Forgive me if I posted this before, but here are some insights on “Mammy Dearest.”

Excerpt from “Mammy Dearest”
•FREDDIE: Just because they put [Aunt Jemima’s] face on a pancake box, that doesn’t mean that’s who she really was!
–The first “Aunt Jemima” was a former domestic servant for a Chicago judge who fabricated tales of life in the old South (apparently, those that her white superiors wanted her to tell) for spectators at the 1899 Columbia Exposition. The pancake mix received many orders—hell, it’s still a brand name now.
–Consequently, an “aunt jemima” or a “handkerchief head” (derogatory term) is a tom that has discovered religion (usually Christianity) or a mammy in the dominant white culture. Usually aunt jemimas are nicer, happier, politer, and less headstrong than mammy.
–Eventually Aunt Jemima’s look on pancake-related materials was later softened so she looks more like a modern day professional maid than an aunt jemima.

•LENA: Freddie, mammy is a racist stereotype, period. That smile is not laughter, it is fear.
–God knows what that smile exactly means—it could mean fear, but it could mean reassurance, a lack of hostility in mammy (why white audiences loved mammy, why the Daughters of the American Revolution wanted a mammy statue in Washington as opposed to Marion Anderson singing in the same city)…the smile (on commercial products) can mean anything.

•GAINES: Well, if it wasn’t for mammy, you wouldn’t be here.
–Whatever happened to the equal rights movement in America?

•FREDDIE: Thank you, Mr. Gaines.
•LENA: All mammy did was cook up the vittles.
–And dispense advice and tend the white people’s home and sell merchandise and movies…

•GAINES: Well, that’s all I do for you. You know, some Black people forget their folklore. Now that’s what makes us strong.
–Where’s the evidence that we created mammy? Evidence points to minstrel shows dating from before the Civil War creating mammy, and these were primarily all-white minstrel shows. Yes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar did use mammy in some (not all) of his poems and Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition (1901) features a character named Mammy Jane, but this does not mean that Blacks created the stereotype.

•In “Mammy Dearest, Gaines’s lines help Kim feel better about the mammy stereotype—but in my opinion, they are questionable. For example, take the line “My great-great-grandmother was a mammy. Strong, full of love, helped keep the family together. Now that’s nothing to be ashamed of! You should be proud!” For one, some black people would say that calling anyone a mammy would be highly offensive, even if that person was overweight or happened to stay with their family as opposed to working in a white household (which is highly unlikely for mammy because light-skinned people tended to be house slaves). The definition of mammy is someone who is asexual, overweight, angry, and usually very loyal to their white masters—they forsake their own families in favor of their masters. Not all mammies did this—Aunt Chloe went back to her cabin to take care of her children, and Aunt Delilah/Annie had a daughter (that she still neglected)—and some mammies did this with their own personal flair—Hattie McDaniel, for example—but most mammies in the media and in the marketplace were all of these things.

The quote also shows Berenbeim’s warped sense of the stereotype. God knows what the hell Berenbeim means by “family.” Black family in the slave quarters? White family in the main house? Black family in the northern United States or Canada, all of them on the Underground Railroad trying to make their way to freedom? Some people might interpret “family” as the second question I posted, helping to fuel hatred about the term “mammy.” Another item to post (other than the fact that Berenbeim has no idea of the history and various items mammy has been on other than dolls and Aunt Jemima pancake mix—he never once mentions a movie mammy in the episode) is that most slave women were not overweight due to food rations, most of them never saw their 50th birthday, and, as mentioned, most light-skinned slave (women included) worked in slave households (darker-skinned slaves worked in the fields). Unless he has a journal written by his great-great-grandmother (which is highly unlikely, since many slaves could not read or write) or her slave owner talking about how overweight she was, how does Gaines know that she was a mammy? Then again, the term could be used as affection towards this woman, but in the context of the word, this seems highly unlikely. Also, his great-great-grandmother may have had a pituitary problem—one of the few ways any slave could be overweight.

