At the GLAAD awards this year, Kerry Washington (most known
as Olivia Pope on Shonaland’s Scandal)
delivered a powerful speech while accepting the vanguard award for being an
ally to the LGBT community. Instead of simply accepting the award, however, she
chose to take a moment to speak about not just the LGBT community, but the
fight for equality for all groups of people who, in her words, “can fall into
the category of ‘other.’”
As a black woman herself, Washington is no stranger to
intersectionality, and as a celebrity, she chose to use her star status to
influence people. Particularly, she says, that she hopes that people will “look
up what that one woman from Scandal said
at that awards show on Saturday.”
In the video below, she also comments that she may be
preaching to the choir – and I would expand on that by saying that she isn’t
only preaching to the choir at the GLAAD awards, but that her whole audience
may be the choir. Those who watch Scandal
or other Shondaland shows, those who look up to Kerry Washington as not only a
female role model or a black role model – these groups of people are already
aware of these struggles. The cynical part of me wonders if speeches like this
make a difference.
Of course, I hope – and choose to believe – that they do. I
think she adds herself to the tide of people turning history, that she becomes
a part of the good of equality, and she takes her fan base with her to become
(at the very least) newly inspired, if not more educated, more empowered, and
more eager to engage with the challenging issues around them. I certainly was
moved by her speech. But I wonder what others think. What do you think?
I find the phenomenon of "Shondaland" to be incredible, and long over due. As a writer, she is unapologetic in her decision to write characters that reflect the diversity in our communities. Most notably, she includes gay and lesbian characters in raw emotional relationships and racial diversity across all characters. She has received tremendous notoriety for these efforts (and has become a major political figure for progressive politics across the nation). It is worth noting that similar phenomenons exist for those favoring conservative ideologies. Thanks for sharing the interview and commentary!
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, given her comment regarding GLAAD "fighting the good fight", it is interesting to note that fans of Scandal are called Gladiators. Just as her character fights injustices in her show, are they hoping the show's fanbase will fight against treating some Americans as second-class citizens?