Jesse Williams Woes

Jesse Williams and Minka Kelly relationship would not have been a problem if he never made the infamous speech on BET, telling Black men to do better by Black women and then the camera zoomed in towards his wife of 5 years (Aryn Drake-Lee) and relationship of 13 years. He looks like a clown for two reasons, one should never proclaim to be something they aren't or have doubts of standing by. Second, this makes him look bad due to the time-line as well. Minka Kelly was on the set of The Butler, which Jesse starred in. Did their romance start there ( Before the BET speech)? Who knows, at the end of the day, this would have remained his personal business and no one would have gotten upset if, he never made those declarations during his BET speech that propelled his stardom even further. Harry Belafonte and Nate Parker passed Jesse Williams the baton for his activism. A baton passed to Jesse Williams due to his work within Black Lives Matters (BLM). We are all flawed individuals, but lecturing people about honor, loyalty, commitment, and showcasing not to have any towards a woman that is suppose to mean so much to you is questionable.

Side note: some of the things Jesse and his ex-wife Aryn started together, Jesse runs Question Bridge, a digital safe space for black boys and men to ask questions about life. Along with Drake-Lee, Williams the actor and activist created, Ebroji, a curated GIF keyboard which was culturally designed to reflect people of color.

Lastly, Aryn also helped Jesse Williams with his acting career. Standing by him financially and emotionally.