•Apparently “Mammy Dearest” might be saying that for one to change a stereotype, one must take it as his own and manipulate it into something positive. However, with Berenbeim’s broad and uneducated perspective on mammy, this moral is unclear. Berenbeim wants to make the audience think as he (and God knows whoever else endorsed this episode) thinks, but as long as there are books and other educational materials, those who know, as I have said, are going to look elsewhere (those aforementioned educational materials) and make their own opinions on mammy. As for my opinion, “Mammy Dearest” would be considered dated even for 1993—there have been several books, including a history in the evolution of the black domestic in fiction, printed prior to 1993. A good library and hours of research would have made this episode better instead of some sort of twisted “epiphany” for Kim and Whitley (at least morally) as well as a mock-minstrel show/African dance sequence complete with poems from Dunbar and Giovanni.

I don’t know why, but I am watching the local rotation of ADW (now showing the fourth season on UPN 28 in the Triangle), and I thought I wanted to share this with you. In the episode “Love, Hillman Style” (note the reference to the older TV show Love, American Style, the show which Happy Days spun off of), the men that pose for Whitley’s marketing project have some unusual names: Spelman (the man who gets chicken pox) and Franco and American. Intended to be a joke, the sheer beauty of those men drowned out any chance of laughter. (The names Franco and American are commonly seen together as Franco-American, better known as a pasta company [now owned through the Campbell Soup Company]. Here’s their website: http://www.campbellsoup.com/fa_our_brands.asp?cpovisq=. I’m also aware that Franco-American also refers to people of French decent living in America–if you want to find out more about them, do a search on a web engine; there’s too many sites I could link too, and I just don’t have the time.

First, the revelation. In later seasons of ADW, on the Pit’s felt board (behind the burger counter), there are two things posted on the board of significance: 1) the words ADVICE–FREE under the menu, and 2) the words YOUR HOST–MR. VERNON GAINES under ADVICE–FREE. Just some useless trivia for you.

Now, on to the quotes (although I realize I may have posted some of these earlier). Trigliani’s “21 Candles” is a simple story about someone celebrating their 21st birthday alone despite the ironic fact that 1) some people plan to dunk her in water (and you can’t to that to Black girls–it’s bad for the hair), 2)she’s neglected to tell anyone except in the school paper, and 3) her friends are trying to take her out for a surprise dinner.

It’s a very sexually charged work. You have to see it at least twice to hear all the sexual double entendres in the episode. For one, there’s the whole erotic image of water when Ron and Dwayne want to “baptize” Whitley. You know, water, sex…Let’s just say its much like connecting sex to “Splash Waterfalls” (by Ludacris) if you know what I mean. And (once again) here are the quotes to “21 Candles” that you really have to think about once you hear them:

• …but you can still carry off big jewels (Julian)
• Well, I hope your buns are moldy (Whitley)
• Hope it’s a big (package)–no, hope it’s a small one. That means jewels (Whitley)
• (This is not the exact quote, sorry–it’s the one where she’s on the bed circling Denzel’s picture with her finger)  I’ve just turned 21…the legal age of consent in every state (Whitley).
• Well, (the call) can wait, but my wienies and beans won’t (Mr. Gaines)
• Wanna see my new underwear? Lace…your favorite (Whitley)
• You know what garlic bread does to me, Denzel? Makes me hot. Makes my every nerve stand at attention and they’re all saluting you! And they think I’m a lady, Denzel, but I’d go cheap for you. Look at my wine selection! (that he he he he he laugh she always does) Talk to me, daddy. Let me call your name. Denzel! Denzel!(Whitley)
• Excuse me, get your own man! Thank you (Whitley)

There might be others, but as I rattle off this now-extensive list, I realize that wine is ecstasy and “21 Candles” is like a sexual metaphor, a fantasy–ruined when Whitley finally lost her virginity to Dwayne.

