SCANDALous: Black Women Actually Think!

It has been a while since I've written something. My bad.

As a Black 22-year-old woman, a recent-college grad with a full time job, I write. I do not speak for the "ratchet FEE-mailz". Nor do I speak for the "Academic Ladies". Nor do I pretend that there ain't rachet in the academy, or academy in the rachet. And I certainly ain't sitting here pretending like one strand of this Helix is somehow more dignified or more authentic than the other. 

From my Seat, this post means a lot to me.  I am situated in the matrix of the Academy and the Rachet. Too many writers have chosen to focus on matters above the heads of the masses. It is time to take popular culture seriously. So I write this piece as a conveniently located shorty. Somewhere between Trinidad James and James Baldwin, Queen Bey and Queen Latifah. It feels good to be here. 

I say this, not because it's cute. But because it is the exact premise of this post. Today, folks, we're gonna talk about pigeonholed identities and society's tendencies to hate the Black woman. *writes objective on the board*

Here we go.

Y'all know I love being Black. I also love being a Woman. I take pride in the spectrum of experiences we have, the things we (and our hair) can do that others cannot (or don't have to do), and in our stories. Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen for Black women on TV in the last few years is the arrival of Shonda Rhimes' Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington. Let's take a minute and thank God for Ms. W. She bad. 

When Olivia first arrived to our TV screens, we were excited. This was the first time a Black actress had a strong presence in a prime time TV show since Mama Carroll. We cheered. It kinda felt like Election Night 2008.... You know, people calling mamas and saying "we made it". At least that's what it felt like. 

Then we learned that Olivia Pope didn’t just have a fierce wardrobe or trademark lip quiver. We learned that Olivia Pope had a low-profile relationship with a high-profile man. A White man, no less. As episodes progressed, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook exploded with memes and statuses about Blackness and Womanhood. Here are a few gems....

Obvious crimes against spelling and grammar aside, let's take a minute to absorb what's happening here. What do you see in this picture? I'll let you know some things I find.

1. First off, the classic watermark reminds us that this meme is for "BlackMenOnly". You know, cuz the rest of us are too weak and girly to handle the truth that springs forth here. 

2. Black men are tired of always being made out to be the bad guy. We, as Black women, should acknowledge we are oppressing Black men. Why do White dudes get to have all the fun?

3. As Black women, we should feel like traitors. At the Adulterers' Convention last spring (held in Las Vegas, Tiger Woods was the Keynote Speaker), it was decided that extramarital affairs should only take place between members of the same ethnic group. Any other complication makes things sticky. 

You can't be serious, right?

Then I found this gem.

Peep shorty's stance in the top panel. Shaniqua is obviously an aggressive Black woman who cannot keep Tyrone happy (mostly because she cannot cook). We see her reprimanding her assumedly innocent man. But watch, the hypocrisy! That same woman is so "stupid", so "self-serving", and so "irrationally emotional" that she cannot regulate her heartbeat when Fitz and Olivia have their intimate moments on screen... 

  

But this one took the cake. Here, we have a picture of Fitz. The President. The Prince of Olivia's Heart. Someone #onHere (oh hey @FeministaJones) decided to make a meme that captures the essence of his undeserved smuggitude. And here, is the issue--

Y'all jealous. You're, as Jamilah Lemieux so beautifully wrote earlier today, "showing us... conflicting emotions and dare I say...hurt."

I won’t let this conversation sit there, although she and others have engaged in an awesome dialogue.

Here’s my concern about Scandal and our reaction.

It’s. Television.

Rarely, do you EVER hear me say “it’s just television”. After all, I have YET to see Django because I’m opposed to its premise, I’m still tending to the wounds of The Help, and I’m STILL sorting out my feeling about The Butler. I take Race and Representation SERIOUSLY. There is a link between the ways we are portrayed on television, and the ways we are treated. Everything is fair game.

Here’s what Scandal is NOT.

It is not an absolution of infidelity.

It is not a commercial for Side Chick University.

It is not the socializing equivalent of “gangsta rap” for young children.

