Wait Til You Get Home: 6 Things You Don’t Do in Front of White Folks

Talk about those ignorant shows you watch

When I first moved to New York, I was working at a large television company. Needless to say, it was a predominately white environment. There was one guy, a black guy, who’d I speak to every morning as I fixed my hot chocolate. One day we extended our conversation past the kitchen and we somehow landed on the topic of TV shows we liked, some of them guilty pleasures. I had just named a show and it was his turn to share. Before he opened his mouth, he looked around to see if anyone was paying attention, leaned in his eyes lighting up with excitement and mischief as he whispered, “I loved ‘Flavor of Love.'” His hands clapped together to emphasize his point,  “I loved that ignorant isht.” I bust out laughing. Not because he loved ‘Flavor of Love;’ (I know I certainly did too.), but because he went out of his way to hide this fact from our coworkers. The thing is, being a minority, you never know how much exposure the dominant culture has had or will have with black folk. There are truly some folk who think “New York” and Flavor Flav represent the totality of the black experience in America. Very scary and very true. No need to confirm those ideas by openly admitting that you like or even support those and other shows.