Earlier this week Brooklyn Nine-Nine Terry Crews sparked controversy on Twitter over a recent tweet about the Black Lives Matter protests happening across the United States.
In the Tweet Crews said, “Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black Supremacy”. Shortly after the tweet was posted there was backlash at Crews’ statement.
Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth.
Like it or not, we are all in this together.
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) June 7, 2020
One Twitter user, Tyler James Williams, replied to the Tweet saying they understood that Crews’ was coming from a place of love and positivity, “But we’re rightfully angry and fed with anyone not with our cause wholeheartedly”.
It is understandable that there is backlash behind the Tweet and Crews knew that, he explained in an interview with Seth Meyers. But he felt that his original intentions were taken out of context.
In the interview with Seth Meyers, Terry Crews explained what he meant in his tweet. He went on to explain that in the fight against systemic racism and oppression in the United States you don’t just need one race, but “you need all of us” Crews said.
Later citing the case for the women’s rights movement saying, if men were not jumping onto the bandwagon of women’s rights then women would not have advanced in society and been given the rights that they have without the help of men.
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Crews cited the base of the problems in communication. “If White people don’t understand how to treat us as a community we’re gonna have a problem. But also in our own community, we gotta know how to treat each other”. The importance of agreeing to disagree and still being able to come together as a community was what Crews really tried to hit home in his most recent interview with Seth Meyers.
I believe it is important we not suffer from groupthink, and we keep minds of our own, and be allowed to ask difficult questions to each other. I believe this dialogue is important as we get through this trauma together. I love you.
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) June 8, 2020
In addition to the interview Crews also Tweeted the importance of acceptance and community through the unprecedented times of a pandemic and a fight for racial justice happening at the same time.
