Dash penned a scathing response to Jesse Williams’ BET Awards acceptance speech. It isn’t the first time she’s scolded Black activists.
By Sheryl Estrada
Fox News contributor Stacey Dash
Fox News contributor and actress Stacey Dash, who has argued that both Black History Month and BET (Black Entertainment Television) should not exist, referred to actor Jesse Williams as a “Hollywood plantation slave” for his speech on racial inequality and Black Lives Matter.
Williams, 34, plays Dr. Jackson Avery on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” and is a longtime activist for social justice. At the annual BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night he received the Humanitarian Award. His passionate acceptance speech explained the BLM movement, cultural appropriation and reminded Black celebrities not to be complacent in their success.
“Words are only as good as the response to those words,” Williams told People magazine following his speech. “But I’d like to think that I give people a sense that they are not alone.”
In her blog, Dash, 49, wrote that BET is “keeping racism and segregation alive,” and Williams’ speech was “nothing short of an attack on white people.”
Dash included a video of Williams’remarks andwrote, “You’ve just seen the perfect example of a Hollywood plantation slave! Sorry, Mr. Williams. But the fact that you were standing onstage at those awards tells people you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Just spewing hate and anger.”
In his remarks, Williams said that whites have had a history of “ghettoizing and demeaning our creations and stealing them.”
Dash responded:
“If anyone is GHETTO-IZING anyone, it’s people like you letting the BETs and other media outlets portray us in stereotypes.”
However, the “Clueless” actress did not mention in her diatribe that in 2009 she had a recurring role on BET’s scripted show “The Game.”
Nor did Dashmention that Fox News, where she is a contributor, and its founder, Rupert Murdoch, have been accused of keeping racism alive by perpetuating negative stereotypes of Black people.
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This is not the first time Dash has corrected the actions of Black celebrities vocal about inequality. She opposed the potential boycott of the 2016 Academy Awards.
In January, after the Oscar nominations were announced, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite reappeared on social media. For the second consecutive year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated exclusively white actors for all four acting categories.
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Actress Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee supported a boycott of the awards show. Dash expressed her opinion on “Fox and Friends.”
“I think it’s ludicrous because we have to make up our minds. Either we want to have segregation or integration, and if we don’t want segregation, then we have to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re Black. If it were the other way around, we would be up arms. It’s a double standard.”
Dash said there shouldn’t be a BET channel, “just like there shouldn’t be a Black History Month.”
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She made an appearance on the 88th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, whichaired on Feb. 28. Shortly after his monologue, Rock introduced Dash as the “new director” of the Academy’s “minority outreach program.”
She came onto the stage and said, “I cannot wait to help my people out. HappyBlack History Month!”
The audience was confused and the joke fell flat.
Stacey Dash. #OscarsSoWhite pic.twitter.com/LsBdsUccu3
deray mckesson (@deray) February 29, 2016
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In December, Dash was actually suspended from Fox for two weeks without pay for disrespecting President Barack Obama on-air. During the Dec. 7 edition of “Outnumbered,” she said the president didn’t “give a sh*t” about radical jihadist terrorism.