Black Women are not children. We are capable of discerning “good” aspirations from “bad”. And we are completely capable of being held responsible for our poor choices, too. We are not babies to be coddled, fed, burped, and changed. We understand that Scandal is not real life. And while we may lust over that FIYAH white coat, we do not wish Olivia’s fate on anyone.

It’s funny. I think I have seen more of these “Y’all-black-women-stupid-cuz-you-won’t-let-me-have-a-wife-and-you-at-the-same-time-is-it-cuz-I’m-Black” memes on the Instagram/FB/Twitter accts of Black men.

What Shonda Rhimes is doing with Olivia Pope is called "providing context". You might read that as us "praying to St. Olivia". But it's really much lighter than that.  The discussions about Ms. Pope serving as either a "whore" or a "convenient superwoman" can stop. The flashbacks, the awkwardly long lip quivers, the dramatic phone calls.... These glimpses into Olivia's very complicated love life provide nuance in a situation that often might grant her the "Whore" label.  In other words, this has nothing to do with the involvement of a White love interest.

It’s funny how we see racial complication on TV, but refuse to locate the racial tension in our own lives Perhaps because our focus (or scapegoat) is a Black woman. There's a lot happening on Scandal. And in the world. We'd be doing ourselves a great service to keep our race-gender justice radar ON all the time. Scandal is just Thursdays, y'all. 

I have also seen a meme floating around that there might not be as many squeals of “YASSS LIV” from Black women had the racial identities of the characters been switched. Basically, folks are asking if Black women would be so down for Ms. Pope if Fitz were Black, Millie were Black, and Olivia was White.

I don’t think that’s the purpose of Scandal. That train of thought is a reach. Someone’s trying super hard to play “Devil’s Advocate” here. The Devil needs no advocate.

I don’t believe that the point of Scandal is the racial tension between the characters. In fact, I think Shonda Rhimes goes OUT of her way to paint Olivia as a Teresa Barbie. You know… The Black Barbie who is supposed to be Black and is sold to Black girls as a Black doll, but doesn’t really live the “Black life”. I always felt like my Teresa dolls were just Barbies painted Black. Straight hair, dainty European facial features, and a regular figure. Come on Teresa. In real life, you would have to do a SERIOUS dance to get into the Barbie jeans.

Much of Olivia’s life is so contrary to what many people understand Black life to be. Her father has a cushy job, her apartment is dope, she swims with a weave, her job is her passion and is respected, she LITERALLY calls the shots, and she has the swag to hang up on the Leader of the Free World… In WHAT world does that happen on primetime TV?

I’m not saying that Black folks don’t live great lives. We do. Many of us do. But I don't think we're dumb enough to believe that mainstream media is ACTUALLY selling us something they believe in. Olivia Pope could have easily been played by a White woman. There is nothing in her story that suggests that her character MUST be played by Ms. Washington (by the rules of media-logic, of course). Again, let it be heard that I am arguing that Mainstream Media has rules. Olivia Pope fits into these rules because, well, we’re not supposed to believe that her character could actually exist. A Black woman in 2013 as a ride or die for a Republican president? Really? We know better.

We’ve been primed for this. Unfortunately, we only see a sliver of the "Black Woman Show" on TV. Most folks actually don't know how incredibly regularly phenomenal we are (but shout outs to IssaRae and the ABG Show!) So it makes sense. I'm just watching TV here. And for you to say that I'm somehow irrational or hypocritical because you do not see me protesting in the street against Rhimes? It means you do not trust my judgement. It's patronizing, friends. Our faith in Olivia’s story is just about as believable in the chance that Whitney Houston is actually OUR Fairy Godmother, not Brandy’s.

Black Women are smart. We think. We write. We research. We teach. We preach. We advocate. We protest. And we'd love to see you standing at our side as we fight the ever-enduring struggle for liberation. We understand that Scandal is a television show. Trust, if anyone is really sitting on the couch watching ABC at Thursday 10 PM believing anything… It’d be the guy I turned down for a date. I hope he didn’t actually believe my story about heading to DC to see my boyfriend, the one I can’t really talk about…

Gullible.