And speaking of Dwayne, saw all those ex-ADW people in Biker Boyz over the weekend. Like the concept, but the movie is just too damn sappy. My wallpaper on my laptop is now Kadeem Hardison getting ass in a wheelchair. (He’s not with Chante any more, so what?)

Remember all those reports back in October where reviewers said that Jasmine Guy was missaying a hell of a lot of things about her performance in The Violet Hour?

I can’t help but to think of three things she just happened to missay on the show:

1)”Moosh” (mush)
2)”Goosh” (gush)
3)”Ensahmbley” (ensemble)

I have another subtle symbol I want to share with you, and it’s in “Mammy Dearest.”It’s the scene where Whitley is trying to convince Kim that the Mammy character is an important part of African-American history. She holds a small black Mammy figurine in her hands and says “Kimmie, in order to neutralize a stereotype we have to reclaim it.” By the time she says “we,” she’s crushing the Mammy figurine.

Well, Whitley is reclaiming the Mammy stereotype, like she says…or could she just be crushing Kim’s ego, knowing full well that she hates the Mammy stereotype?

I dunno…

I was thinking about where I might have seen Jasmine Guy’s sister, Monica, and I know of three episodes where I can make a valid guess, using the WMA video for the MultiVu site.
–”In the Eye of the Storm”–I’m certain that Monica is one of the people trapped in the Pit–she’s the one in a blue coat looking out at the window near the beginning of the Pit sequence. She wears gray clothing and red boots–she’s dancing in the slow dancing segment as well and recoils to the (viewer) right of the Pit when the glass breaks.
–”Lisa Who-Little”–She stands in for Jasmine Guy, duh.
–”Mammy Dearest”–I believe she’s standing on some pole near the stage that Gina and Freddie perform on, wearing a black dress and something on her head. After Freddie does her (overdramatic, but hey, Whitley does it all the time, so) recitation of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf
(& you promised me
you promised me…
somebody/ anybody
sing a black girl’s song…)
you can see Monica (to the right of the screen) when Whitley is bringing out one of those pictures for her exhibit and she says “Now we know why colored girls consider suicide.”

And I don’t care what Jasmine Guy said in Evolution (about how she was beaten up for being nine in the sixth grade), Whitley should have been beaten up on ADW more often, IMO, especially after that comment. Who cares if she’s in pain from breaking up with Dwayne?

I’ve also seen that Monica was possibly in “Rule Number One,” but I can’t verify that.

All I can say is that she was an extra during the fifth season of ADW–that is all.

Is it me, or is that picture on the front of Whitley’s paper in “Mr. Hillman” (a stupid-looking) Jasmine Guy as well?
Speaking of Jasmine, I stole this from the New York Times report of Jasmine leaving “The Violet Hour:” (thanks to http://blacklow1.typepad.com/blog/2003/10/index.html)

You know, that mole just shows up in the weirdest of places.

And in “Time Keeps On Slippin’,” isn’t the man who plays Whitley’s husband the same man who was Whitley’s father in “The Gift of the Magi?”

Maybe it’s me.

Good (day), Big Sister Gorgeous One,
so lovely to behold.
Fine as wine,
rich as gold,
deep as ebony,
sweet as a rose.
Oh, Big Sister, do you suppose
that when these toads grow up,
if these toads grow up,
we can be just like you?

Do you even want to be like Big Sister Gorgeous One? I mean, she’s skinny as hell (at least at this point of her life)! Can’t you see her ribs and shoulders on select episodes?

Anyway, these are the three sororites that the name Alpha Delta Rho take their Greek letters from:

Alpha Delta Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.
Sigma Gamma Rho, Inc.

Their colors are green and white, unattractive colors, IMO. The sorority was established in 1918.

Its eight principles: (Ribbit!)
Fellowship
Scholarship
Service
Charity
Humility
Faith
Determination
Sisterhood

According to Freddie, this is the historical sorority of the Gilbert women.

