SpiritHouse and Jonathan Daniels and Samuel Younge Fellow Dean Steed’s “The Scandal Behind Scandal” touches upon some of the very serious concerns that I have while I religiously watch and record Shonda Rhimes newest television series Scandal *EVERY* single week that it airs.
And yet, Judy Smith is a *very* problematic (for my politics) person… Bush I, Clarence Thomas, Contras, BP Oil Spill, on and on and on. She was/is not on the (radical) Left side of justice but the (rabid, my words) Right (wing) side of (IN)justice.
She nor Olivia Pope (the *Scandal* lead character loosely based upon her life who is portrayed by the incredible actress and activist Kerry Washington) represent what I believe in politically as a radical Black Queer Feminist.
Michael Simmons always says, “Equality is the right to be mediocre… Equality is the right to be a right wing conservative…” Olivia Pope (nor Judy Smith for that matter) don’t have to be radical lefties and perhaps that is progress for some (not for me).
As much as I thoroughly enjoy Scandal and look forward to it every week that it airs, I’m alarmed with how moderate to liberal politics are presented as a Republican agenda. These blatant lies told in Black woman’s face/body. In my mind’s eye, it’s *very* dangerous and yet, *very* entertaining territory.
Is this Orwell’s Animal Farm 21st Century Style?
For people who believe “it’s just entertainment,” I call upon the words of nationally-recognized human-rights activist and social critic Ruby Sales, “I am so sorry that realities of the world do not permit us to live in a mindless state where entertainment trumps the search for the truth of our lives….”
Independent of race, gender, class, and sexuality (if that’s possible), why is it entertaining to watch people tortured, cheat on their partners, contemplate murdering their partners, steal presidential elections, murder “collateral damage,” violate the human and civil rights of human beings, and/or steal evidence to name a few tantalizing themes?
I don’t have the answers but I am consistently interrogating myself every time that I watch this and other television shows (and films).