Anne Hathaway denounces white privilege in award speech
By Nikki Schwab
September 16, 2018 | 6:19am
WASHINGTON – Actress Anne Hathaway told an audience Saturday night that she’s been frightened by the hatred of LGBT people that bigots spew — but a speech by former vice president Joe Biden went a long way to restoring her faith.
“I really needed this,” Hathaway said as she accepted the National Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner.
“I think I’m probably walking around like most people right now. I’m pretty shell shocked by what I see every day, what I hear everyday. And I really don’t like to admit this, but I get scared.”
Hathaway said she felt better after hearing speeches from Biden and HRC’s President Chad Griffin, who spoke earlier in the evening.
“You guys just gave me my heart back,” Hathaway gushed.
Then, speaking to the ladies, gentlemen and “gentlethem” in the crowd, Hathaway denounced white, straight and cisgender privilege.
“It is important to acknowledge with the exception of being a cisgender male, everything about how I was born has put me at the current center of a damaging and widely-accepted myth,” she said.
“That myth is that gayness orbits around straightness, transgender orbits around cisgender, and that all races orbit around whiteness.”
Hathaway explained that it was when she spent time with the LGBTQ community – her older brother is gay – that she learned to reject this myth.
“I appreciate this community because together we are not going to just question this myth, we are going to destroy it,” she told the crowd.
“Let’s tear this world apart and build a better one.”
Hathaway was introduced by her “Ocean’s 8” co-star Awkwafina, who called the Academy Award winning actress a “friend and sister.”
“But let’s be clear, she’s been telegraphing to the queer community for years,” the rapper and actress said of Hathaway. “Like when she straddled that motorcycle in that spray-on jumpsuit as Catwoman.”
“I’m shivering right now,” Awkwafina said to laughs.
https://nypost.com/2018/09/16/anne-hathaway-denounces-white-privilege-in-award-speech/