Nancy Lee Grahn is trending on Twitter after comments following Viola Davis' historic Emmy win. |
In one of her initial comments about Davis' win, Grahan tweeted, "I think she's the bees knees but she's elite of TV performers. Brilliant as she is. She has never been discriminated against."
The two-time Emmy winning actress quickly offered a mea culpa but the discussion continued. Even Oscar winner Patricia Arquette weighed in.
— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
@kingquartermain Try being any woman in TV. Wish she'd brought every woman in the picture. I wish I'd opportunity to play roles she has gets— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
@NancyLeeGrahn Stop that right now. It is a venue for whatever the WINNER wants 2 say.It is her win. She is saying something that is proven— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) September 21, 2015
Viola Davis winning lead actress Emmy's historic. My upset is acting awards dont fix racial injustice. As an actor I see how irrelevant we r— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
I never mean to diminish her accomplishment. I wish I could get her roles. She is a goddess. I want equality 4 ALL women, not just actors.— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
I apologize 2 anyone who I offended. I'm women advocate since I became one. After reading responses, I hear u and my tweet was badly phrased— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
@LexieS1723 Look Im human and an activist for all women 4 40 yrs. I made an asshole tweet. I apologize. thats all.— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) September 21, 2015
Grahn's longer apology: "I apologize for my earlier tweets and now realize I need to check my own privilege. My intention was not to take this historic and important moment from Viola Davis or other women of color but I realize that my intention doesn't matter here because that is what I ended up doing. I learned a lot tonight and I admit that there are still some things I don't understand but I am trying to and will let this be a learning experience for me."
So annoying that the day that @violadavis and @UzoAduba made history some Twitter troll is the one trending for trying to tear them down.
— Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc) September 21, 2015
Nancy Lee Take the pill darling Just take the pill..... #teamviola
— Debbie Allen (@msdebbieallen) September 21, 2015
Nancy is a good person but I wish she would think before she tweets at times.
ReplyDeleteIt was a well deserved backlash. I loved Grahn on Santa Barbara, and in her first years on GH , she is a talented actress, but as a liberal myself, Grahn's naiveté on issues, which just seem to be taken directly from an MSNBC teleprompter, is disturbing. A liberal who is so partisan that they will back anything as long as it's a democrat doing it, is as assine and unprincipled as the most insidious conservative policies that they mock. When I followed her on twitter I was amazed at how foolish and uniformed she was. Nancy wearing a tee shirt with a slogan and posting a selfie on twitter does not make you an activist!
ReplyDeleteThis is a classic example of someone speaking without understanding the relevance of what was said. Grahn should have thought - this was a win for all women true but specifically for women of color (who tend to be ultra-ignored on occasions such as this). This has happened to me as well - that when speaking about my experience as a women of color, another woman (non-color) steps in and tries to widen the scope when she has not had my experience nor will she...Grahn's statement makes trivial and downplays an experience she has not had nor will have - and from her own perspective, she could learn a few things from checking the brilliance that is Viola Davis.
ReplyDeleteI thought Viola Davis gave a wonderful acceptance speech, and understood the importance of her win and this moment in time. It's too bad someone tried to overshadow that.
ReplyDelete“In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn’t reach them no-how,” Davis said, quoting Harriet Tubman in her acceptance speech. “Let me tell you something: the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”
As an artist and as a woman of color, even thought I'm not an actress, I still felt as if Viola Davis was speaking on behalf of women like me. I've been told that my work would have a better reception in England but I was born in the U.S. and I feel that my work is very much a product of my life in America, but here I am treated as the Other, the Foreigner who does not belong.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to have a conversation with NLG I would try to make her understand this. And just because we see Viola Davis accept this award with grace (the 1st Black women ever to be awarded the Emmy in a Lead Drama Category), she has had many rejections based on the deep chocolate of her skin, the breadth of her nose and the thickness of her lips. It's Hollywood, we know that colorism exists, so it doesn't take a genius to know that this has happened to Viola Davis. I do think, however that Ms. Davis was not just speaking to her experience but to the legions who are still where she once was.
Can't NLG at least acknowledge that a Black woman winning in this category is an event that doesn't happen everyday?
And be a cause for celebration by everyone...especially women! When a wall gets kicked down in our society eventually many people get to walk through.
DeleteThank you WLS. Ms. Grahn's comments were not only distasteful but deeply hurtful.
ReplyDelete