We don’t like to talk about mental illness. This is pretty much the case across the board but especially true in the black community. For many of us the only time we acknowledge mental illness is when we’re telling someone to pray it away or condemning them for taking some drastic action their disease spurred.

The truth is, we’re really ignorant about how deep mental illness really goes.

So it’s good that the country will get to see a black woman portraying a character with bipolar disorder.

Learn more about Anika’s character and watch some of her performance at Eurweb.com

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Look who is just killing the game!

The Emmy-nominated Grey’s Anatomy‘s and Private Practice producer is back with a new series, a drama called “Scandal” for her homies at ABC. The drama will star actress Kerry Washington, cutie Columbus Short, and a slew of others who play employees at a crisis-management firm; a bunch of shiny-suit wearing PR folks who work in fixing up the disastrous mistakes and moves of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Washington fills big shoes playing the head of the firm and the former consultant to the President of the United States, Olivia Pope. In an interview with CNN, Washington says she wasn’t looking to do work on television at the time, but was blown away by the well-written script:

“I was not looking to do a TV show, but I read this amazing script with this amazing woman named Olivia Pope, and it happened to be for TV and so I thought maybe I want to do something different. Once I read it, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to be a part of it.”

The show is said to be loosely based around Judy Smith, a PR vet who has been in the business for 25 years, and the founder of the famous crisis management firm, Impact Strategies. Washington rubbed elbows with Smith to get prepared for the role. It’s exciting to see Washington get such a big acting opportunity on the small screen, and seeing as she’s an amazing actress on the big screen, she’ll probably knock this role out of the park. Love to see black women on top!

Will you be watching?

Check out the trailer for the new show below:

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“Cougar Town’s” Laurie has her eye on Taye Diggs and the actor may be eyeing a guest spot on the ABC sitcom.

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