Shonda Rhimes Explains Why She Didn’t Want Controversial “Times” Article Retracted
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ABC/Todd Wawrychuk(NEW YORK) — Many were up in arms last month when Allesandra Stanley’s New York Times story on the new ABC series How to Get Away With Murder said that executive producer Shonda Rhimes redefined the “angry black woman” stereotype through characters like Scandal‘s Olivia Pope and Grey’s Anatomy‘s Dr. Miranda Bailey.
Rhimes revealed in a new profile in The Hollywood Reporter that many of her colleagues were angry and wanted the story retracted. Still, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, said she wanted the piece to stand as is.
“Some really amazing articles were written that had the conversation that I’ve been trying to have for a very long time, which, coming from me, makes me sound like I’m just, ‘Rrrraw!,” she explained as to why she didn’t want the piece retracted.
“In this world in which we all feel we’re so full of gender equality and we’re a postracial [society] and Obama is president, it’s a very good reminder to see the casual racial bias and odd misogyny from a woman written in a paper that we all think of as being so liberal,” she added.
Stanley wrote in her piece, “When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.”
Still, 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 made some pretty broad claims about the physical appearance of African-American women on television. She even asserted that Murder star Viola Davis is “less classically beautiful” than other African-American leading ladies like Scandal star Kerry Washington and Extant actress Halle Berry.
Rhimes would rather not be defined in her career as “female” or black.” The trade paper noted that when Rhimes read a draft of an announcement for a future event that described her as “the most powerful black female showrunner in Hollywood.” Rhimes crossed out the words “female” and “black” and sent it back.
“They wouldn’t say that someone is ‘the most powerful white male showrunner in Hollywood,'” she told the magazine. “I find race and gender to be terribly important; they’re terribly important to who I am. But there’s something about the need for everybody else to spend time talking about it…that pisses me off.”
ABC’s Thursday night lineup features three shows from Rhimes — Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and the new series How to Get Away with Murder.
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