Angry or Complicated?: Misrecognizing Black Women

Anyone who may have seen interviews with Shonda Rhimes, read her forthright speech on diversity on television, or watched her hit TV show Scandal, would not recognize her in Alessandra Stanley’s description of an “angry black woman.” It would be easy, actually, to become an “angry black woman” after reading Stanley’s New York Times review, but what such descriptors […]

To Find Black Women Comedians, SNL Should Look Online

This weekend, Kerry Washington will be hosting Saturday Night Live, a move many suspect is a reaction to SNL’s recent controversy surrounding women of color in comedy. Recently, SNL cast member Kenan Thompson blamed the show’s lack of black female comedians on their absence from the industry. “It’s just a tough part of the business,” Thompson told TV […]