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Heroes

Marine Corps Master Sergeant gave his son an emotional first salute as a commissioned officer

Mike Fisher/TikTok

There are moments as a parent that stand out, and there are moments as a human that stand out, and when those two realities converge, it makes for pure magic.

One such magical moment was captured and shared on TikTok and has been viewed by millions in just one day.

Master Sergeant Michael Fisher is an instructor with the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program. He has spent the past nine months sharing sweet videos on Tik Tok of himself and his adorable 1-year-old granddaughter, Abby, but yesterday he shared something completely different. In his official role as Master Sergeant, Fisher gave his son his first salute as a Second Lieutenant.

And as he explained the pride he felt, the emotion in his voice took us straight to his heart.

"I've watched you grow and mature and become the man that you are today," he said. "You have always been respectful, by saying 'Yes sir.' 'No sir.' 'Yes, ma'am.' And 'No, ma'am.' A salute is a sign of respect. It is a privilege to render you your first salute."

He raised his hand in salute, then added, his voice cracking, "But it is a greater honor to say 'Congratulations, sir, on your commissioning.'"

@e8msgt Rendering my son his 1st Salute! ##marine ##2ndLT ##usmc ##fatherson ##fyp ##military ##instructor
♬ original sound - Mike Fisher

The moment was clearly significant for this father and son for personal reasons, but it was also significant that it took place between a Black officer and non-commissioned officer.

Though racial diversity is fairly representative of the general population in lower officer ranks of the military, the upper ranks are lacking in such diversity. In fact, the higher in pay grade you go, the more white the demographics become.

As this chart from the Defense Department shows, at the top of the pay grade for active enlistment officers, 92% are white and 5% are Black.

defense.gov

For the reserves, the trend is similar, with white officers making up a disproportionate percentage of the top pay grades.

defense.gov

As Master Sergeant, Michael Fisher is an upper-ranked non-commissioned officer. His son's rank of Second Lieutenant is the first commissioned officer ranking. (This site has a breakdown of how the rankings work, and what the letters below the bars on the chart mean.)

The Defense Department's own report acknowledges that racial minorities are underrepresented in both senior non-commissioned officer ranks and as well as higher commissioned officer ranks. The report also explains why that's a problem:

"Appropriate representation of minorities in military leadership positions is increasingly important in the context of the nation's demographic trends. The non-Hispanic White population is expected to decline from 199 million in 2020 to 179 million in 2060, while the rest of the U.S. population continues to grow. The population of people who are two or more races is projected to be the single fastest-growing racial or ethnic group, followed by Asian and Hispanic Americans. Thus, if military leaders are to mirror the racial and ethnic composition of the Service members they lead and the American public they serve, DoD must ensure that all Service members have access to opportunities to succeed and advance into leadership positions."

Here's hoping this new Second Lieutenant will have every opportunity to rise in the officer ranks, if he so chooses.

Meanwhile, we'll watch this video a few more times and just for the feels. There's something about someone in uniform in a formal situation trying to hold it together that just tugs at the heartstrings every time. And seeing this career military man honoring his son with his first salute as an officer—and hearing his voice break as he does so—it's just so touching.

Thank you, Master Sergeant Fisher and Second Lieutenant son, for your dutiful service.

From Your Site Articles

People had lots of thoughts and concerns about the Dr. Seuss story. Let's discuss the best ones.

Public Domain

A very simple thing happened earlier this week. Dr. Seuss Enterprises—the company that runs the Dr. Seuss estate and holds the legal rights to his works—announced it will no longer publish six Dr. Seuss children's books because they contain depictions of people that are "hurtful and wrong" (their words). The titles that will no longer be published are And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat's Quizzer.

This simple action prompted a great deal of debate, along with a great deal of disinformation, as people reacted to the story. (Or in many cases, just the headline. It's a thing.)

