Two Sundays ago, a new version of “Steel Magnolias” premiered on cable. This was noteworthy for several reasons. First, somebody actually thought we needed another version of “Steel Magnolias” when the 1989 movie is a certain kind of classic. Second, the cable version starred black women. Third — and this is the remarkable thing — the new, black “Steel Magnolias” premiered neither on BET (because there’s now almost nowhere on the network to put a movie like that) nor the theoretically more upscale BET alternative, TV One (it’s become a lot of “Save My Son” and “Martin” reruns).
No, the new, black “Steel Magnolias” premiered on Lifetime. Lifetime is television for women. And for a long time, that meant television for white women. But on “Steel Magnolias” weekend, the network devoted a prominent portion of its programming to movies starring black women. “Abducted: The Carlina White Story,” with Aunjanue Ellis, Sherri Shepherd, and Keke Palmer, debuted the night before, and “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys” was its lead-in. And during the broadcasts of both were dozens of commercials for “Steel Magnolias.” The network was proud of this movie.
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When irrational hatred of Barack Obama ends, then we can talk about race not mattering. When the birthers are gone, when 0% of the population believes him to be a Muslim, when no one calls him a socialist or a fascist or a fascist-socialist(?), when there are no Tea Parties started coincidentally just after he gets elected, before he has even done anything, when no one criticizes him for playing an average of one round of golf every other weekend, when no one criticizes him for taking ANY vacation at all, even when it's only 1/3 the amount taken by the previous president, when no one accuses him of doubling the deficit when in fact the deficit has come down during his first term by over $200 billion, when politicians would never dream of shouting "You lie" when he is addressing a joint session of Congress, when politicians stop abandoning positions they've advocated for years the instant Obama endorses them... THEN you can say race doesn't matter much. But it's pretty evident race matters a lot right now.