Vice Principals Answers Back On Racism Charges

It’s two white guys versus one black woman. Has HBO put a racist comedy on the air?

That’s the question that came up for the creators and cast of the new HBO comedy Vice-Principals at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. The storyline of Vice Principals revolves around two assistant principals played by Danny McBride and Walton Goggins, both desperate to become the administrative head of North Jackson High in South Carolina. They put aside their rivalry to try to drive the new principal Dr. Belinda Brown (Kimberly Herbert Gregory) out of power. Sound racist so far?

Here’s the critic created controversy. McBride and Goggins’ characters are white and Dr. Brown is black. They’re also men while Brown is a woman. The plot line that has the white vice principals ganging up on the black principal had the critics asking questions at the TCA tour.

Kimberly Herbert Gregory, the actress at the center of the so-called tempest addressed the situation when talking to the Hollywood Reporter. She said, “This is actually what equality looks like. I just feel really strongly that we have to look at what it is; its about power and its not about race and it not’s necessarily about gender. I think if Melissa McCarthy played the role, they would do the same.”

It makes you wonder if the critics claiming that Vice Principals smacks of classic racism have ever actually watched the show. The female principal in question is better educated than the two bumbling male sociopaths out to get her, not to mention that she routinely outsmarts them.

Any claims of racism aren’t going to effect the creativity of the series anyway. All 18 episodes of Vice Principals have already been shot. And that will be it, there’s not going to be another season. That’s the way creators Danny McBride and Jody Hill planned it from the start. McBride said that was the agreement with HBO. “We always told them that. To us, having that rule and working this to a finale as opposed to trying to think of a backdoor escape, it just made us be a little more honest with the storytelling.”

A new episode of Vice Principals premieres tonight at 10:30pm on HBO.