My article about the announcement (which contains examples of the problematic content that prompted the announcement) led to nearly 3,000 comments on Upworthy's Facebook page. Since many similar comments were made repeatedly, I wanted to address the most common sentiments and questions:

How do we learn from history if we keep erasing it?

A racist image in a children's book is a historical artifact, but it isn't "history." History is the recording of and study of events in the past. Things themselves aren't history. (If physically holding onto things were necessary to remember history, we'd still have segregated water fountains to remind us that they existed.)

What's happening with these books right now, though, is history. A famous author's estate choosing to stop publishing a handful of his books because they contain racist imagery is literally history in the making. It's not like the images have just disappeared altogether. Students can learn about this history with images in digital archives and museums where they can be learned from at an appropriate age with appropriate context.

Why don't they keep the books in print and use them as an educational tool?

There are at least two reasons for that, as far as I can see:

1) As Dr. Seuss Enterprises said, these depictions are hurtful. It really doesn't make sense to keep producing hurtful content in order to educate people who are not hurt by it. You don't keep punching someone in order to teach observers who aren't being punched that punching hurts. That's cruel.

2) These books are made for small children. Kids who are 4 or 5 or 6-years-old don't have enough background knowledge about the history of racism and racial stereotypes to make these books a useful tool for teaching them about racism. (That doesn't mean they don't have an impact on them—more on that in a sec.) While parents should be talking to their kids about race starting young, the imagery here is a more complex element of the topic that doesn't fit the developmental stage of the kids the books are targeting.

Imagine what that lesson would look like in a class of kindergarteners. "See this picture, kids? That's an exaggeration of racial features and cultural stereotypes that are hurtful to people of African/Asian descent. It's just one example of how racism was long accepted in America because they believed people who looked different or came from different places were inferior." That's already too much for a kindergartener to process, and that's just the basic overview. Developmentally, cognitively, educationally, they're just not there yet.

At that age, kids are just subconsciously absorbing these stereotypes. And what's worse is that they're enjoying absorbing them because Dr. Seuss's whimsical rhymes are fun and reading time is fun.

Seems wiser to just stop publishing them and use what we already have published to teach older kids, teens, and adults about the history of racism in literature.

So "WAP" song being Song of the Year is appropriate but Dr. Seuss isn't?

I'm personally not a fan of sexually explicit lyrics, but this is an apples and oranges comparison. A highly sexualized song that isn't made for kids is not comparable to problematic racial imagery in a book that is made explicitly for kids. I'm assuming (and hoping) parents aren't singing WAP when they tuck their kids into bed at night. Dr. Seuss is deemed innocent and his books are beloved. Warm and cozy childhood memories are made with books. Having warm childhood memories intertwined with racist imagery is a problem.

Dr. Seuss?!? Is there anyone cancel culture won't come for?

The term "cancel culture" is getting a bit overused, in my opinion. Criticism isn't canceling. A company receiving critical feedback and making a decision based on that feedback isn't canceling (unless you count self-canceling as canceling). I grew up loving Dr. Seuss books and read them to my kids when they were little, but I think the company made the right move.

Racism can't be perpetuated just because we like someone. If we think of this as an attack on racism rather than an attack on a person, it might be easier for Seuss lovers to digest. Ted Geisel was a whole, imperfect human being who evolved over time and left a complicated legacy. His early racism should absolutely be discussed as part of that legacy. His racist works should absolutely be "canceled" by ceasing to be published. People can debate whether or not to read his other books, but the idea that his racially insensitive stuff should continue to be published for children is a pretty gross take.

Get over it. It's a children's book.

The same could be said to people throwing a fit about these books no longer being published. The difference is that the people who are hurt by the imagery have an entire history of racial oppression—and likely a good amount of personal racial discrimination—behind their feelings about the images. The people who are offended that a company isn't making the books anymore have no actual harm to get over. Seems like the lesser offense, objectively and by far, is to stop publishing them.

Why do people even care about color of the characters? Why can't you just enjoy the stories?

