Niecy Nash-Betts Crushed the Emmys

January 16, 2024

Laura J. Burns

Laura J. Burns writes books, writes for TV, and sometimes writes TV based on books and books based on TV. She will never, however, write a poem. She’s the managing editor of The Antagonist.

The 2023 Emmy Awards were boring. Nothing scandalous happened. Anthony Anderson was a fine host, not particularly funny, not offensive to anyone. His mom was there to yell at award recipients when they went over their speaking time–which seemed to work, because this show ended before 11pm!

There were no surprises among the winners. Beef won a lot, The Bear won a lot, Succession won a lot. These are all incredible shows starring amazing actors, so congrats to everyone involved! But it’s still kind of boring when you know what’s going to happen. So let’s just talk about the best thing that came from last night’s awards show, and that was Niecy Nash-Betts winning for her role in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Nash-Betts got up there and gave a powerhouse of a speech that deserves to be replayed a hundred times in every house in America.

I hope every little girl, and especially every little Black girl–and hell, every woman and every LGBTQ+ person and everyone else who has ever felt marginalized–can take this kind of empowerment to heart. And may we all have the courage to speak truth to power like Niecy Nash-Betts.

Laura J. Burns Author

Laura J. Burns writes books, writes for TV, and sometimes writes TV based on books and books based on TV. She will never, however, write a poem. She’s the managing editor of The Antagonist.

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