Let's all give a huge round of applause to Lena Waithe, the talent who just made Emmy history as the very first Black woman to win for Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series.
The star won this honor for co-writing the “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None along with the hit show's star and creator, Aziz Ansari. When a visibly shocked Waithe took the stage to thank supporters for the award, she didn't forget to shoutout the LGBTQ community, and her humble beginnings as a black kid from the south side of Chicago.
“I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our super powers," Waithe said in her speech. "Every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren't in it."
She continued: "And for everybody out there that showed so much love, thank you for embracing us, a little Indian boy from South Carolina and black girl in the South Side of Chicago. We appreciate it more than you could ever know."
The "Thanksgiving" episode that Waithe wrote was based on her own story. It shows the Denise character coming out to her friends and family over the course of five Thanksgivings, which spanned over 22 years. “It’s very black. It’s very female. It’s really gay,” Waithe previously said of the episode at a GLAAD panel in August. “[And] the cool thing about that is so many people loved it.”
She added: "When a straight, white guy is, like, ''Thanksgiving' was my favorite episode,' that’s when art is doing its job, when he can look at my character and go, ‘I can see myself in her.'"
Congrats, Lena Waithe! Thanks for moving the culture forward.
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