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BET Awards: Jesse Williams delivers impassioned speech on race in America

Debra Lee, left, presents the humanitarian award to Jesse Williams at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, June 26, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Debra Lee, left, presents the humanitarian award to Jesse Williams at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, June 26, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
By Cox Media Group National Content Desk
June 27, 2016

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"Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people every day," Williams said. "So what’s going to happen is we’re going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function in ours."

Williams ended his speech by criticizing society for "burying black people out of sight and out of mind, while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil — black gold. Ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them. Gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit."

He added, "The thing is ... that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real."

>> Watch the full speech here

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Cox Media Group National Content Desk
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