Adults think kids are colorblind. They're not. Research shows that very young children—even infants and toddlers—notice racial differences. That doesn't mean that they discriminate, but they do notice race. So presenting racial differences in the form of stereotypical caricatures is a problem. It may not matter to you if you don't identify with the race being depicted, but it matters to many.

Who gets to decide what's offensive and what's not?

The people on the receiving end of racism get to decide what's racist or not. That doesn't mean there's always a unanimous consensus, but it's pretty clear when a large number of people point out that something is racially offensive. There's also research behind this decision. A 2019 study of 50 Dr. Seuss books found that only 2% of his human characters were not white, and nearly all of them were depicted in problematic ways. Whether the imagery is truly racially insensitive isn't really the question. The question is whether or not that imagery should continue to be published anew forever and ever.

Why is this just a problem now when these books have been around for decades?

It's not just a problem now. This isn't a new issue or a new complaint—the people who have been portrayed problematically just haven't been listened to in a real enough way for changes to be made until now. This is what learning and progress and growth as a society looks like. When we know better, we do better.

Yes! What took so long?

Despite the uproar, many people praised the decision, citing years of complaints about the racial stereotypes and caricatures in those books. People also pointed to the blatantly racist political cartoons Geisel (Dr. Seuss's real last name) drew early in his career as evidence that, yes, the imagery really was rooted in racism.

There's no question that some of Geisel's early work was racist. Some argue that he was a product of his time, but that doesn't make the works any less problematic. His views did evolve over the course of his life, and he tried to make indirect amends with his later books that had anti-prejudice themes, but never formally apologized for his early work. (As writer Danielle Slaughter points out, the kinds of apology statements that are standard now weren't expected in the time in which he lived, so a public apology would have been nice, but unusual.)

Some people have suggested that Geisel himself may have actually supported the Dr. Seuss Enterprises decision if he were alive today. If he was truly open to learning and broadening his understanding of race, the 30 years between his death and now may have prompted him to make that decision himself. Who knows. But undoubtedly Dr. Seuss Enterprises knows better than the average American what the author would have wanted, and they have the authority to make choices in his name.

So if people are still angry that Dr. Seuss canceled some Dr. Seuss books, they'll have to take it up with Dr. Seuss.

From Your Site Articles

Dr. Seuss estate says it will stop publishing 6 books with 'hurtful and wrong' depictions

Dr. Seuss/Facebook, Public Domain

Editor's Note: This article contains imagery that some readers may find offensive.

News about Dr. Seuss today has people discussing history, racism, children's literature, "cancel culture," and what to do with problematic and harmful work from a beloved author.

After years of growing awareness of racist imagery in some of Dr. Seuss's early work, the estate of the children's author has announced that six of his titles will no longer be published or licensed.

"These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong," Dr. Seuss Enterprises wrote, adding "Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises' catalog represents and supports all communities and families."

Naturally, people have feelings about this.

Dr. Seuss books are a beloved part of millions of Americans' childhoods. Many of us learned to read with Dr. Seuss books and have fond memories of the rhyme and rhythms inherent in his silly stories. But that doesn't mean that all of his works were benign.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote his kids' books under the pseudonym "Dr. Seuss," got his start as a political cartoonist. While his anti-Nazi cartoons are largely still palatable, his racist depictions of Japanese Americans during the war are not. Racial stereotypes such as Geisel depicted led to 120,000 Japanese Americans being cruelly placed in internment camps in the U.S. between 1942 and 1945. Geisel also drew horrible caricatures of people from Africa and the Middle East.

Geisel's views evolved, and he expressed regret over some of his depictions. His book "Horton Hears a Who" was meant to be an indirect apology to the Japanese, and "The Sneetches" can be read as a moral story showing the pitfalls of prejudice. Debate over whether or not his racist work can be reconciled with his later anti-prejudice work has raged for years. Some try to defend his early work, saying he was a product of his time—but that ignores the fact that anti-racist people have existed alongside racists for all of history. Some say that his change of heart is enough to forgive his past, but others point out that he never formally apologized for his racist works nor did he do anything to change his portrayal of people of color.

