The Black Ton: From Bridgerton to Love & Hip-Hop
For seven years or so now, my friend and I have been dishing about why so many Black women love regency-era romance. As it happens, that good friend is also a foremost scholar on race and British Romanticism**. You would love these conversations. Strangers once followed us around a London museum to eavesdrop on these conversations. We have a lot of thoughts as to the why. Whatever the reasons, race and regency is undoubtedly having a *moment*.
As is often the case when Black women are dominating a conversation about television, Shonda Rhimes is at the center. I have previously credited Rhimes for single-handedly rewriting race, casting, and wish fufillment in network television. There is one thing you are always going to get from a Shondaland production and it is a Black woman love interest who does not discriminate.
Shonda stands ready to transform Netflix prestige programming with her new partnership. She staked out her claim this week with Bridgerton, a soapy, luxurious send up of Julia Quinn’s wildly popular regency romance novels. A lot of the Black women in my life…
