Newspaper Page Text
A Different Kind of Scandal
By: Karimah Noble C2015
Imagine I am to produce a
prime-time television show on a
major network. The show centers
on a young, rich, successful white
businesswoman. Let’s just call her
Susie, shall we? Susie is quick
witted, well spoken, possesses the
uncanny ability to manipulate anyone,
and can talk her way out of every
conceivable situation. She owns a
consulting firm and has
a handful of employees
whose unquestioned
allegiance to her borders
on God-like reverence.
Yale-educated and drop-
dead gorgeous, Susie is
politically connected, fiercely
independent, single, no
children, dresses in the
finest tailor-made clothing,
is completely self-made,
and earns a substantial living as a
professional liar.
Intrigued?
Suppose I spiced things up
more and told you that Susie’s love
interest is a married man? A little
more enticed? I thought that might do
the trick. But wait! Before you rush
to tune in, there is a caveat: Susie’s
adulterous affair is with...a black
i man.
Did I lose you? Stay with me; I
beg you.
Let’s call said lover Tyrone
(because quite frankly, I cannot
think of a name more unmistakably
“black”). So...Tyrone is Harvard
i educated, handsome, rich, and
powerful. He has a beautiful, black,
pregnant wife named Tammy (I
considered Taneequa, but the name
just seemed a bit over the top). At any
rate, I digress. Tammy holds a degree
from the same ivy-league institution
as Tyrone, is cunning, ruthless, and
will stop at nothing to ensure that her
husband maintains his power and
status- even if it means “sharing” him
Courtesy of ABC
with another woman. They have two
children in boarding school, live in a
sprawling white mansion, and have
every imaginable luxury.
In spite of this, Tyrone hates
Tammy. Not just your everyday, run-
in-the-mill hate, but a deep-seated
genuine distain. He loathes his wife.
And he makes no secret about it. Nor
does he make any secret about his
affair. Tammy is fully aware of his
habitual indiscretions and his desire
to divorce her (pregnant or not). As if
that were not enough, the caveat of
all caveats: Tyrone is president of the
United States.
Suddenly feeling “some kind of
way” about the premise of my show?
I would venture to say you
probably are. I would also venture
to say this storyline would never see
the light of day. However, if by some
miracle, a major network were brave
enough to air such a show- one
depicting a black president having
an extramarital affair with a white
woman- chances are Al Sharpton,
Jesse Jackson, the NAACP...shucks,
everyone from the Black
Panther Party to Martin
Luther King Jr.’s second
cousin’s nephew’s brother
would stand in protest.
I challenge anyone to
disagree.
But is this not the
storyline of the hit show
Scandal? Yet no one stands
in protest. No angry uproars.
No outcries.
Is this simply because Olivia
Pope is black and Fitzgerald Grant is
white? Quite possibly. Nonetheless,
the question remains: Same storyline,
same script, slight “tweak” in
casting...
If “Livy”
were white and
President Fitz”
black, would
you even watch
the show?
The BluePrint
SpelmanPaper@gmail.com Feb/March 2014
17