5,600 Jackasses With Nothing Better to Do Are Petitioning to Call Jesse Williams' BET Speech "Reverse Racism"

The Change.org petition demands that Jesse Williams be booted from 'Grey's Anatomy' for making a "racist rant" at the BET Awards.

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Complex Original

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It's been just over a week since Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams received the 2016 Humanitarian Award during the BET Awards, and haters somehow believe they can get him booted off Grey's for the amazing and powerful speech he gave at the awards ceremony. Over the weekend, a Change.org petition was started to get Williams booted from the show for making a "racist rant."

The petition's creator, Erin Smith, cried reverse racism in the petition's description, calling Williams' viral Black Lives Matter speech "racist hate speech,"

Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams' actions. There's been no companies making a stand against his racist remarks and no swift action condemning his negative attitude. Why was Burke's character fired from Grey's Anatomy after his inappropriate homophobic slur, but nothing for Jesse Williams? Why the one-way street? Why the support for a hater? Why the hypocrisy? #AllLivesMatter  All humans bleed the same color. #EqualConsequences4RacistBehavior

But anyone who knows anything about a show run by Shonda Rhimes is that she makes all the rules, and she's made it clear that Williams isn't leaving Grey's.

Rhimes evidently caught wind of the petition, and quickly denounced it on Twitter on Monday:

She also praised Williams' speech two days after the BET Awards:

Smith updated the petition with a note (which clarified little) to those who were understandably outraged by the petition:

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. If this was an Asian, Mexican, Caucasian or whoever saying the same exact words as Jesse Williams did, I would be against it and petitioned them to be fired if they did not suffer the same consequences as others have suffered for their irrational behavior. We're all adult human beings. Why not act that way? Instead of lashing out with immature and obnoxious name calling, do something about getting everyone to look at everyone in the same light. Make a difference!

The petition notes a goal of 7,500 signatures before Smith plans to send it over the ABC, but if Shonda Rhimes has anything to say about it (and it's safe to assume she does), Williams isn't going anywhere. 

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