“I really hate the word ‘diversity,’” announced Shonda Rhimes at the Human Rights Campaign Gala this past Saturday. The “Scandal” creator and “How to Get Away With Murder” producer was honored for her honest, inclusive, and three-dimensional depictions of gay characters on those shows — but she resisted labeling her casts ‘diverse.’”

“[Diversity] suggests something… other,” Rhimes declared. “As if it is something… special. Or rare. Diversity! As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV. I have a different word: normalizing. I’m normalizing TV. I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50% of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary.”

“You should get to turn on the TV and see your tribe,” she said. “The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like them and loves like them.”

“And just as important,” she continued, “everyone should turn on the TV and see someone who doesn’t look like them and love like them. Because, perhaps then, they will learn from them. Perhaps then, they will not isolate them. Marginalize them. Erase them. Perhaps they will even come to recognize themselves in them. Perhaps they will even learn to love them.”

[via THR]