Jesse Williams and Queen Latifah

Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams and Queen Latifah lend their voices to the chorus of Shonda Rhimes supporters who object to a recent NY Times article that labeled Rhimes an “angry black woman.”

From a press release:

Jesse Williams returns to The Queen Latifah Show Thursday and in talking about the upcoming new season of Grey’s Anatomy, he and Queen took a moment to discuss the recent NY Times article which referred to the show’s producer and creator Shonda Rhimes as an “angry black woman”… both had a LOT to say on the matter…

Jesse Williams: “This person knows zero about Shonda Rhimes… and what’s interesting and why I hesitate to even give this person any time or energy, is that its boring… it’s the same stuff over and over again.”

Queen Latifah: “I got bored by being offended…”

Jesse Williams: “As if a woman having a spine or passion or being able to speak back to male figures is somehow a drag? What’s the problem there…it’s silly. Do you know how many characters Shonda Rhimes has created?…iconic, iconic characters, and how diverse they are? Grey’s Anatomy is the most incredible example of how its perfectably doable to have a diverse cast of people who are representing themselves and are whole human beings, and are not demonstratively Black or Asian, or female or Latino…just people being people”

Queen Latifah: “…Reset the image of African-American women? Reset the image?… Live our life and you will see that this is the image of an African-American women that we haven’t had a chance to see enough of on television.”

Video and press release provided by The Queen Latifah Show | Sony Pictures Television