January 16, 2018
Six actresses of colour urged people to say "time's up" to
harassment and abuse at the NAACP Image Awards here.
Kerry Washington,
Tracee Ellis Ross, Lena Waithe, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Angela Robinson and
Laverne Cox shared a message encouraging viewers to "stand by us, stand for us,
stand with us" against harassment and for justice, at the event held on Monday
night, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
They gave out a group message about
the #MeToo movement before the Best Actress in a Drama Series prize. Each of the
ladies delivered a sentence of the statement before passing it on to the other.
"We are America's black women," Washington said, with Ross adding in:
"Forces of nature."
The group said that black women had "always been on
the front lines of change" and challenged viewers to "stand by us, stand for us,
stand with us."
They then delivered a series of messages starting with
the phrase "Time's up".
"Time's up on complaining about an imperfect
system if we aren't willing to fix it, time's up on our silence, time's up on
the abuse of power," the women said together.
Robinson received applause
when she said: "The mid-terms are a perfect moment for us to use our voices."
"We cannot sit this one out. If we can take back a senate seat in Alabama,"
Smollett-Bell said, to more applause, "then we have the ability to shift the
balance of power."
After the speech, Robinson tweeted an image of the
group with the caption, "Incredible sharing the stage with these incredible
women at the NAACP Image Awards to represent Time's Up."