Which brings us to the Dr. Seuss Enterprises announcement that they will stop publishing six of his children's books.

Whether or not Geisel redeemed himself in his personal views later in life, his hurtful portrayals of people of color are still out there. In fact, a study on the racial implications in 50 of his children's books titled "The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss's Children's Books" found the following:

"In the fifty Dr. Seuss children's books, 2,240 human characters are identified. Of the 2,240 characters, there are forty-five characters of color representing two percent of the total number of human characters. The eight books featuring characters of color include: The Cat's Quizzer: Are YOU Smarter Than the Cat in the Hat?; Scrambled Eggs Super!; Oh, the Places You'll Go!; On Beyond Zebra; Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo; If I Ran the Zoo; And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street; and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

"Of the forty-five characters of color, forty-three are identified as having characteristics aligning with the definition of Orientalism. Within the Orientalist definition, fourteen people are identified by stereotypical East Asian characteristics and twenty-nine characters are wearing turbans. Characters aligned with Orientalism are sometimes attributed an ethno-racial identity, but are generally situated within a colorblind lens, often from an unspecified nationality, race, or ethnicity. Only two of the forty-five characters are identified in the text as "African" and both align with the theme of anti-Blackness.

"White supremacy is seen through the centering of Whiteness and White characters, who comprise 98% (2,195 characters) of all characters. Notably, every character of color is male. Males of color are only presented in subservient, exotified, or dehumanized roles. This also remains true in their relation to White characters. Most startling is the complete invisibility and absence of women and girls of color across Seuss' entire children's book collection."

The following tweet contains two examples of racist imagery found in "If I Ran the Zoo":

— (@)

While there has been a predictable uproar about "canceling" or "banning" Dr. Seuss, this move to remove the problematic books came from the Dr. Seuss estate itself, not some amorphous "cancel culture" mob. It's only six books out of 50 that will no longer be published so they don't keep putting out hurtful images. Some parents and educators have decided there are other authors they prefer to use to help kids learn to read due to Geisel's history—but that's not the same as banning his books. Some libraries and school districts have stopped highlighting Dr. Seuss books, but they are still available on the shelves.

President Biden not mentioning Dr. Seuss during his Read Across America Day proclamation today is also not really "canceling." The day has been around since 1998, and though it coincides with Geisel's birthday, neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush mentioned Dr. Seuss in their proclamations, either. Presidents Obama and Trump did—both of them singing Dr. Seuss's praises—but the day is not synonymous with Dr. Seuss.

Do we really want to call thoughtful criticism, personal discernment in book choices, and making changes when harmful things come to light "cancel culture"? Meh. What we're seeing here is learning. It's growth. It's reckoning with the complexities of reality and wrestling with demons of the past. Uprooting racism is messy, but pretending it doesn't exist, even in the works of beloved icons, will get us nowhere.

We'll likely be debating Dr. Seuss's legacy for many years to come, but it's good to see his estate taking action to stop continuing to put out imagery that perpetuates stereotypes.

From Your Site Articles

My black is beautiful. That's why I edited my photo using new filters for people of color.

My skin is brown so sometimes I look weird in photos.

Usually, I'm rendered virtually invisible, either by my surroundings or poor light.
Or thanks to filters and edits, I'm completely washed out — an ashy or jaundiced version of myself. It's not a good look.

With a few friends ahead of the Rose Bowl in 2011. At least my glasses and shadow showed up.

If you're taking pictures while brown — and there are a lot of us — there's a good chance you've experienced this too.

47% of African-American and 38% of Hispanic people online use Instagram. (The figure is around 21% for white internet users.) However, the filters and features that make the tool so fun to use often make the skin of black and brown people look pale, aged, or washed out.

Except you, Hefe. You never let me down. Filters by Instagram. Photo by the author.

