Article:
https://www.thelivingmichaeljackson.com/white-girl-in-danger-at-adelphi-university-performing-arts-center-and-joes-pub-924-925/
It's been excused because a black, gay man wrote it.
In that article, he more than mentions Shonda Rhimes as a role model, but as far as I can tell, Ms. Rhimes has been successful as a writer in the entertainment industry because she is unscrupulous. I watched a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy years ago, before the conglomerate, concluded that it was a show about sociopaths wearing ridiculous clothing, and never bothered with anything created by Ms. Rhimes again. She certainly noticed me, though, and has been really awful.
If white actresses have to play stupid parts, that's because most of the entertainment industry is really stupid and hates women.
I entirely agree that no genre of entertainment features enough intelligent, fully dimensional black characters or stories. I have said that before. The reason that the entertainment industry trades in minority stereotypes is that to do otherwise is to be truthful about society, politics, government, business and everything else pertaining to life that the entertainment industry wants to pretend isn't problematic.
I also think that there is probably a reluctance from many black writers to write honestly about black life for an audience that is used to black stereotypes. How do you write about the complexity of black American life? How do you write about the pockets of racism that you discover over time that your white friends, colleagues, bosses or other white people in your life have? What is the direct experience of navigating an environment which is suffused with the incoherent belief system that not only excused slavery but defended it as morally necessary? What do you feel when you are confronted by internalized racism, your own or other people's? How do these things affect your interactions with your family and your friends? How do you talk about all of the above to your children? These are a few of the infinite number of questions to be asked of black writers and by them, but to do that is to be vulnerable not only to a hostile or gently uncomprehending dominant audience but also to minority audiences who would rather present a facade of nearly superhuman strength in the face of inhuman adversity.
There is no reason for white people to celebrate black people who categorically attack white people, as if that's cool.
Is there anyone whom the powers that be aren't going to enlist to attack women and try to make it look like social progress?
Shonda Rhimes, I mean really.
