Is Olivia Pope the New Sally Hemings?
My president is black. Finally. We’ve had to wait a long time for that, and I’m willing to wager that, when he leaves office, we’ll be waiting a long time again. So it’s interesting to note that, though Hollywood was the first to publicly present depictions of black U.S. presidents, the only current network show featuring our commander-in-chief has cast him as white. We know that Scandal’sOlivia Pope is based on a “fixer” from the Bush administration, but the show itself is set in 2012. And here we are back to a white republican holding the highest office in the land.
This would be a little unsettling on its own. (If Hollywood’s hypothetical black presidents were presented as a bit of revisionist history or a concessionary nod to a hope for where the country was headed, is Scandal’s white president indicative of a similar hope?) But it’s all the more distracting, given the show’s focus on Olivia’s ongoing love affair with said president.
As soapy and sensationalistic as this show is, it’s hard for me to entirely lose myself in it. I’m too distracted by this idea that, for all her gutsy unflappable-ness, and for all her intimidating, unflinching command in the face of an employee or opponent, the married president happens to be her weakness. Even if it weren’t too convenient a plot point, revealed far too early on, it’d still stick in my craw. One of the reasons why is that I can’t seem to view this show through an un-racialized lens.
This show is giving me too many shades of Sally Hemings. I can’t.
It was especially difficult for me to turn off my Mammy-Jezebel-Sapphire-
Of course times have changed, and Olivia’s no slave. But in choosing to pursue a dominant-submissive relationship with someone who is, as the script keeps forcing him to remind us, the Leader of the Free World, it’s hard not to connect her to the earliest, collective history U.S. black women share.
If I’m arguing that these complex and uncomfortable connections are being made simply because the show chose to cast a white man as president, I have to ask if Olivia and Fitz’s relationship would still be as uncomfortable if he were, like our actual sitting leader, black. It would still read as immoral, to be sure; no matter how doggedly this show wants us to believe the First Lady is gross and unconscionable, she’s still the president’s wife and Olivia’s still his side chick. And the idea of a cheating black president would come with its own discomfort, given how much we’d associate him with Obama and how much our community seems to revere the Barack-Michelle love story.
Maybe the show chose the lesser of two color-casting evils, so to speak.
What do you think?
I love this show. A leading black lady who is making becky look second best is GREAT!
Second best? Yet the president still refuses to leave Becky? Hmm…
because he’s president perhaps???
Also, Sally Hemmings’ relationship was one out force and took place in an entirely different time. The character Olivia is not being forced into anything and this occurs in 2012 where there is some margin of choice.
I understand where you were going with that, slb. It might be a little too deep for some folks, particularly because Olivia Pope doesn’t seem enslaved by anything but her work. (Although that is its own slavery) & there were similar parallels with Condoleeza Rice. Patricia Hill Collins addresses how the new incarnations of Jezebels/Mammies, etc. have been codified in the all-encompassing title of Bitch. We’ll recognize them from Tyler Perry movies starring Gabrielle Union or Tasha Smith as what we used to call Sapphire. The Black b-word in modern day life is like the Mammy in that she doesn’t have a man of her own, she gives her heart over to unreciprocating forces (like men or corporations) and she looks good doing it even though she is ultimately enslaved by her torment.
I still love the show. I love that Shonda Rhimes is featuring the life of a black woman we would otherwise not know about and not believe because it’s so uncommon to see black women wield that kind of power. It keeps getting better. And the show is the first I’ve seen in a long while that is truly diverse in terms of gender and race with a female of color starring in a way that seems to transcend race, though as black women writers, we understand that we are not post-racial, therefore, there are all kinds of gazes at work, not just our own.
I disagree with you. I like that this show includes race without making it the main issue or including stereotypes. It seems like one your main issues with the show is that the president is both Republican and White. Would you be less troubled if he was a democrat? On that front I think that serves as way (from ABC’s standpoint) to connect with a variety of viewers instead of alienating certain groups. I also think that having a black president in this show (who would also probably have a black first lady) would draw too many comparisons to the Obama’s and invoke criticism on the show. Could they really portray a black first lady as cold and power hungry without it appearing like the “angry, black woman” images of Michelle that the media tries to put out?
Agreed, good points..
I think this article is interesting in that we are questioning whether Kerry Washington’s character, Olivia Pope is somehow seduced by the President because he’s a White man, or is it because she’s immensely attracted to power and being with power- despite his current marriage status. I think the plot could take really interesting twists if the President were to divorce his wife (has that ever happened in American history?…not sure!) I don’t know what really went down between Thomas Jefferson and Sally, but I don’t think it was love. After last night’s episode, I left the episode thinking, “Wow, maybe these two actually love each other”. But, on another topic…racially speaking, the show would take a completely dynamic if the President was Black and Olivia Pope was played by someone of color of even White. Or if the tables were turned and we had a woman in the office having an affair.