I think it's obvious. When you're a black homophobe, the most respectable thing to do once you've been fired for causing undue controversy to darken a show's reputation is to point out the obvious - You were the victim here. A victim of racism.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/29/people.isaiahwashington.ap/index.html
Yes, the man is indeed putting Isaiah down. They were completely offended by his refusal to walk around the hospital gnawing on a watermelon and be whipped when a surgery went poorly. As we all know, "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes wants nothing to do with well-spoken, well-represented black people on the screen. It was all about his color.
Sure, Rhimes herself is black in a predominantly white-run industry, but she really doesn't know what it's like. She hasn't had the experiences Washington has had. She hasn't seen what he's seen. She didn't have to live through minstrel shows and Jim Crow laws. Isaiah Washington did. Because he is, in fact, 97 years old.
They say black people age better than white people, but my god. Isaiah looks good. And back in his day, when vaudeville demanded even he put on black-face and shuffle around the stage, Washington had to deal with so much more than the white-ified Shonda Rhimes. He had to deal with racist laughter coming from the audience of boater-hat-wearing Fuller Brush salesmen. And, being in theatre, he also had to deal with them. Big old homos.
It's not his fault. Ask any 97-year-old black man and he'll likely tell you he's seen a lot of change in the last century. Isaiah relates to that situation better than any of us can possible imagine. Part of that change was the over-abundance of queers. We need to open our hearts to Isaiah. We need to understand that he deserves a break.
Like the old saying goes: When the chips go down, the race card trumps the douchebag card.
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