Janet Hubert, best known for her role as the first ‘Aunt Viv’ on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, sat down with theGrio and opened up about her recent health struggles and being portrayed as a villain in the media.
She said she will not tolerate being portrayed in the media as a villain, and called out entertainment news programs like CBS’ The Talk and The Insider for misquoting her words
Things were going pretty good — until she was asked if there were dignified Black women on television these days.
She took the opportunity to speak her piece…and baby did she speak it!
She was asked specifically, “When you look at TV now, do you see dignified, pulled-up characters?”
Her response:
We’re not even there. I see every network’s got some big fat, sort-of slightly chunky black girl. We’ve got Wendy out there who’s wearing giant ta-tas…and we’ve got Cheryl Underwood who’s sitting on the toilet on the set. We’ve got buffoons, we’ve got coons, we’ve got jiggaboos — we’ve got the new mammy. And I’m disgusted. I think the viewers are disgusted too. I think we definitely need some representation of who we are. There’s no one who represents me that I see — and it’s disheartening.
Whew, we can’t wait to hear what Wendy has to say about this one! Check out the interview below. Her comments on ‘dignified characters’ begins right around the 5:30 mark.
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