From the realm of “Much Ado About Nothing” social media outrage comes an instance that perhaps deserves the negative attention it garnered: last weekend’s racial folderol over an outrageously insensitive article in The New York Times that drew a firestorm of angry cyberspace responses.
In a preview of ABC’s new show “How to Get Away With Murder”—produced by the prolific Shonda Rhimes and featuring Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis as a defense lawyer and law school professor—television critic Alessandra Stanley layered stereotype upon stereotype to make the case that Rhimes “has done more to reset the image of African-American women on television than anyone since Oprah Winfrey.”
Witlessly, she wrote in her opening paragraph: “When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called ‘How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.’”
Hit the pause button!
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