‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 13 Updates: Showrunner Shonda Rhimes Addresses Controversial Actor Jesse Williams’ Petition for Removal from Show

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ showrunner Shonda Rhimes finally expressed her thoughts over the online petition war waged against actor Jesse Williams. The petition was created calling for the controversial actor’s removal from the television series.

Rhimes clarified that Williams will continue to stay on as Dr. Jackson Avery despites calls for him to get the boot. According to The Root, Rhimes simply shut down the petition on a Twitter post. The short tweet read, “Um, people? Boo don't need a petition. #shondalandrules.”

William’s fiery anti-racism and anti-police brutality speech at the BET Awards held in Los Angeles on June 26 gained him supporters as well as critics. In fact, a Change.org petition, entitled “Sign the petition to fire Jesse Williams from Grey’s Anatomy for racist rant,” was started last July 1 calling for the actor-activist’s removal from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.

According to The Wrap, the petition authored by a certain Erin Smith currently has over 20,000 signatures – escalating nearly four times more in the past 24 hours. Smith recently did an update which read, “Please sign the petition to fire Jesse Williams from Grey’s Anatomy AND boycott the entire ABC Network. Don’t forget to unlike all ABC programs/shows on Facebook pages, unfollow all on Twitter and separate from all social media that has anything to do with ABC, their shows, news, etc.”

Although the actor received the prestigious BET Humanitarian Award, the petition accused him of being hateful towards Caucasians and police officers. It originally read, “Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams’ actions.”

It also mentioned ex-‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star Isaiah Washington’s dismissal from the show for his repeated use of homophobic slur against co-actor T.R. Knight during filming on-set.

Nevertheless, Williams didn’t seem worried despite the petition gaining ground. He posted a Twitter comment last July 3 that read, “Do not promote empty people & their tantrums. Pure clickbait to gain followers, attention & money, for themselves, not you. Never you.”

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is a highly popular television show airing on ABC. Season 13 is scheduled to premiere on September 22, 2016.