Last week Stacey Dash, the onetime star of Clueless who now contributes to Fox News, remarked that networks like BET, occasions like Black History Month, and telecasts like the Image Awards do more to harm the black community than help. A number of people took umbrage with that statement, but you can thank Gabrielle Union for providing the most accurate and delicious counterargument to date.
Union, who was asked to comment on Dash's remarks at Sundance, crafted a perfectly shady response.
“Who's that? Who's Stacey Dash? Is she related to Damon Dash? Is she on Roc-A-Fella?” she began. “I heard of a crazy lady once, maybe last week, but I don't know what her name is.”
She then added her true feelings on the matter while mentioning her record-setting new film The Birth of a Nation, starring writer-director Nate Parker as slave revolt leader Nat Turner, which is poised to sell for $17.5 million to Fox Searchlight:
“It's like why there's a need for The Birth of a Nation and the Country Music Awards and the ALMA Awards. If you don't see yourself in mainstream awards, you tend to create your own. Until there's no longer a need for that, I celebrate the ALMAs the same way I celebrate the Country Music Awards and the same way I celebrate the BET and Image Awards, which we'll all be at in a couple weeks. The more that we focus on inclusion and true representation in this country, that crazy lady will have less to say.”
Perspective peppered with shade: the best kind of insight of all.