Shonda Rhimes Is Black In Business

Growing up I always wanted to be a writer. I knew that very early on. While I had no clue exactly what or how I wanted to write I knew that it was my calling. In my youth it was hard to imagine myself making it big like other authors and screenwriters. Not only because there weren't many people of color succeeding in that profession but also there weren't many women at all.

I will never forget the moment that I discovered that I actually could make it as a writer. I was sitting over a friends house and we were watching T.V. I remember just letting her choose because at the time I was more into books then wasting my time watching a show.

My friend just so happened to put on the Sixth season of Grey's Anatomy. From the first scene I was captivated and catapulted in a river of emotions while watching these characters and their story lines unfold. I cried for probably the whole second half of the episode. For those Grey's Anatomy fans yes I am talking about the great George O'malley episode.

After watching it not only did I have to beg my friend to allow us to start on the very first season but I also had to look up the brilliant mind that delivered such excellence on the screen.

Imagine my surprise when I seen that not only was it a person of color but it was a woman, a woman named Shonda Rhimes. From there I was looking at her articles, reading up on her tips to becoming a better writer, taking her master classes, just anything that would push me into my dream as a writer because Rhimes made me realize that it was something achievable.

Who Is Shonda Rhimes ?

Shonda Rhimes is A producer, screenwriter, and author. She is best known for the above mentioned Grey's Anatomy, its spin-off Private Practice, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, and the new well known Netflix series Bridgerton. She is A black woman who is constantly breaking cycles and chains in the industry today not only for people of color but for women as well. She was never okay with just accepting what was and is now paving the way to what will be.

“Never wait for anyone to tell you you belong. If you question your right to be in the room. Other people will question it too. Don’t squander the opportunity just do the work.”

-Shonda Rhimes

So far, most of Rhimes works star female leads and people of color. Rhimes makes it a point in all of her shows to make sure her characters are not defined by the current view of the world but by who they are as people. Genre's that have a norm of who ,and what race, is cast to play a character is being changed by Rhimes' writing.

For example, in her new show Bridgerton, the Duke, one of the main characters, is cast by a black male lead. Not only that but he's a black character that's royalty and that the other white characters actually show interest in. It was never about race in the show. While in a few scenes the Dukes father does mention how they had to work a tad bit harder to get to where they were, they never had the black characters have to prove, with dialogue, that they deserved to be there. She left out the over explained monologue of her character having to explain his "blackness and struggles". He was just another character with no extra validation needed.

“When people who aren’t of color create a show and they have one character of color on their show, that character spends all their time talking about the world as “Im a black man blah, blah, blah’. That’s not how the world works. Im a black woman everyday and I'm not confused about that. I'm not worried about that. I don’t need to have a discussion with you about how I feel as a black woman, because I don’t feel disempowered as a black woman”

-Shonda Rhimes

Rhimes the Mother

In my youth I was willing to stay up late to finish writing a chapter or I could quit a job when it was getting in the way of my creativity but now that I'm a mother of two I find myself feeling guilty that I'm constantly having to choose one or the other.

Reading Rhimes' book Year of Yes really inspired me and helped me understand that both things are important. That I can be a writer and a mother. She made it perfectly clear that being a writer is a job and being a mother is not. This woman, a successful writer and producer, in all of her busyness went out and adopted 2 kids and had her third through a surrogate. All on her own. That is mind blowing and so moving.

" I find it offensive to motherhood to call being a mother a job. Being a mother isn’t a job. It’s who someone is. It’s who I am. You can quit a job. I can’t quit being a mother. I’m a mother forever. Mothers are never off the clock, mothers are never on vacation. Being a mother redefines us, reinvents us, destroys and rebuilds us. Being a mother brings us face-to-face with ourselves as children, with our mothers as human beings, with our darkest fears of who we really are."

-Shonda Rhimes

As a single mother of 3 Rhimes has truly broken out of every box and left it open for us to follow. Women, people of color, and mothers can now go and achieve things that was only dreamed about. They can spread their creativity and challenge themselves to be like one of the greats before them. The glass ceiling has forever been broken and Rhimes is one of the many who has helped get us to a point in history to finally make it without being halted by that glass.

"How many women had to hit that glass before the first crack appeared? How many cuts did they get, how many bruises? How hard did they have to hit the ceiling? How many women had to hit that glass to ripple it, to send out a thousand hairline fractures? How many women had to hit that glass before the pressure of their effort caused it to evolve from a thick pane of glass into just a thin sheet of splintered ice? So that when it was my turn to run, it didn't even look like a ceiling anymore. I mean, the wind was already whistling through....I picked my spot in the glass and called it my target. And I ran. And when I hit finally that ceiling, it just exploded into dust. Like that. My sisters who went before me had already handled it. No cuts. No bruises. No bleeding. Making it through the glass ceiling to the other side was simply a matter of running on a path created by every other woman's footprints. I just hit at exactly the right time in exactly the right spot."

-Shonda Rhimes' Sherry Landsing acceptance speech

Where Is She Now

Rhimes' just signed a hefty contract through Netflix and if her new show Bridgerton is a peek into what she has in store for us I think its safe to say that Netflix will be her new home. With many other shows already in the making I'm excited about what she's going to create next.

Every show, every episode, every character that Rhimes creates transforms T.V as we once knew it into something to be proud of. Something that everyone, no matter color, gender, background, or title can relate to.

"The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like them and loves like them. And just as important, everyone should turn on the TV and see someone who doesn’t look like them and love like them."

Shonda Rhimes- "Year Of Yes"

What I love The Most

With everything going on in the world today in regards to race and gender, I think people easily forget what they've been fighting for. I believe that we have been at this battle for equality for so long that we've forgotten the why of it. Now, some, are more interested in being more superior or more noticed then the next person and that was never our goal nor is it our fight.

Shonda has remained steady in her beliefs of being equal and just as deserving for success just like the next person. She is making it so that the "normal" is to see everyone, white people, people of color, LGBTQ, and women share the screen without the monologue of why they deserve to be there.

She isn't ignoring the past but she understands that, while it was needed for us to make it to where we are right now, the present and the future are what matters most. How we move, talk, and create now is what's going to pave the way for the children of the future.

"Don’t apologize. Don’t explain. Don’t ever feel less than. When you feel the need to apologize or explain who you are, it means the voice in your head is telling you the wrong story. Wipe the slate clean. And rewrite it."

-Shonda Rhimes

Author's Note: Creativity has never been more free as it is today. The world is changing before our eyes and now is the time to find your path and stick with it. There's enough of the pie to go around we just have to make sure we feel deserving of a slice.

As always thank you all for reading. Dont forget to hit the heart down below and/or leave a tip.