Film director and producer Tyler Perry touched the hearts of many young black people with his acceptance speech at the BET Awards held in Los Angeles in the US on Sunday night. The actor won the Ultimate Icon award and shared his story of why he built his studio at one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Atlanta.
“When I built my studio I built it in a neighborhood that is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Atlanta so that young black kids could see that a black man did that and they can do it too.
“The studio was once a confederate army base which meant that there were confederate soldiers on that base plotting and planning on how to keep 3,9 million negros enslaved. And today that land is owned by 1 negro,’ said Perry.
WATCH: Tyler Perry's acceptance speech
Young black people took to Twitter and tweeted quotes from Perry’s speech. These are some of our favourites.
"Work like you're broke. I don't care how much money you have, work like you're broke." - Tyler Perry
— Mbaliyezwe Ndlela (@mbali_ndlela) June 24, 2019
Tyler Perry said create your own table and watch God set it in the presence of your enemies and that’s exactly the type of motivation I need #BETAwards
— Outofcreativenames (@esornair) June 24, 2019
Thinking about Tyler Perry's BET acceptance speech...the words "help her cross"...keep running in my head. #TylerPerry #TuesdayThoughts
— Itayi Chitauro Junior (@itayiISwriting) June 25, 2019 Tyler Perry's speech was beautiful, when he said "....now that land is owned by one negro" the audience lost it 🔥🔥🔥 #BETAwards19
— Asanda (@_Genu) June 25, 2019