Joe Vesey-Byrne
Sep 18, 2017
TheJackEBrown/YouTube screengrab
On Sunday, Lena Waithe broke a 40 year record by becoming the first black woman to win an Emmy award for writing.
Waithe, who also acts on the Netflix series Master of None won the award for Outstanding Writing on a Comedy, a first for black women in the history of the award show.
She was nominated for the second season episode 'Thanksgiving'.
The highly personal episode revolves around coming out as gay, and the changing relationship between Lena's character Denise, her mother, and grandmother.
In her moving acceptance speech, Waithe said:
 I've got to thank God or else I wouldn't be standing here.
I want to thank my mother for inspiring the story and allowing me to share it with the world.
I love you mom.
Thank you Aziz for pushing me to co-write this, bro.
Now, we're standing here. I love you forever.
The series is the creative baby of Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang.
Waithe continued, thanking Netflix, the episode's director Melina Matouskas, and the episode's guest stars Angela Basset and Kim Whitleyguest.
Waithe went on to thank the gay community.
Last but not least my LGBTQIA family.
I see each and every one of you. the things that make us different, those are our superpowers — every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren't in it.
She finished, saying
And for everybody out there that showed so much love for this episode, thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a little queer black girl from the South Side of Chicago, we appreciate it more than you could ever know.
See the full speech here:
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