Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech criticizing the lack of empathy shown by President-elect Donald Trump ignited applause from those in attendance and praise from people across the internet ― including Bernice A. King.
The activist and daughter of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took a moment to voice her support for Streep’s message on Sunday night over Twitter.
“Thanks for reminding us that we should live on what my father called the ‘higher plane of dignity and discipline,’” wrote King, who serves as CEO of The King Center, an Atlanta nonprofit dedicated to civil rights.
While accepting a Cecil B. DeMille Award at the event thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Streep addressed the room full of whom she termed “the most vilified segments in American society right now,” referring to the “outsiders and foreigners” that have been subject to hateful rhetoric by Trump ― but who also comprise large swaths of the entertainment industry.
Without calling out Trump by name, the actress compared his campaign and election to a movie that “sank its hooks into” her heart. One defining moment for her happened in 2015, when Trump, “the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country,” mocked a disabled New York Times reporter.
“This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing,” Streep said.
“Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
Read celebrities’ reactions to Streep’s impassioned speech on HuffPost Entertainment.
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