Diary of a...Sassy...Black Woman

I have always thought to myself that perception is not always a favorable thing, especially being a double minority in this day and age.  It's one of the reasons that I am asked if I'm the pharmacist a million times a day when customers need counseling--though both my jacket and my name tag says "Pharmacist".  It is also the reason that customers think I'm giving them "attitude" when I'm delivering news that they may not want to hear.

I have lived my whole life trying to break the mold of how the world sees Black women.  I try to carry myself as the intelligent,  educated, and graceful woman that I like to think I am and that my mom swears I am.  But you know what makes it hard?  The media!  Particularly reality television...

I was going to write my second entry about something else actually, but I had to backburner that post because something's been heavy on my mind.  I was watching Survivor the other night, and there it was...NaOnka!!!

My sweet Lord!  She has taken it upon herself to be the "crazy black bitch" of this season's Survivor.  She's making comments about the girl on the show who's an amputee, she's stealing people's socks (in defense of her own being stolen she says) and she is literally neck rolling, teeth sucking, and lip poking out her way to more screentime, and it's disturbing.  Yes, since the days of "New York" and Nene Leakes, sassiness is what gets you success in the world of reality television.  That is unless you go the other route (see Flavor of Love girls, video vixens, and Love of Ray J girls which is a blog entry in itself).  This is the foolishness that comes into people's homes every week and this is how we are being perceived!  The problem is...we are all not like that!  If anything, it's a small subset of who we are!  But casting directors seem to love it as well as society as a whole!

I'm sure there are other amazing facets to her and other "sassy" reality tv "characters".  But why play up the negative?  Hell, NaOnka, according to her stats on the show, is a PE teacher, so she's college educated.  But this is all we'll ever know about her it seems.  If that's how you are at home, do you.  But when you're on tv acting like that, I do believe it makes people I deal with on a day to day basis think I'm like that too, and I'm so not.  Most of us aren't.

And this isn't restricted to Black women either.  The perpetuation of stereotypes on reality tv goes across other cultures as well.  Remember Jessica Simpon's "ditzy blond" act on Newlyweds?

All I'm saying is when you are selected from thousands to be on a reality show, and you are thinking about how you are going to portray yourself, if you give it any thought, just know that you are not just representing yourself.  Don't trade your desire for reality tv stardom (which is usually fleeting) for the continuation of misperceptions about your race and or gender.  That unfortunately will live on way longer than your fame (or infamy).  Got that Omarosa?