'Grey's Anatomy' Fans Petitioning To Have Jesse Williams Fired Following BET Speech

LOS ANGELES (CBSNewYork/AP)--  Jesse Williams is the subject of dueling online petitions following the actor's fiery speech after receiving a humanitarian honor at the BET Awards last month.

One petition calls for the "Grey's Anatomy'' star to be fired over the June 26 speech in which he criticized police in America, saying: "We know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day.''

"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 actor said during the June speech.

Another petition filed in response supports Williams, calling him "a brave leader.''

"What I'd like to see us do is return to a space where it's OK for folks to be proud and outwardly black in public," Williams said. "And not have to feel like we have to be safe to live in white spaces and to make everybody comfortable when we've spent centuries being uncomfortable. It's time to shed that fear."

"Grey's Anatomy'' creator and producer Shonda Rhimes has given her own thoughts on Twitter , writing "Um, people? Boo don't need a petition.''

Williams has played Dr. Jackson Avery on the ABC drama for seven seasons.

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