops,
and he doesn't hate white people.
He, like all of us should,
hates the brutal murders of black people by police
who use their fear to inform their force.
(cheers and applause)
Let's focus our anger on the real issue.
You want to fire Jesse Williams?
How about we fire all those racist cops
and send their asses to jail?
(applause and cheering)
And let's...
And let us let the good cops do their jobs.
-Yes. -Yeah. -(applause and cheering)
And Jesse can continue to save lives
and give me life on Thursday nights.
-(applause and cheering) -Franchesca Ramsey, everybody!
We'll be right back.