When Viola Davis lost the Oscar for Best Actress portraying an African-American maid in Katherine Stockett’s "The Help" to Meryl Streep portraying former Britain Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, there was a collective sigh of relief from many of us African-American sisters.

Tulane University professor Melissa Harris-Perry, the author of an upcoming book on racial stereotypes, summed up my feelings best when she told MSNBC that "what killed me was that in 2011, Viola Davis was reduced to playing a maid."