That's because the film photography aesthetics Instagram mimics weren't created with people of color in mind.

It all dates back to something called the Shirley cards, named after a former Kodak studio model. Decades after the original Shirley left Kodak, the cards featured a white woman often in a brightly colored dress.

GIF via Vox/YouTube.

The technician would adjust the colors of the printer to match the model's skin tone. And this color balance was applied to everyone's film, regardless of their complexion.

So for decades, people of color were quite literally edited out of the pictures.

While the original Shirley card gave way to more diversity and eventually to digital photography, the resurgence of this classic aesthetic means the problems of early film are back with a vengeance.

But all is not lost. Not even close. Because now, there's Tōnr.

Conceived by product engineers and designers of color for Vox Media's Hackathon, Tōnr is a new web application with filters that showcase and highlight the richness and beauty of darker complexions.

"I haven’t been lucky when using filters in the common photo apps: they wash me out, add to much contrast, and are generally unflattering," said Pamela Assogba, full stack engineer at Vox Media and member of the Tōnr team, via email. "I think my skin tone is great, and deserve better treatment, so working on a solution made sense, especially because a lot of people could benefit from it."

Image via iStock.

The team of Vox engineers and designers came together for two and a half days of intense work, creating melanin-flattering photo filters using JavaScript and Photoshop.

"When I first started formulating the filters, I made sure to start with darkest skin first and work my way backwards," said designer Brittany Holloway-Brown. "It's important to pay attention to the margins of marginalized communities and to let them know that their faces, their bodies, their thoughts matter. It's a very small push against the heavy status quo."

Holloway-Brown researched fashion spreads, photography, and plenty of selfies on social media to see how people of color were lit and portrayed. "My focus was on emphasizing the color, enhancing undertones and heightening the saturation of the skin," she said via email.

On desktop or mobile, users can apply one of Tōnr's 12 filters to their photograph.

There's no upload required, so the photo never leaves your device. Once it's edited, users can upload their pictures to Instagram for additional edits or share them with their networks as they are.

"Tōnr is an act of love, expression, resistance, and passion because this is an application that tells me and people that look like me that we matter, even if society tends to say different," said Assogba.

Image via iStock.

As a woman of color with a fondness for the occasional selfie, I decided to try Tōnr out for myself.

While none of the filters made me look like Kerry Washington (technology is only so powerful), most of them did bring out the warm tones in my skin. If nothing else, I had more options and starting points than ever before.

I'm not a Sorbet girl, but consider Strut my filter of choice for summer '16. Filters by tōnr. Photo by the author.

Though Tōnr is still in its infancy, the team is all about reaching more people of color, both as users and creators.

The team hopes to add more filters, and a mobile application for iOS and Android is on the table. But for now, they're reaching out to other developers and creators for their ideas and input.

"We made the app open source so that others who are down for the cause can make contributions to this project," said designer Alesha Randolph.

Assogba added, "I’m really excited to see other people of color dig into the open source code and build filters or propose features for an app built with them in mind."

Everyone, regardless of complexion, deserves to look and feel their best. Here's hoping this tool, and others yet to come, help all of us do just that.

From Your Site Articles

These comic characters could change the way kids view superheroes.

Since the 1990s, 10 movies with black superhero leads have actually grossed over $1 billion.

Have you seen many movies lately with black superheroes as the lead character?

My guess would be that you probably haven’t, but there are been a few. Out of the 171 superhero films made since 1920, only 10 of them feature black superheroes as the lead.

However, with the success of Falcon and Black Panther in the Marvel cinematic universe, audiences are incredibly excited about the upcoming release of the "Black Panther" solo film in 2018 too.

Since the 1990s, those 10 movies with black superhero leads have actually grossed over $1 billion.

That’s nearly an average $100 million per film, which is a lot considering many of the well-known black superhero films debuted in theaters during the 1990s (and lead characters such as Spawn and Blade did not have the same universal name recognition as Spider-Man or Superman). Of course, all movies with black characters at the helm don’t turn into box office gold (see "Blankman," "The Meteor Man," and "Steel"), but the need for more diversity in film adaptations of superheroes is pretty obvious.