Actually, I preferred Jasmine Guy as one of the Gamma Rays in School Daze.

Yeah, that’s my own screen capture. Yeah, it’s at the end of the movie. I like it, though. Save it to your drives if you like–but remember, no hot linking–bandwidth.

There is a controversy on TVTome.com about when Whitley joined the sorority. Some say it was freshman year, others say it was her first senior year.
My theory is the writers wanted to make good on a promise that Kim made (and Freddie hated) in “It’s Greek to Me,” where Kim said she was going to join a sorority. What better dean of pledges can you have than Whitley?

We all know in “Sister to Sister, Sister” that Whitley becomes this lovely power-freak who cares nothing about Whitley because she claims that, as a pledge, she never ate or slept (which explains why she’s so skinny in the fourth season–bad joke. Sorry.) But here’s the set-up with the heart.

When Whitley finds out she’s the laughing-stock of the Rhos, she goes to Kim’s dorm room, where she is gluing a heart, her “science project.” IMO, I think gluing a heart that is used to view the various interior parts of a heart is stupid. But anyway, this is Kim’s project.

Whitley calls Kim out, enters the room, demands that Kim fights her, yada yada. She takes the heart that Kim is gluing back together and intentionally breaks it, prompting Kim to grab her tailored-to-grab blouse. Whitley’s breaking of the heart is the culmination of what hell she’s put Kim through–making her knock down that door in the Pit, punishing her for not knowing the statutes of Alpha Delta Rho, making her write those statutes on index cards, knowing full well she worked in that parlor shown in “Risk Around the Dollar,” making her recook Whitley’s breakfast, forcing Janet Jackson to show her boob on SNL…sorry, the last one is a blatant lie.

All of this frustration makes Kim want to actually fight with Whitley. Of course, as it’s played out in the episode, Whitley intentionally avoids fighting with Kim because she cares about her sister…in that archtypical ADW sense.

What I’m reading right now…Susan Fales-Hill’s Always Wear Joy: My Mother Bold and Beautiful. I told ya’ll to read it to understand the woman. My only complaint is I don’t know all the French phrases she puts in the memoir/biography (of Josephine Premice. And that is pronounced Prem-eece, not “premise,” like in “the premise of the novel”) Man, I’m studying Spanish right now!

Loved reading Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary. I dunno, but to me, it was like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil without Savannah, GA, and a crime and “secret gay lover” subtext and with more smoking, food, and cursing!

I got this bad idea. I was looking at my “Save” tape (with several other ADW episodes), and I was watching “Interior Desecration/Sofa So Good.” I remembered some people on the TVTome site had discovered that the beer car airplane (you see those often in the South) was also in “The Hat Makes the Man.”

Today will a big step backwards in investigative journalism.
Today I will start monitoring, whenever possible, the appearance of the WOODEN SALAD BOWL in ADW.

For all I know, it appears in seasons 4-6.

It looks like a wooden stained bowl.

Several characters have possessed this bowl.

And nobody has noticed this..until now!

Here are some sightings:
fourth season
“Ms. Understanding” Better known as the “Whitley in drag” episode, the salad bowl can be seen when Whitley is preparing dinner for Dwayne. If you must see this magical bowl in this episode, it will be shown on Oxygen @5 pm Wednesday and 11 am Thursday.

fifth season
“Save the Best for Last, Part I” It’s that salad bowl again, but this time Ron owns it and is eating popcorn in it when Kim knocks on his apartment door (to see him after retriving Whitley’s ancestoral earrings).

sixth season
“Lean on Me” The first sixth season episode where I finally realized that the writers were lazy because they were titling their scripts after movies and songs that the characters just happened to utter (ie Whitley: “I know I’m petite, but you can lean on me.”), the salad bowl can be seen again at Dwayne’s failed party, and I believe this is the bowl Ron tries to steal before he’s caught by all-seeing Whitley.