Amanda Seales, who hosted the 2020 BET Awards, gave a powerful monologue during the virtual award show on Sunday about the importance of what the awards stand for and the protests calling out racial injustices that are currently in the United States.
“I saw you up in the comments saying I was doing the most, but look at us now – everyone is posting black squares,” she said.” Y’all’s feeds went from onlyfans to onlyfists in like, 24 hours. Now, folks always say, ‘All Amanda ever talks about is race.’ Well, listen, I would love to talk about regular, everyday things, but racism always beats me to it.”
Seales then went on to express how skittles reminded her of Trayvon Martin, ice cream reminded her of Botham Jean and sleeping reminded her of Breonna Taylor. She added, “When I said, ‘I don’t got the time, I’m on my trampoline,’ I meant it. Because give it a minute and racism is going to take the bounce out of that too.”
“Now, I must admit, this BET Awards is a little different. The main thing is it’s virtual. We’re getting real in touch with being real inside. Because outside is on one. It’s got COVID and cops and Karens gone wild. It’s like we hated on 2019 so much, it called its brother, 2020, to come through and provide a collective Molly whop. And that’s precisely why we had to do the awards, because we deserve a break. And when I say, ‘We,’ I mean all us Black folks watching the kneeling, the gratuitous kente cloth, the ‘I take responsibility’ vids, and saying to ourselves, ‘Wow, Y’all goofy!'”
Seales continued, “America is acting brand new about racism like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was doing all the speeches for album interludes. Now they talking about Juneteenth. That’s dope! But y’all don’t let them Cinco de Mayo our day. If we ain’t watchful, every June 19th, folks going to be at the bar wearing Frederick Douglass wig hats, ordering ‘Harriettinis’ off the drink special. Then we have the protests. We been out here in these streets marching, and this new eruption of consciousness has been beautiful. But keep it real though, some of y’all was only at the protest because the club is closed. I know, it’s like the let-out with a cause.”
She ended her monologue by saying, “Tonight’s cause is not only to give accolades, but also to celebrate 40 years of BET, and because we’re all still in the house, we can get 40 years of BET stars. We’ve got Queen Latifah, Countess Vaughn, and we can’t miss Nelly with his Band-Aid.”
Seales concluded by calling out Terry Crews. She said, “Terry Crews couldn’t make it. Not surprised.”
Crews had been facing backlash after a tweet he made on June 7 that read, “Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together.”
Sunday marked the anniversary of the BET Awards after 20 years. The award show celebrates black achievements in the music, sports, television and film industries.
