Dear Gossips,
The New York Times is trying to apologise about that Shonda Rhimes article. Click here for more information about how they’re explaining themselves. They claim it was never their intention to offend. But is that enough? Can ignorance be excused by the absence of intent?
And, furthermore, there’s been no clarification about how poorly researched Alessandra Stanley’s piece was to begin with. Shonda Rhimes is a producer on How To Get Away With Murder but she didn’t create it. But if we’re talking about what she does or doesn’t create, in her own likeness, how reductive is it to posit that she’s “reclaimed” the “Angry Black Woman” by giving her a voice? Stanley’s misguided praise of Rhimes presupposes that she only writes for people of her own culture – at the expense of the other wonderful characters she’s created that don’t actually meet Stanley’s argument.
Like the greatest Grey’s Anatomy character of all-time: Cristina Yang, as played by Sandra Oh. Who, obviously, is not an Angry Black Woman.
But the New York Times, they weren’t wrong until people had to tell them they were wrong. Not unlike…
The NFL. Because if their asses hadn’t been exposed, if they weren’t caught in what could be a conspiracy and cover-up, they wouldn’t be making efforts to sort out their sh-t. So it’s not like they’re changing because they know it’s right, they’re just changing to save their asses.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
