She had seen a “typical black love story” and wanted to be in it.
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl has quickly become the most famous of my three web series since it began on February 3, 2011. As it grew, more and more people came to know about it. So far, that’s what I’ve seen. “I’m really enjoying it!”
When black women and men, and then the rest of the community, said “yes,” it was a big “aha” moment for them. After all, they do talk to people in the black community. Still, I hear from people who think that because I have a show about two black women, I speak for all black women. We don’t speak with one voice, and we “don’t think we know everything there is to know about what it means to be a” black woman in the United States.
I try to make my figures friendly and easy to talk to. Executives in the film and TV industries say that they don’t hire players of color because they don’t “look real” on screen. I’ve always known it wasn’t true because it’s based on a racist idea. The movie Love and Basketball was the first thing that really made me want to start making art. It made me understand that everything was about me. The first time I read a black love story made me want to be a part of and add to the canon of black love stories. I often point to TV “shows like Martin, Living Single, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from the” 1990s. Seeing people from all walks of life do well gave me hope and made me think I could do the same.
Due to how subtle racism and sexism are in the business, you either have to face them head-on and risk being turned down, or you have to ignore them and keep going anyway. I am most definitely the second type. I close my eyes to everything and yell, “No way!” I’ll either finish it or find a different way to do it.