Where Are The Women?: SNL's Problem with Black Comediennes

I am not ashamed to admit that at this point in my life, I consider watching Scandal to be one of the highlights of my week. I had a lot of false stops and starts with the show initially: friends tried to convince me "this is a must-see show" or "you'll love it" but each time I tried, my commitment-phobia to the show re-emerged. For whatever reason earlier this spring (obviously, at the exact same time I was meant to be working on my dissertation), I got into it again and stuck with it. Stuck with it so much, in fact, that within three days I had seen every episode. Go figure.

Unlike many others, though,I do not watch Scandal for Olivia Pope. I watch it for Mellie (played by Bellamy Young) and her one liners. I watch it to see what creative, stomach-churning new plot twists producer Shonda Rhimes has created or overseen. The drama is all there, the show has the capacity to make you root for an adulterous couple, and of course, there is the ever present question "what the hell is wrong with Olivia Pope's father?" The show's a treat, if not one that is almost too complex at times for me to truly appreciate.

Kerry Washington's portrayal of Olivia Pope as a steadfast woman who's vulnerability is not wrapped up in the stereotypical trope of black women's victimization is refreshing and enticing. That's why I could hardly have been more disappointed in the way she was compelled to perform as the host of Saturday Night Live on November 2nd. Now, I have been a devotee of SNL for about 15 years and part of me believes I watch it either because I'm masochistic, because I'm nostalgic for earlier days of the show during "the era of the woman" (performers like Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Cheri O'Teri, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey were all on fire from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s), or for both reasons. In any event, I recognize that the show's writers and producers have a limited scope of blackness in American society and of how to involve black comedians in the framework of their sketches. They have had an even harder time incorporating black female comedians into their show.

In fact, in the shows thirty-eight year history, as The Huffington Post has pointed out, SNL has only ever had four black female cast members and Washington was just the 9th black woman ever to host the show. Of the four regular cast members, Danitra Vance and Yvonne Hudson each only performed for one season in the 1980s. Comedienne Ellen Cleghorne fared slightly better (1991-1995) and Maya Rudolph lasted even longer (2000-2007). Let's not also forget that they were four out of 137 cast members the show has ever had, a measly 3%. When asked by The Associated Press about this issue, Lorne Michaels, the show's producer, simply replied "You don't do anyone a favor if they're not ready...It's not like it's not a priority for us...It will happen. I'm sure it will happen."

This lack of concern is nothing new, nor am I shocked by it. When Washington got up on stage and was asked to participate in an insufferable attempt to make fun of the controversy surrounding this topic during the show's opening sketch, it became clear that this episode was not gonna go very far. Washington had to help SNL writers parody themselves by switching from Michelle Obama, to Oprah, to an offstage portrayal of Beyonce while a message streamed about how they don't have a black female cast member who can play majorly popular figures in the American public and about how the two black male characters of the cast have enough seniority now to refuse to dress in drag.

The show ran a series of sketches in which Washington played a "hoodrat" assistant, a jealous girlfriend searching her boyfriend's phone for texts from another woman, a righteous sociology professor who blindly supported Barack Obama, a clown, and a Ugandan beauty pageant who shouted "I keep this dress." Yes, she was versatile. Yes, she could adapt to any character thrown her way. That's a sign of a talented actress and to anyone who's ever seen the woman, it's clear that she has honed her skills and her craft. The reason this episode concerns me is because it demonstrates how much old values about minorities' ability not just as performers but as human beings still remain static.

As evidenced by Washington's performance and in every other episode of SNL, black actors or actresses in recent years have only ever appear on screen to reference the fact that they are black. As if the only thing black people ever do is speak in 1970s blaxploitation jive. As if they have no other concerns. Whether Kenan Thompson is playing Steve Harvey, LL Cool J, Cee-Lo, or Whoopi Goldberg (he has since given this character up), the tone and cadence of his voice remains the same. Even if he is playing a Joe-everybody, a regular guy, his same stereotypical persona seeps into the sketch with the punchline of his jokes primarily being "isn't it so funny that I'm black?"

I wish Washington could've escaped a show that treats black actors (I would say black actresses, but they don't have any at the moment) this way in 2013. As Rhimes has shown, there is room on American TV to have black characters who are rich and complex and funny and vulnerable. She has had two major hit shows, Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, which have managed to include black characters who don't lapse grotesquely into brutal stereotypes about their inability to see anything in the world other than their own color and to be overtly preoccupied by it at every last turn.Why is this issue still a roadblock for many producers in the entertainment industry? Why don't they realize that they are so behind in their view of the world that they may soon become obsolete and that more Shonda Rhimes's will be cropping up in the near future? What's up with that?