Shonda Rhimes Responds to “New York Times” Critic’s ‘Angry Black Woman’ Comment
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ABC/Todd Wawrychuk(NEW YORK) — Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes is not very happy about Allesandra Stanley’s recent New York Times story on the new ABC series How to Get Away With Murder, which Rhimes executive produces. And Rhimes really takes exception to the author of the piece saying that Rhimes has redefined the “angry black woman” stereotype through characters like Scandal‘s Olivia Pope and Grey’s Anatomy‘s Dr. Miranda Bailey.
Stanley wrote, “On Thursday, Ms. Rhimes will introduce How to Get Away With Murder, yet another network series from her production company to showcase a powerful, intimidating black woman. This one is Annalise Keating, a fearsome criminal defense lawyer and law professor played by Viola Davis. And that clinches it: Ms. Rhimes, who wrought Olivia Pope on Scandal and Dr. Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy, has done more to reset the image of African-American women on television than anyone since Oprah Winfrey.”
Rhimes isn’t the creator of the show. The writer and creator of How to Get Away with Murder is not even a female. It’s a man named Pete Nowalk.
Stanley also wrote in her piece, “When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.”
Rhimes responded via Twitter on Friday, writing, “Confused why @nytimes critic doesn’t know identity of CREATOR of show she’s reviewing. @petenowa did u know u were ‘an angry black woman’?”
She continued with the following tweet: “Apparently we can be ‘angry black women’ together, because I didn’t know I was one either! @petenowa #LearnSomethingNewEveryday.”
Rhimes then tweeted, “Final thing: (then I am gonna do some yoga): how come I am not ‘an angry black woman’ the many times Meredith (or Addison!) rants? @nytimes.”
Stanley also made some pretty broad claims about the physical appearance of African-American women on television. She even asserted that Viola Davis is “less classically beautiful” than other African-American leading ladies like Scandal star Kerry Washington and Extant actress Halle Berry.
Stanley wrote, “As Annalise, Ms. Davis, 49, is sexual and even sexy, in a slightly menacing way, but the actress doesn’t look at all like the typical star of a network drama. Ignoring the narrow beauty standards some African-American women are held to, Ms. Rhimes chose a performer who is older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful than Ms. Washington, or for that matter Halle Berry, who played an astronaut on the summer mini-series Extant.“
The article generated several less-than-flattering responses from many, including Scandal‘s Josh Malina and Kerry Washington.
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