American actress Hannah Enbinder’s 77th Emmy Awards acceptance speech is going viral. Einbinder is best known for her starring role as Ava Daniels in the award-winning HBO series “Hacks.” While accepting her very first Emmy, she took the stage and made a political turn. She advocated for the end of the war in Palestine and her strong dislike of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
What made her speech so powerful was how truthfully and bluntly she voiced her opinions. She ended her speech with the phrase, “Go birds, f—k ICE and free Palestine.” Her speech was a reminder that politics is personal; for her, the Emmy stage served as a forum to confront injustice. She transformed her own career’s milestone into advocacy against the current political climate.
“I feel it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel because our religion and our culture [are] such an important and long-standing, basically, institution that is really separate to this sort of ethnonationalist state,” Eindinder said to Variety. This powerful statement highlights the reasoning behind her advocacy.
This is not the first time Einbinder has taken a public stance on social justice. In March, while receiving the HRC Visibility Award, she utilized her platform to advocate against war in Palestine and condemn big oil companies. She encouraged others to continue advocating by stating, “Those of us who have a platform must use our voices to ensure that speaking out is not outlawed [altogether].”
In the past weeks, there has been an increase in media censorship, from the late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” being cancelled to a Texas State University student expelled for expressing political opinions. The risk Einbinder took was important. Her speech sends a message to all performers to use their platform to speak out.
People may not have agreed with Einbinder’s Emmy speech; however, it was brave, honest and desperately needed. Oftentimes, the most significant acceptance speech is a refusal to tolerate injustice.
