Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke pontificates on TV's most titillating program.
Black women across America are jonesing for the return of Scandal, a hit TV show on ABC about a hot, intelligent, African -American lady who has a love affair with the president of the United States. But it's not Obama. This fictional leader of the free world happens to be a good-looking white guy. The show's twist is that the main character, Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington, makes her living helping the Washington power elite hide dirty laundry. She juggles other relationships with successful men while getting it on with the commander in chief.
Set for a February 27 midseason return, Scandal is pretty much the first network TV drama featuring a black female character since Get Christie Love!, a blaxploitation series in 1974 that starred Teresa Graves. She was best known for her catch phrase, "You're under arrest, sugar!" Scandal is the brainchild of Shonda Rhimes, one of the only prominent black female executive producers in Hollywood. She also created Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
Scandal's black female audience loves Pope because she is a powerful, confident woman of color who has white dudes eating from the palm of her hand. What black women fail to realize is there's a subliminal reason they can't get enough of it.
Playing the role of a white man's side honey has been around since slavery, when plantation owners would rape black female slaves. Over time, the masters would grant their slave concubines special privileges and have mixed children who became the house Negroes. In Django Unchained, the movie's main villain has a slave mistress named Sheba who is the madam for his slave brothel. Coincidentally, Washington is also in the film, playing the lead role of Django's love interest.
The Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress is awesome as Pope, a character who uses her sex appeal and intelligence to ensnare the most powerful white man in the world. She even dumps her black fiancé, Sen. Edison Davis.
Black women are essentially rooting for a ho who slept her way to the top. And that's why black men hate Scandal. They have a problem with the show because we always hear black women talking shit about successful African -American celebrities who marry pretty blondes. Black men find it hypocritical when a black woman disses Tiger Woods or Charles Barkley for having relationships with white women.
One thing is for sure: Black men and women can't wait to see what Pope does next.
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