Here’s the story: Earlier this week, Deadline posted an articled by Nellie Andreeva titled “TV Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings—About Time or Too Much of a Good Thing” (we know, we know). The article argued that in the past year, many White actors and actresses have been passed over for roles as if casting directors were looking to fulfill an ethnic quota.
Well, Shonda wasn’t going to let that fly. Our queen took to Twitter, asking someone to hold her purse as she called the article downright ignorant. Shonda, you took the words right out of our mouths.
We were all enraptured with last year’s infamous Sony hack, which aired alllll of the company’s dirty laundry, including some racist e-mails that talked about President Obama (according to some execs, his favorite movies include Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave).
However, it wasn’t the e-mails that Shonda came after; rather it was the media’s softball coverage of the scandal. Why were reporters calling the whole thing “racially insensitive”? Shonda was right when she said let’s just call it what it is: RACIST.
How dare someone criticize the perfection that is Shondaland?! But that’s exactly what angry viewer @Dabdelhakiem did while watching a recent episode of How to Get Away With Murder. The woman tweeted to Shonda, complaining about the number of “gay scenes” in the show. Cue Shonda, who eloquently informed the tweeter that there are no gay scenes, only scenes with people in them. She even Bye Felicia-ed the situation. Yas.
Remember the “angry Black woman” editorial? Last September, the award-winning New York Times published an article that opened with this sentence: “When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called ‘How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.'” Why exactly, New York Times, should it be called that?
As outrage spread throughout the Twitterverse, Shonda confronted the situation head-on. She first criticized the writer for not knowing that Pete Nowalk was actually the creator of HTGAWM before asking why it wasn’t until she had Black leading women that she was seen as an “angry Black woman” (there was no mention of her Grey’s Anatomy days!). Someone had to say something, and we’re glad it was Shonda.
We have to admit: Choosing Lady Gaga to perform Julie Andrew’s Oscars tribute was a weird choice, especially when Idina Menzel would’ve delivered a fantastic performance. And Shonda agreed with us.
But when she shared her feelings on Twitter, Gaga’s groupies, the Little Monsters, came after her, saying that she missed the point of the performance. And Shonda clapped right back, saying maybe she did, but everyone coming after her just needed to calm down and take a seat. Moral of the story: Don’t mess with Shonda! She’s perfect.
