Al Sharpton’s BET Speech: ‘This Election Is Not Just About Obama, This Is About Your Momma’
Sunday night’s BET Awards honored MSNBC host Reverend Al Sharpton with their annual BET Humanitarian Award. Previous winners include Muhammed Ali, Harry Belafonte, and Magic Johnson. During his acceptance speech, Rev. Sharpton got a bit political, encouraging the black community to vote this November because “this election is not just about Obama, this is about your momma.”
BET said that Sharpton would receive the award for his efforts in giving “a voice to the voiceless,” citing his MSNBC coverage of the Trayvon Martin case as a recent example, and for “his dedication to improving the rights of African-Americans.”
“We want to protect the vote. There’s all kind of schemes — voter ID — trying to stop us from voting,” he said.
“There are people that want to take away our rights, people want to change Medicaid and Medicare,” he continued. “I support and love the president but whatever you do, vote, because this election is not just about Obama, this is about your momma,” he added to applause.
“We better vote or they’re gonna take all of that from us,” he warned the crowd.
“Every night I go to sleep, I have one thing in mind,” he pledged to the crowd. “When I wake up the next morning, and my feet hit the ground, I want every bigot, every unjust person in the world to say, ‘Damn, he’s up again.'”
Watch Sharpton’s acceptance speech below, via BET:
