Taraji P. Henson condemned the Republican party with her platform. The actress urged Americans to participate in the forthcoming elections while presenting the BET Awards on Sunday, June 30. She made reference to newly enacted legislation that permits law enforcement to penalise homeless individuals who sleep in public areas. The Color Purple actress gave a passionate speech prior to revealing GloRilla’s appearance at the yearly awards ceremony. “It’s about time for us to play chess, not checkers,” she addressed the camera straight. “It’s about making decisions that will affect us as human beings, our careers, our next generations to come.”
“Did you know that it is now a crime to be homeless? ” Henson asked. “Pay attention. It’s not a secret. Look it up. They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens. The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!” The U.S. Supreme Court’s contentious ruling on Friday, June 28, overruled a lower court’s argument that laws against camping, which are meant to prevent homeless people from slumbering in open spaces and streets, infringe the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual” repercussions. The three liberal justices dissented from the 6-3 decision, which put the conservative judiciary in the majority.
Henson poked fun at Trump’s assertion that immigrants are stealing “Black jobs” from Americans. “[This is] a show packed full of all-stars with Black jobs. Whatever that means,” she said. “But clearly we know there’s a difference — thanks for the info, but we already knew it.”
Henson had earlier made news when she broke down in tears and said she was thinking of quitting Hollywood due to unequal pay for women of colour. In December 2023, she claimed on Gayle King’s SiriusXM show, “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ Well, I have to. The math ain’t mathing. When you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid.”
She went on to say, “Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired. I’m tired. It wears on you. What does that mean? What is that telling me? If I can’t fight for them coming up behind me then what the fuck am I doing?”