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WATCH: Black Women In Hollywood: Kathryn Busby Acceptance Speech
essencemagazine
Follow
3/20/2024
Watch as television executive & 'Black Women In Hollywood honoree Kathryn Busby delivers her acceptance speech.
Category
🛠️
Lifestyle
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
[MUSIC]
00:06
You have no idea how full my heart is at this moment in time.
00:13
[APPLAUSE]
00:15
They can't tell you how beautiful this is unless you're in this room.
00:21
Anyway, hello black women in Hollywood, I'm so happy.
00:24
[APPLAUSE]
00:27
I'm thrilled to be here at this glorious luncheon where I get to
00:33
experience our collective excellence, where I get to feel the love and
00:39
the inspiration.
00:41
And when I get to see so many icons and friends and
00:45
rising stars, all of you beautiful people everywhere I look.
00:51
I didn't get to this podium by myself.
00:54
I have been so fortunate to have tremendous role models for
00:59
my entire life starting with my grandmother, Zerit.
01:03
Zerit was the first female doctor in Trinidad, the first.
01:08
[APPLAUSE]
01:11
My mother, Rona, who emigrated from Trinidad to New York,
01:16
didn't go to college.
01:18
But with just a high school diploma, she got a job as a secretary for Pan Am.
01:24
And because of that job,
01:25
she made it possible for my family to travel all over the world.
01:29
And my aunt Margaret, at only 21 years of age,
01:34
became Britain's first black female publisher.
01:37
Now, one thing these women had in common is that they didn't accept their
01:44
circumstances.
01:45
They marched ahead because they didn't believe in limitations, and neither do I.
01:50
So coming up in Hollywood, I always felt like I was working two jobs.
01:57
One, my actual job, my job job.
02:00
And two, the job of representing us, of fighting the good fight,
02:05
because I was almost always the only black person in the room.
02:10
But like the women in my family, I marched ahead.
02:15
So please don't believe it when they say that
02:19
Hollywood doesn't want to hear our stories,
02:21
because I'm here to tell you that we do want those stories.
02:25
>> [APPLAUSE]
02:29
>> Just look around you.
02:31
Black women are leading the way.
02:34
That's why we are blessed with the stunning performances of Daniel Brooks and
02:40
Halle Bailey.
02:41
>> [APPLAUSE]
02:43
>> That's why we're blessed by
02:44
the dazzling shows created by Nkechi Okorokaro.
02:48
>> [APPLAUSE]
02:51
>> Quinta didn't believe it when everyone
02:53
said comedies are dying.
02:55
She marched ahead and she gave us a gem of a show.
02:58
>> [APPLAUSE]
02:59
>> Channing didn't believe the conventional
03:02
wisdom that a black woman couldn't run a network and be chairman of a major studio.
03:08
She did both.
03:10
>> [APPLAUSE]
03:12
>> You gotta fight the status quo,
03:14
because you can be the one to change the world.
03:17
You must tell your story.
03:20
You must tell our stories.
03:22
The world needs our stories more than ever.
03:25
We are defying expectations.
03:27
We are changing the industry and we are influencing culture.
03:32
And the spark you see in me is only a reflection of you all.
03:37
Thank you, Essence, again for this wonderful honor.
03:41
I'm blessed.
03:41
Thank you.
03:42
>> [APPLAUSE]
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