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Monday, March 30, 2015

Kerry Washington Throws Black Actresses Under the Bus





Kerry Washington Throws Black Actresses under The Bus


Actress Kerry Washington, star of ABC’s hit show Scandal says there’s a need for more LGBT roles in Hollywood.

Let me get this straight: We have a Black actress telling media we need more Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender roles. When there are next to no quality roles for Black women in film and television these days.


The Bed Wench is strong in this one.


Hollywood needs more Gay Lesbian, Transgender and Bisexual roles like it needs more roles for White heterosexual males.


The truth is there have been LGBT roles in Hollywood since its inception. The movie Gilda Starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth back in the 1940s had heavy homosexual overtones. And movies like Some Like it Hot featured cross-dressing and homosexual undertones as well.


 Back in the 1970s Mark Hamill played a gay soldier on M*A*S*H. Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family was gay. The movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar featured a gay/bisexual man in the final act. And I Shot Andy Warhol is a film about Valerie Solanas, the Lesbian feminist who stalked and harassed artist Andy Warhol.


And let’s not forget recent feature films like the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain. And all those gay male best friends in those romantic comedies featuring White Women and thrillers like Single White Female.


And there have been TV movies featuring like The Price of Love which centered around a gay male prostitute serving up fresh ass in Hollywood.


On television characters like Willow on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Bill Brochtrup’s PAA character on NYPD Blue were cast regulars who regularly explored Gay and Lesbian relationships and storylines. On Roseanne, there was a gay relationship between Roseanne’s boss and another man. Steve Carey From the Drew Carey Show was a cross-dresser. Ellen Came out of the closet in 1997 of her show. And Miranda From Sex and the City was a lesbian in the later seasons of the show.


There have even been TV series featuring gay characters in lead roles. Tony Randall’s short-lived Love Syndney on NBC was a TV series revolving around a gay man. Not to mention the cable series Queer as Folk.


There have been LGBT actors since the inception of Hollywood who worked regularly. Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Raymond Burr, Caesar Romero, Jim Nabors, Liberace, Rock Hudson, Sheila James, Robert, Reed, George Takei and Tony Randall all worked regularly in top-rated television shows even during the McCarthy era of the 1950s and into the 1960s. While actors like Paul Winfield and Dick Sergeant, worked regularly in the 1970s and 1980s. Some even worked into the 1990s.


Even today openly Gay actors like Wentworth Miller work on hit TV shows like The Flash and no one blinks.


Kerry Washington in her statement shows how ignorant she is regarding LGBT issues in Hollywood. There have been plenty of roles featuring LGBT characters in Hollywood. And there have been plenty of opportunities for LGBT actors in Hollywood. Many of the executives who work behind the scenes are themselves LGBT and make every effort to look out for their friends and families.


The truth is there haven’t been many quality roles for Black women over the last 40 years. And Kerry Washington should be using her platform to discuss the shortage of quality roles for Sistas. But if she were to speak out about the lack of quality roles for Black actreses she’d be shown as the hypocrite she is. Here she is playing a Bed Wench on Scandal, a show produced by Shondra Rhimes, a Black woman who has made millions degrading the image of the Black woman on that show and the Viola Davis vehicle, How to Get Away With Murder.


And I doubt Gays Lesbians, Transgenders and Bisexuals need a heterosexual Black woman speaking for them. Gays like George Takei and Lesbians like Sheila James have been representing their own issues in Congress for decades. LGBT have been a strong economic and political force in America for the last two decades. Thanks to the resources they’ve used to lobby Congress with, they’ve been able to get legislation passed such as gay marriage and get their platform heard by the President of the United States. A President who enthusiastically advocated Gay marriage in the 2012 election.


Black actresses on the other hand have remained at the BOTTOM. Even with the success of Scandal and Empire, the Black actress remains the least paid and the least bankable at the box-office. So for Kerry Washington to NOT speak for the sistas says how much she hates herself.

With Black actresses like Kerry Washington putting their feet in their mouths it makes it that much more harder for quality projects for Black actresses to get greenlit. When the star of a top-rated television show tells the world that LGBT roles are more important than Black roles it shows how FUBAR things are in Black Hollywood.

2 comments:

  1. Could she have meant LGBT of color? I mean how many have we seen that are people of color? Aside form Alex on Glee, Noah's Arc and a few others.

    And when we have seen those of color-we see negative reactions. Look at James Tyler Williams in Dear White People. Folks went nuts as his character was gay and kissed two guys.

    If she is happy playing bed whores and maids-let them. It;s not worth getting upset about anymore. You are not the one that has to look young black girls in the face after you win awards for it.

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  2. Miss Washington made that statement because right about now (2015),that shit sounds good and makes the speaker appear 'tolerant' and 'progressive'....

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