Jesse Williams is an actor who, until recently, was most known for starring on Grey's Anatomy [1] and his work as a human rights activist. On June 26, Jesse Williams accepted the humanitarian award at the BET Awards, giving a rousing speech [2] considered by many to be the show's highlight. He began by addressing the injustice of police brutality:

"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. So what's going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours."

And he went on to mention Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, and Darrien Hunt, all people who were killed by police and have become names associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

"We've been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we're done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, 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. The thing is though . . . the thing is that just because we're magic doesn't mean we're not real."

Here's the full speech:

Here's where the controversy begins. Days after the speech aired, a woman by the name of Erin Smith started a petition at Change.org [3] aimed at getting ABC to fire Williams from Grey's Anatomy. "Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards," it reads. "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." So far, the petition has over 19,000 supporters.

Things heated up further when former Clueless star Stacey Dash spoke out against Williams in a blog post [4] on June 29, calling him a "plantation slave." Aside from an interview with People [5] and a series of GIFs, some more obviously pointed [6] than others, Williams had only tweeted one verbal reply:

Do not promote empty people & their tantrums. Pure clickbait to gain followers, attention & money, for themselves, not you. Never you.

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 3, 2016 [7]

Thankfully, a handful of celebrities have pledged their support to Williams, most notably his showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, who tweeted about the issue on July 4:

Um, people? Boo don't need a petition. #shondalandrules [8]

— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) July 5, 2016 [9]

Ellen Pompeo also may or may not have addressed the situation in an Instagram [10]. Finally, on July 6, Williams spoke up in a series of tweets:

Because you keep incessantly promoting their cowardly intolerance! Not a single sane sentence in their claim. NotOne https://t.co/18ZgrbfLnL [11]

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 6, 2016 [12]

1) In the interest of time, would ye noble patriots please provide a list of infractions punishable by spontaneous public execution? Thanks!

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 6, 2016 [13]

2) Upon receipt of this list, we'll return to our quarters and study up, eager to enjoy freedoms of white mass murders. #LIFEHACK [14]

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 6, 2016 [15]

3) You chumps will NEVER provide this list... We see through you.

— jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 6, 2016 [16]

That brings you up to speed. We'll let you know if there are any developments, but honestly, let's all hope this just fades away forever.