#SNL:WhereTheSistas?

Hey everybody!!! Hope you are having a great Friday! This past week has been full of emotions.  If you read my last post you already know how I feel about the George Zimmerman verdict.  So I will not go into how crappy a verdict it was and how I cannot believe that a grown man can stalk a young man down, gun them down, and still claim self-defense.  Nope, I won't go into all of that.  But I will discuss another travesty that is happening in America and  going unnoticed: Where are the black women on Saturday Night Live?!

One night as I was getting ready for bed I was doing my usual last check of Instagram and Twitter (I hate to admit it but I am a bit of a social network junkie).  I came across this tweet that was titled "7 Reasons Why "SNL" Has To Hire A Black Woman Yesterday".  Being a huge fan of SNL, this immediately caught my eye.  And I was immediately inspired to write this post.

Now let's be clear I am not saying that SNL should start filling a status quo.  I have admired the fact that SNL recruits raw talent and I feel they should continue to do that.  But you are not going to tell me that there are absolutely NO funny black women trying out for SNL.  Heck, some of the women they already have on  SNL are only lukewarm funny (i.e. Nasim Pedrad and Vanessa Bayer).  You can throw a lukewarm funny black girl in the mix.

You might wonder why this is even an issue in the first place.  Well, in the show history's there has been only 4 (and 15 black cast members in all) black women since the show premiered in 1975.  Once again, you are telling me that between now and 1975 there have only been 4 black women funny enough to grace the SNL stage.  Unfortunately, once they were on the show they had limited camera time.  Danitra Vance, SNL's first black woman cast member, actually left the show because she was tired of only doing roles that were stereotypical (maids, baby mamas, waitresses, girl-with-a-bad-attitude.  This is probably one of SNL's biggest flaws concerning their black cast members as well as Hollywood's in general).  Maya Rudolph has been the most successful black female cast member on the show.  She is funny and because of her fair skin she could pass for just about any female celebrity, regardless of race. 

Yvonne Hudson (featured player)

Danitra Vance (first black female regular cast member)

Ellen Cleghorne

Maya Rudolph



I understand that you have to be quick with the wit on a SNL so not everyone that is a stand-up comedian can cut it on the show.  But it is really hard for me to believe that in the show's 38 year run only 4 black women have shown up to auditions that were good at improv. If you click the link about "7 Reasons" you will see that the article gives suggestions on who SNL should look to bringing on next season.  And all those ladies are funny! I'm not just saying that because they are black but because they are actually funny.  I could most definitely see Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata on SNL doing some crazy character for Weekend Update (and not the stereotypical black-girl-with-an-attitude character). 

So yea, SNL get cho life immediately.  It's 2013 and black woman, along with other minority women and men can be as funny as Fred Armisen, Will Ferrel, or Kristen Wiig.  Or at least half as funny those SNL cast members that no one remembers. Remember Rosie Shuster? Yea, me either.