In September of this year, Viola Davis made history when she became the first ever African-American woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. This made waves obviously because this is a wonderful but also problematic title to hold. It is wonderful that Viola Davis won this award and was able to become the first black woman to win. Why was she the first though? In her acceptance speech Viola draws attention to this problem. She explains that “the only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else, is opportunity” and that you cannot win an award for a role that is not there. She then goes on to praise writers who are creating these strong black female leads and opportunities actors like herself and Kerry Washington (to name only a few) to star in them. Writers like Shonda Rhimes, the creator of How to Get Away with Murder (the show Viola Davis stars in), are creating shows that feature a diverse cast with strong (under represented) female leads. Many believe that this is a good thing and a great step in the direction of equal representation in television and film, however there are some who do not agree with this “affirmative action style” casting.

 

In an article published on March 24, 2015 by Deadline titled “Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings- About Time or Too Much Of Good Thing?” (the title has now been change to just “Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings” because the original title “did not correctly reflect the context of the article”) discusses and, I argue, partially criticizes the trend towards casting of ethnic minorities in 2015. The Author claims that many characters that were originally written as white were changed when actors of colour became interested. This article received a lot of backlash for claiming that after too many years of underrepresentation in television “the pendulum might have swung a bit too far in the opposite direction”. The great Shonda Rhimes herself took to twitter to blast the article and call the author “ignorant”.

Many others expressed they outrage regarding this article on twitter.

 

I agree completely with Viola Davis and Shonda Rhimes in this, it is important to create the opportunities for minorities, especially strong women of colour, to be equally represented in our television and film industries. How can ethnic minorities be “over represented” when they are still not equally represented? So what that some roles might have been “held back” from white actors who were interested in them? Obviously shows with strong black female leads are being well received (evidence being the success of Shonda’s shows Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder) so keep shows like these coming!

Here’s the full video of Viola Davis’s acceptance speech