In fact, it looks like we might be trending toward inclusivity in film too.

A 2015 study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA analyzed the top 200 theatrical film releases in 2012 and 2013, and the results suggested that increasingly diverse audiences prefer diverse film and television content.

Films with relatively diverse casts earned the highest money in ticket sales in 2012 and 2013. In 2013, the 28 films that had casts with 21%-30% minority actors earned a median global box office total of $143 million versus the median box office for the 50 films that were 10% minority or less, which was $53.2 million.

All of this suggests that moviegoers and comic book fans are going to be more than welcoming to successful depictions of black superheroes in the future, which is awesome.

Here are five black superheroes that could add diversity (and great storylines) to the comic book movie market.

1. Luke Cage

Screenshot via watchmojo.com/YouTube expand=1].

In the case of Luke Cage, black (literally) doesn’t crack. Equipped with unbreakable skin and superhuman strength, not only does Luke Cage boast a storyline that includes narratives of struggles that plague black Americans, but the character also has story arcs of betrayal, redemption, and love to which any moviegoer or comic book fanatic can relate.

Cage, a former gang member, was falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit and received his powers through an injection, similar to the super soldier serum that created Captain America, while in jail. With a series set to premiere on Netflix in September, it might be only a matter of time before you see Luke Cage on the big screen.

2. Bumblebee

Screenshot via DC expand=1] Super Hero Girls/YouTube.

Who is Karen Beecher-Duncan without her bumblebee-themed suit? A genius, inventor, scientist, and DC’s first black female superhero. Bumblebee’s powers come from her intellect, which she used to create her own high-tech suit of armor that gives her the power to fly, to shoot sonic blasts, and to shrink. Even in a shortage of superheroines in film, audiences and studios have shown via "Ant-Man," and Ant-Man’s upcoming sequel, "Ant-Man and the Wasp," there may be room for another bug-themed superheroine who can rock a beehive hairdo and espouse some #blackgirlmagic too.

3. Misty Knight

Screenshot via TheMtVernonKid/YouTube expand=1].

She’s Coffy in comic book form. Misty Knight is one badass, strong black woman who you don’t want to mess with. Knight is an exceptional markswoman, hand-to-hand combat expert, and a former member of the NYPD. Knight lost her arm after she stopped a terrorist attack that targeted a bank, and she was later awarded for her bravery by Stark Industries in the form of a cybernetic, vibranium-made bionic arm that gives her superhuman strength. Knight’s storyline includes hunting superheroes who did not comply with the Superhuman Registration Act, and she would make the perfect addition to the Civil War storyline.

4. Miles Morales

Screenshot via Comics expand=1] Explained/YouTube.

We may be a long way from a film adaptation of the Miles Morales storyline, but one can only hope to see what a black and Latino, Brooklyn-born and raised, Spidey movie would look like. Morales is similar to Peter Parker in that they both can outwit nemeses and friends, but Morales has different anxieties than Peter Parker does. Morales deals with an internal struggle of questioning whether the demons of his father and uncle (both petty criminals) are hard-wired into his DNA, unlike Parker who grows up with a wholesome Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The Morales storyline is one that anyone who grew up with family struggles can connect with.

5. Spawn

Screenshot via watchmojo.com/YouTube expand=1].

I know. We’ve seen Spawn before, but after the success of the R-rated "Deadpool," maybe, just maybe, we can get a dark, gritty, honest-to-Spawn, R-rated film? Todd McFarlane has finished a screenplay and is shopping it around Hollywood. Spawn has everything that a superhero needs too: tragedy, action, and drama. Many of us still remember the popular 1997 film version of the antihero starring Michael Jai White, and with White’s performance in the movie "Blood and Bone," White still has what it takes to make a kick-ass superhero.

