Saturday Night Live to Hire a Black Female Comedian After a Seven Year Gap

“We applaud Saturday Night Live on its decision to add a black woman to the cast. Given its broad influence on American culture and within the entertainment industry, SNL has the power to be a model for other shows and networks by depicting relevant and authentic portrayals of black women,” Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org, issued in a statement.

With more than 900,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization. The group recently called out SNL for its lack of diversity and then criticized the show for its initial response to the controversy, which was the appearance of host Kerry Washington, of the ABC hit Scandal, in an opening sketch that poked fun at the fact that SNL had no black female cast members.

The hullabaloo began shortly following the departure of longtime SNL cast members Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader during this past summer, when executive producer Lorne Michaels added five new white men to the cast. That meant that out of 16 cast members, only two were African American, Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson (who reportedly said they would no longer dress up in drag this season). And of SNL’s six women, one is Iranian and the other new addition is of Hispanic and Tunisian decent.

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