Blackness, in its essence, is about innovation and creativity born out of circumstance. It’s assigning practical solutions to less than ideal situations. It’s the perpetual shifting of an imperfect paradigm. It’s how soul food was created. It’s why ball players from Chicago are traditionally adept at getting to the hoop because it’s too windy there to really become a great shooter. It’s everything we love and hate about hip-hop. It’s us.
And, on How to Get Away With Murder last night, Blackness allowed Shonda Rhimes to create a 120 second-long scene unlike anything we’ve ever seen on television before. There have been other movies and television shows were characters have been forced to demask for various reasons. But nothing with the levels of racial, historical, and even sexual context of Viola Davis’ Annalise Keating taking off her “mask” — her wig, her makeup, and even her eyelashes — to confront her White husband. I’ve probably watched tens of thousands of hours of TV, but that was one of the 10 most remarkable things I’ve ever seen on screen.
