Diversity on Screen

Mainly known for producing various hit TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, Shonda Rhimes has been highly acclaimed by many in the TV industry. Recently, however, she has been aggressively bashed by Alessandra Stanley in a highly controversial New York Times article referring to Rhimes in an extremely negative light. Stanley started her article by invoking the stereotype of the "angry black woman" when introducing Rhimes. She strongly emphasized Rhimes’ so-called intentional placement of black females into her series in a very prejudiced way. Stanley also made it a point to accuse Rhimes’s series of being racially insenstive.Stanley’s article has gotten much more judgement than praise. Jesse Williams, one of the principal actors on Grey’s Anatomy, was one of the many criticizers of the article; he said "She's just trying to bring down accomplished people." Queen Latifah also chimed into the critique by saying that while reading her article, Latifah was extremely bored not only by the article itself, but she was bored of being offended. Many people have questioned why and how this article made it past Stanley’s editors.Maureen Ryan of The Huffington Post said "These editors apparently live inside such a hermetically sealed culture of complacency that they thought it was acceptable for Stanley to inexpertly and insultingly throw around loaded terms like ‘sassy,’ ‘menacing’ and ‘not classically beautiful’ in relation to African-American actors and characters." Stanley, as well as the editors of her article, has attempted to justify her unjustifiable claims by saying that the viewers of her article should view this as a compliment, but while doing so, Stanley outwardly contradicts herself by stating, "Nobody thinks Shonda Rhimes is holding back and nobody is asking to see the real Shonda Rhimes. She’s all over the place." I do not know how Stanley expected this insult to be interpreted as a compliment.This disapproval of The Times has also sparked the question of whether there is a problem with diversity in the New York Times’ newsroom itself. Dean Baquet, the executive editor, who also became the first black editor to lead The Times just a few months ago said that he believes there is a potential problem. "I would criticize us for that, it’s an issue and we need to work on it," Mr. Baquet stated when referring to the fact that there are only two people of color among the 20 cultural critics in The New York Times newsroom.Throughout the many years that I have watched Grey’s Anatomy, I have actually appreciated Shonda Rhimes’ seemingly intentional diversity that she has written into her show. Unlike Stanley’s perspective, I have found the diversity in Grey’s Anatomy to add a lot to the show’s dynamic. I think it is safe to say that Jesse Williams agreed with this statement when he said, "Grey’s Anatomy is the most incredible example of how it’s perfectly doable to have a diverse cast of people who are representing themselves and are whole human beings and who are not demonstratively black or asian or female or latino. They are just people."