A new online petition demands the NY TIMES retract an article that deems award-winning writer/producer Shonda Rhimes an "Angry Black Woman." And we're also not feeling the unnecessary attack on Viola Davis' beauty.
Read it all inside...
Friday morning, NY Times writer Alessandra Stanleydescribed Shonda Rhimes, the writer/executive producer of ABC's "Scandal," "Grey's Anatomy" and the executive producer of the new "How To Get Away with Murder," as an "angry black woman" in what was billed as a light-hearted, positive feature about her. Well....folks weren't too happy about that because "we" know how those labels are often used to close doors and shut down opportunities.
The NY Times story begins:
When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called “How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.”
On Thursday, Ms. Rhimes will introduce “How to Get Away With Murder,” yet another network series from her production company to showcase a powerful, intimidating black woman.
It seems, to many, that the mainstream publication was attemptiing to overshadow Shonda's historic acomplishment of having 3 shows airing on the same night on a major network show.
An online petition was set up, demanding a retraction from the paper and attempting to explain to non-Blacks why the label is offensive. 
In her own defense, Shonda took to Twitter to express her displeasure over the term and to also tell the NY Times that you can't label her an "angry Black women" over Viola Davis' new show "How To Get Away With Murder" because the show was actually created by a White man! Does that make HIM an angry Black woman?
Tell 'em Shonda!
Also in the article, the writer called Viola Davis "less classicaly beautiful" than Kerry Washington.
As Annalise, Ms. Davis, 49, is sexual and even sexy, in a slightly menacing way, but the actress doesn’t look at all like the typical star of a network drama. Ignoring the narrow beauty standards some African-American women are held to, Ms. Rhimes chose a performer who is older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful than Ms. Washington, or for that matter Halle Berry, who played an astronaut on the summer mini-series “Extant.”
Not only was this subjective criticsm unnecessary, it's yet another stab at the black women who are part of tv history.
Meanwhile, we're twiddling our thumbs until September 25th....
Photo via Getty Images
