There was a time when you would turn your Television on and would hardly ever see african american women as stars of the show, and you most certainly wouldn't see them in roles where they were in positions of power! Not anymore though! Black women are kicking butt in the industry these days, women like Taraji P. Henson (Empire) Kerry Washington (Scandal) and Viola Davis (How to get Away with Murder) are all the stars of their respective shows. Taraji P Henson plays the outspoken diva CEO to her record label on Empire, Kerry Washington's character Olivia Pope is an attorney or "gladiator" who is at the disposal of the president to clean up messes in and Viola Davis play a shark of an attorney name Annalise Keating who takes on the most difficult cases while she continues to teach a law class at a University. These women hold some of the most prestigious roles on television, roles that for so many years were exclusive to men and predominately white men at that.
Cookie Lyon: Taraji P. Henson
Annalise Keating :Viola Davis
Olivia Pope: Kerry Washington
It took decades for women of color to get to this point, to the point of being lead rolls, these women stand on their own and open the door for so many women of color to be able to take on these roles. Its realistic, these days it's So realistic that the CEO of the multi million dollar company is a black women think Oprah Winfrey, the right had to the president of the united states was Condoleezza Rice, and Shirley Chisolm was an Outstanding attorney. We as a people need to see more women of color in these roles serving as role models to these young girls. According to Time Magazine Kerry Washington's role on ABC's Scandal made her one of the most influential people of 2014 she's in great company on that last the writer of her show Shonda Rhimes also made that list, another african american women who also is the write for How to Get Away with Murder and Grey Anatomy. ABC even earned the hashtag #ShondaThrusdays on twitter due to all three of these shows dominating that channel on Thursday nights running back to back. As a black woman it's empowering to turn on the television and see women who look like me running the show, this is just a small step in an even bigger step that media is taking to showcase people of all colors, race, gender and sexuality in television lets just hope that we can continue to take these great strides together, especially in times where it seems the world is trying to tear us apart.
I love that black women are finally being featured as strong role models in todays television shows. One of my favorite shows, Greys Anatomy features both black males and females as strong role models. I am only on season 4 but so far three of the most important surgeons have been black. Two the surgeons were males and one female. All three play key roles in running the hospital. I think it is extremely important to break these stereotypes of black males and females and show that they can achieve anything.
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