Last night’s SAG Awards was able to be a glimmer of hope amidst all the bullshit that is the Oscar…
“When I tell my daughter stories at night, inevitably, a few things happen. Number 1, I use my imagination. I always start with life, and then I build from there. And then the other thing that happens is she always says, ‘Mommy, can you put me in the story?’ And you know, it starts from the top up.
[…]
So I’d like to thank Paul Lee, Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Bill D’Elia and Peter Nowalk for thinking that a sexualized, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old dark-skinned African-American woman who looks like me.”
Last night’s SAG Awards was able to be a glimmer of hope amidst all the bullshit that is the Oscar nominations; the film winners were a [white]wash, but multi-cultural rainbow Orange is the New Black won for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, and Uzo Aduba (who has one of the tightest red carpet games of all time why are we sleeping on her) won for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Comedy Series.
The above quote, though, is from Viola Davis, who won for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Drama Series. Davis’ anecdotes prove that yes, one and for all, representation matters, whether it’s through the eyes of her daughter or her own. It is crucial and necessary to have people who look like us in the stories that we consume. (Davis also wore her hair in its natural state last night, and, no lie, it made me feel more confident about my own.)
But then…that’s it. That’s where the awards won by POC end. And here’s a fun fact: in the 21 years that the SAG Awards have been held, only three women of color have won the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Drama Series award, and they all came from Shondaland.
It’s Monday and it’s still a little early, but let’s start this week off feeling grateful — — grateful for shows like Orange is the New Black and showrunners like Jenji Kohan and her commitment to diversity even if it does mean bringing in a Trojan horse, grateful for Viola Davis and Uzo Aduba for holding it down, grateful for Shonda Rhimes for blessing this earth with her existence. Because sometimes that’s all we’ve got.