Accepting the annual Governors Award, Tyler Perry delivered a moving speech about diversity, opening with the memory of a quilt made by his grandmother: At first, he didn’t appreciate the mismatched, homemade piece, but then came to realize that “each patch of the quilt she had put in represented a part of her life,” he said. “Now, whether we know it or not, we are all sewing our own quilts with our thoughts, our behaviors, our experiences, and our memories,” he continued. “And now Black people, white people, gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, ex-cons, Latin, Asian, all of us working, coming together to add patches to a quilt that is as diverse as it can be. Diversity at its best.
“I stand here tonight to say thank you to all of the people who are celebrating and know the value of every patch, every story, every color that makes up this quilt that is our business. This quilt that is America, because in my grandmother’s quilt there were no patches that represented Black people on television, but in my quilt her grandson is being celebrated by the Television Academy,” he concluded. “I thank you for this. God bless you.”