Twitter checks soap star's privilege over Viola Davis Emmy speech criticism



"General Hospital" star Nancy Lee Grahn finds herself in hot water Monday (Sept. 21) after criticizing Viola Davis' acceptance speech when Davis won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for "How to Get Away With Murder."



Grahn lamented that "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal" creator Shonda Rhimes, who is an executive producer on "HTGAWM," didn't write Davis' speech. This tweet in and of itself earned Grahn some strong reactions, but it was her other tweets that really became a problem.

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Grahn writes to one person who was interacting with her on Twitter, "@MelioraEsq and i heard harriet yTubman and I thought Its a f***ing emmy for gods sake. She wasnt digging thru a tunnel."

And when another Twitter commenter points out that Shonda Rhimes herself said she loves listening to Viola Davis speak, Grahn responded by saying that Davis has never been discriminated against.



A few eagle-eyed tweeters found Grahn's status update from the 2015 Oscars, when Patricia Arquette used her speech to champion gender equality and one Twitter user writes to Grahn, "Until you can figure out WHY you had such disparate reactions to Patty & Viola using their moment, you should probably STOP."



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Grahn eventually tried to walk it all back, saying she wants equality "for all women," not just actors. However, Grahn eventually realized that wasn't really the point either.









On Twitlonger, she writes, "I apologize for my earlier tweets and now realize I need to check my own privilege. My intention was not to take this historic and important moment from Viola Davis or other women of color but I realize that my intention doesn't matter here because that is what I ended up doing. I learned a lot tonight and I admit that there are still some things I don't understand but I am trying to and will let this be a learning experience for me."