It’s hard to predict what the next box office success will be, but diversity on the screen is just as important as diversity off the screen.

Why? Because when diversity wins, everyone wins. Everyone should be able to see someone like themselves on screen. The greatest power a superhero has is the ability to inspire kids to believe they can fly.

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On June 26, 2016, Jesse Williams took home the BET Award for humanitarian of the year. It was well-deserved.

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images.

Over the past few years, the "Grey's Anatomy" actor has gained a ton of acclaim for his work as a civil rights activist. He's become well-known for speaking out online with incredibly thoughtful and incisive arguments against police brutality.

He's also done excellent work with the Advancement Project, an organization designed to "strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change."

Williams wasn't in the celebrating mood at the BET Awards, though. Instead, he used the platform to get a few things about race in America off his chest.

After quickly thanking his parents and his wife, he gave a shoutout to the people he called "the real organizers": activists, civil rights attorneys, teachers, parents, and everyone around the country fighting for equal rights.

All GIFs via BET.

Then he got down to business. Every word of his acceptance speech was brilliant, but three points stood out:

1. He wanted to remind everyone of how much work there is left to do around racial justice.

He invoked memories of recent victims of police brutality Rekia Boyd, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Darrien Hunt:

"What we've been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate and 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."

"Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice's 14th birthday," he added. "So I don't want to hear any more about how far we've come."

2. He had some choice words for folks who criticize the Black Lives Matter movement.

A lot of folks want to chime in about when and how African-Americans should go about seeking justice and equality. But Williams says not everyone should get a say, and he's absolutely right.

"Let's get a couple of things straight. The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That's not our job, all right? Stop with all that. If you have a critique of our resistance, you better have an established record of critique of our oppression."

"If you have no interest in equal rights for black people, then do not make suggestions for those that do," he said.

3. He brought the crowd to its feet with a powerful call to action, asking everyone in the room to use their wealth and fame for something truly worthwhile.

Williams got real (and poetic) when he asked his celebrity peers to think about their own role in the equal rights movement.

"All of us in here getting money? That alone isn't going to stop this. Dedicating our lives to getting money, just to give it right back for someone's brand on our bodies, when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies?"

"We're done watching and waiting while this machine called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind."

Williams' speech struck a nerve with people from all walks of life.

If you haven't yet, watch Williams' speech here in its entirety. It's absolutely worth your time.

By the end, it's crystal-clear why BET recognized him as such an important part of the equal rights movement. And his work is really just beginning.

Christian Louboutin just released a new set of nude shoes.

Next time you're at your local pharmacy, take a look down the makeup aisle and you might notice something: For every one color made to match the skin of people darker than sheets of notebook paper, there are half a dozen colors that cater to people who are variations of white.

In a lot of places — and especially in the fashion world — being white is considered the default. "Nude" is synonymous with "white." And that's what makes this trendsetter's new line so exciting.

Fashion designer Christian Louboutin is renowned for creating inspiring, iconic footwear — and his latest line is making news for a really interesting reason: It's accurate.

"Nude" no longer means "white" in the world of Louboutin shoes. Instead, it means seven shades ranging from "porcelain" to "deep chocolate." This is an increase beyond the brand's past color offerings, which were limited to just five shades.

OK, but why does this matter? Because we really need to work to get the idea of "white as the normal" out of our heads.

The campaign's tagline is "A nude for every woman," and that's really what it's all about. By embracing diversity, we can understand a fuller, more well-rounded story of who we are as humanity. Nobody should feel excluded from something as simple as finding shoes that match on the basis of their skin tone.

White is the default only for as long as we make it that.

Most of us probably can't afford to go out and pick up a new pair of Loubouotin's at the drop of a hat, but here's where this decision extends beyond the brand: Others are sure to follow.

Maybe a pair of Louboutin shoes will always be out of your price range, but that's OK because, given the brand's influence on the fashion world, it's almost certain to inspire others to enact similar diversity-boosting changes as well.