by: HelloBeautiful Staff
Jesse Williams is utterly over the idea that Black people are just naturally angrier than everyone else in America.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” star has been very vocal about the injustices against the Black community that have been coming to light at a nearly constant rate over the last few years. Deaths of people like Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Renisha McBride (among countless others) have been the catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.
When America sees images of the community protesting in the streets, marching, and generally calling for change, it’s often seen as a demonstration of Black America living up to the “angry Black people” stereotype.
Jesse, however, told The Guardian during a recent interview that the “angry” label comes from a lack of understanding. Quite simply, there is no way to definitively conclude that Black people are prone to being mad at the world.
“There is zero evidence, zero evidence that black people are more inclined to be angry in vacuum than anybody else,” he said.
It’s easy to label Black people as angry because it doesn’t take into account that they might have a legitimate reason to be frustrated with the way they are treated. As such, Jesse called on critics to be more empathetic to the emotions Black people have about the struggles the community faces.
“They are upset. Is being upset bad? Is anger just a negative quality?” Jesse added. “It doesn’t begin with rage, right. It’s a community that’s f*cking hurting and is really disappointed in itself, in the people that it trusted, in the government it paid taxes to… That is where the frustration comes from.”
blackamericaweb.com
