“How can I hate you when I used to be you?”
That is the question Tyler Perry voiced nearly 20 years ago, he said Sunday night, when a homeless woman walking alongside him asked him not for money or for food, but for a pair of shoes.
Perry, now an entertainment mogul, was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony.
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The prize was presented by actor Viola Davis, who highlighted Perry’s charitable work, reminding viewers of the moment last year, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he paid for senior citizens’ groceries.
“Refuse hate.”
Tyler Perry accepts Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award “I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican or because they are Black or white or LBGTQ. I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian.” pic.twitter.com/FjpTaYhKUu
— ABC News (@ABC) April 26, 2021
“Tyler knows what it is to be hungry, to be without a home, to feel unsafe and uncertain,” said Davis. “So when he buys groceries for 1,000 of his neighbors, supports a woman’s shelter, or quietly pays tuition for a hard-working student, Tyler is coming from a place of shared experience.”
Much of his motivation to do good, Perry recalled, stems from that conversation he had with the homeless woman 17 years ago.
When he first noticed her, Perry — standing near his film studio — said he reached in his pocket to hand her some cash. She stopped him, though, and instead asked for shoes. So he took her inside, to the wardrobe area, and gave her a pair of brand new shoes.
Staring down, the woman said, “Thank you, Jesus, my feet are off the ground.”
That same woman then told Perry that she figured he would “hate” her. Aware of his own past and his own fight to get to where he is now, Perry was struck by her suggestion.
He urged Americans of all colors and creeds to reject the divisiveness promulgated by social media and cable news outlets.
“In this time, with all the internet and social media and algorithms and everything that wants us to think a certain way — the 24-hour news cycle — it is my hope that all of us will teach our kids, and not only remember, but just refuse hate,” Perry said. “Don’t hate anybody.”
“I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican or because they are black or white or LGBTQ,” he continued. “I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian. I would hope we would refuse hate.”
Perry went on to dedicate his humanitarian award “to anyone who wants to stand in the middle” because “that’s where healing happens” and where “change happens.”
“So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle to refuse hate … to help lift someone’s feet off the ground, this one is for you, too,” the celebrity said.
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