Do you feel like we’re making progress with the representation of women of color on television?
I want it! I want the progress and I want to move in a forward direction! The optimist in me wants to be excited that we have Kerry Washington and now we’ve got Viola Davis, and we’ve got shows like Black-ish, and while Tracee Ellis Ross isn’t the lead, she’s co-starring as the lead. So I do get excited about that, wondering who’s going to come next. But then I remember when we had a lot of black television shows on, and we were like, “Yeah! This is it!” And then it sort of disappeared overnight.
And we’re just now slowly getting back to this position. So, I do feel excited but I also want to be realistic and acknowledge that not all trends stick around. I hope that it does! I hope that it continues to move forward! But television is a really scary world. You can never place your bets on anything. I think you can put so many people of color on TV shows, but until there are more people of color who are making those decisions to put those actors and actresses in those roles, we’re not quite at that point yet. We need more Shonda Rhimes in our lives.
— Jasika Nicole Will Teach You Embroidery and Social Justice: The Autostraddle Interview (Photos by Robin Roemer)
Thanks to Autostraddle for conducting this lovely interview with me and asking really great questions that I hardly ever get asked! It was a pleasure!
