Black Women Shouldn't Still Be Making TV History in 2024
Two Black women winning awards in the same genre shouldn't be revolutionary in 2024
Happy New Year y’all. We’re only two weeks into the year, so I’m still allowed to say it. I had big plans for an end of the year post, but then life happened and I didn’t write it. Story of my life. I’d like to say it’s gonna be all “new year, new me” up here, but I assure you that I cannot guarantee anything other than the me I am. That’s not to say I don’t have big plans for this little space, including a podcast, but I have to make that happen, and I am shit at time management so it may take a while.
Anyways!
Monday night was the 2023 Emmys in 2024 because of the very necessary WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. I only half care about award shows, mainly because I think the nominees are usually homogenous and “prestige” shows lock out other deserving nominees. The shows are often a majority white cast, or very least, white leads, and are often about things like business, power and elitism, or bad decisions white people can make that would get POC arrested or killed.
One of the biggest controversies this year is that the show The Bear was nominated in the comedy category when it is definitely not a comedy. They likely did this to give the show a chance against the show Succession, which is an example of the above. No shade to the Succession team, but there’s no reason they should win every year and force their competition to edge out a more deserving nominee. By nominating The Bear in the comedy category, actual comedies got snubbed. At a time when comedy as an art form feels like it’s dying, this is not a good look. And I know this is all determined by votes, but these shows are critically acclaimed shows that everyone is watching. Shows like Abbott Elementary, Barry, Jury Duty, Ted Lasso, or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, actual comedies, got shut out, and this is was the last season for Barry, Ted Lasso, and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which means this was the last time those shows had an opportunity to win. It’s frustrating!
Despite my frustrations, this was a banner night for POC, and more specifically Black people. And like Issa Rae said several years ago, “I’m rooting for everybody Black.”
Quinta Brunson, star and creator of Abbott Elementary, won Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series for Abbott, which she absolutely deserves. Quinta is the soul of the show, and the emotional core. Without her, the show simply wouldn’t work. Janine may be a total pain in the ass sometimes, but that’s what makes the character so loveable. You want to slap her, but you can’t help but root for her.
Quinta’s win was historic, which is a goddamn shame in 2023. She was the first Black woman to win the Lead Actress in a Comedy Emmy in 42 YEARS. The last time a Black woman won was when Isabel Sanford won in 1981 for playing Louise “Weezy” Jefferson on The Jeffersons. It is mind boggling that a Black woman hasn’t won in that long, mainly because there are some funny ass Black women out there. I looked up the nominees since 1981, and they are: Phylicia Rashad for The Cosby Show (HOW DID SHE NOT WIN?), Tracee Ellis-Ross for black-ish, and Issa Rae for Insecure. There was no Black woman nominated between 1986 and 2016. That means, no Black woman was nominated for a lead actress in a comedy Emmy between my birth and my 30th birthday. That is unconscionable. Do you know how many HILARIOUS Black women were on TV in those 30 years?
Those 30 years largely cover the time when the major networks divested from Black TV shows, and our shows were on secondary networks like FOX or UPN or the CW. Our shows were hilarious back then, but no one was paying attention. I saw a clip of Quinta Brunson being interviewed after her win alongside Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold and she was losing her shit. Both Campbell and Arnold are Black sitcom royalty, first for playing Gina and Pam on Martin. Years later, Arnold played Chris’s mom, Rochelle on Everybody Hates Chris, and Campbell played Peaches, which was a recurring role. Their comedic timing and longstanding friendship makes for side-splitting laughter. I secretly hope that Arnold will get cast as Gregory’s mom on Abbott to reunite Arnold and Tyler James Williams, because they played mother and son so well.
This year was the first time Black women swept the comedy category, with Ayo Edebiri winning for her supporting role on The Bear. Even though it’s not a comedy, I’ll look the other way because I love Ayo so much. She’s so fucking funny as a person, and if you have the opportunity to see the movie Bottoms, do it just for her. I want to be friends with Ayo Edebiri desperately, even though I’m almost 10 years older than her and we likely have nothing in common other than being queer.
Ayo was the second Black woman in a row to win the supporting actress in a comedy Emmy — Sheryl Lee Ralph won last year for playing Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, and god dammit, she deserved that Emmy. I love Sheryl Lee Ralph so much in that role. Her win last year was historic, because she was the first Black woman to win since Jackée Harry won for her role on 227 in 1987. I know the odds of keeping up the streak are slim to none, but it would be awesome to see Sheryl win again, or to have an entirely new Black woman come in and take it. This year, the category was stacked with Black women: Janelle James was also nominated for Abbott, as well as Jessica Williams for Shrinking, which is an enjoyable show on Apple TV+.
TV legend Marla Gibbs (who has somehow never won an Emmy) and Quinta Brunson presented Niecy Nash-Betts with the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for her role in the limited series Dahmer. I will never watch the show out of respect for the families of Dahmer’s victims who have asked people not to watch it, but I’m glad Niecy won. She is one of the best out there, and she deserves her flowers. Her acceptance speech is one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard, and I’m going to leave you with it.
Let’s hope that we’re getting past “historic” wins for awards that have existed for over 70 years, yeah?