Shonda Rhimes Responds to New York Times Calling Her an “Angry Black Woman” (Update)

A New York Times review called Shonda Rhimes an "angry black woman," and Rhimes was none too pleased.

Sep 19, 2014
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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

The following passage appeared in today’s New York Times as the lede in the review of Shonda Rhimes’ new series, How to Get Away with Murder:


When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called “How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.”

Wow.

The article goes on to say that “Ms. Rhimes has embraced the trite but persistent caricature of the Angry Black Woman, recast it in her own image and made it enviable,” and that she is “all over the place.” Flattering, it is not.

Rhimes took to Twitter this morning to fire back:

The person Rhimes is referring to is Peter Nowalk, who is writing the entire first season of How to Get Away with Murder. If this picture is any indication, he is neither angry nor black nor a woman.

This is just the latest problematic lede in a New York Times article, which had set a new low bar last week when they ran this as the first line of a story on Ray Rice:


“Say this for Ray Rice: His left cross was of professional quality, a short, explosive punch. And his fiancée’s head snapped back as if she’d been shot.”

How will they respond to this latest controversy? Will they apologize like they did for the Michael Brown “no angel” incident, or will they stand behind what they wrote?

UPDATE: Now Scandal star Kerry Washington is going in on the Times, sending them some relevant reading material to set them back on the course towards sanity:

[via NYT and Twitter]

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