Niggerdom 101: A Primer, Or, WWMS (What Would Moynihan Say)?
Here is the hotel room. It is expensive-looking and messy. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Whitney, Bobby, Bobbi Kris, (and Bobby's kids by other women). They are very ghetto. See Bobby Kris. She has a big forehead. She hates her parents. Who will adopt Bobbi Kris? See Whitney. She goes hell to the naw. See Bobby. He is loud and drunk. He goes jack be nimble, jack be quick, jack jump over the candlestick, bring dat ass here quick. See Bobby and Whitney. They are very embarrassing. Dance, Bobby and Whitney, Dance. Bobbi Kris eats food to make the pain go away. See white people. White people are staring. Will Bobby and Whitney let white people take their picture? Will white people adopt Bobbi Kris? Runaway, Bobby Kris, runaway."If there is any diffuculty in establishing a paradigm for a reality television show starring a black male, one should simply pick up the bat-phone and give the justice system a call. For it is the justice system that gives the black male structure; and the black male structures the justice system. That made no sense, but I still believe it's true." --Summer M.After viewing episodes 1 & 2 of
Being Bobby Brown, it seems that the
Bravo network took the sage, Summer M.'s words to heart. If you're gonna show nigs doing nig shit, you're gonna have to have a moment or two involving jail or court so that people can orient themselves. Thus, as one views the beginning of the first two
Being Bobby Brown episodes, it is not suprising to see Mr. Brown getting out of jail (after failing to pay child support) in the first, and appearing in court (for a domestic violence charge) in the second. Now let's see, what else would one need to make Bobby Brown's famous Niggaroni (nutritious and tastes great, too!)?
Once the obligatory "just got outta jail...gotta go to court" shots were out of the way, the viewer was allowed to see Bobby and crew in their natural habitat. As we approach the nig (scientific name niggerous ghettois), we see the male prowling the territory looking for his mate. All of a sudden, she appears almost without a sound, dressed in her crackwhore uniform-- visor, headwrap, concert t-shirt. Both the female and her cub seem to look a bit haggard and worn; the rainy season was long this year, and the seeming lack of money for a touch-up** is evident by observing both females' hair. Despite this, the male seems quite happy to see his mate; he has just been released back into the wild after 30 days in captivity.
As we observe the pack, we are fortunate enough to see the male and female engage in a sort of traditional dance. Although seemingly impromptu, the male and female are quite coordinated in their moves, almost as if they'd choreographed this jam session. We know that improvised coordination is native to their kind, so impromptu displays of rhythm is not uncommon. Their violently funny mealtime banter, which scientists have deemed, "Ike and Tina-like" is also inherent in the species. Thus when the female says to the male, "Bobby, I will knock your ass at this table," the male responds with a simple, "And I will sue you," and both discussants and observers can have a hearty laugh.
As the male and female travel through hotel lobbies and gift shops, several things become certain: First, when away from his native land, the black male species is often mistaken for others of his kind by those not of (or entirely familiar with) his racial makeup. Thus, when the white man--who has been hunting the black man for generations--encounters our subject outside of his urban menagerie (commonly known as the ghetto), he and his kind will often misrecognize the subject Brown for other black males such as Usher and Puff Daddy. Second, the female species--in this case the nearly extinct niggerous ghettois diva-- is not a "friend of the people"; she especially does not like being gazed upon while she is grazing or feeding her young, asking those observing her to, "be me for a minute." Third, when left for long periods without supervision from his female mate, the nig will often regress to his most animalistic behavior. In this particular case, we observed the subject Mr. Brown breaking into the hotel minibar with a screwdriver. Though he is successful in getting the door open without paying, he is immediately disappointed when he realizes he has broken into the wrong refrigeration device.
One thing above all is most certain: both male and female do seem to enjoy making themselves spectacle for anyone with time and popcorn enough to watch.
TO REVIEW:- In the first two episodes of BBB, Bobby Brown fucked with crime on three levels: 1) Getting out of jail; 2) Going to court and having charges dropped; 3) Committing a crime (breaking into the hotel minibar) that did not--in this particular instance--pay.
- Will future episodes of BBB continue to begin with Da Kang being in/getting released from jail, and/or showing up in court? Our magic 8 ball says, "Hell to the yes."
- Pre-rehab Whitney Houston everyday attire makes her look like a crack addict. Pre-rehab Whitney Houston formal attire makes her look like a Muslim. Not that looking like a Muslim is bad; it's just that in this case the burqa, er, headwrap is not covering the Star Jones' wig for religious purposes. Well, she does take drugs religiously, so...
- Bobbi Kris hates her parents. Going as far as screaming "No, please don't!" when her parents enter the bedroom in an effort to perhaps "impregnate" Whitney (though, according to the diva, Bobby had been "impregnating her all week"). Bobbi Kris does, however, rejoice whenever Daddy has a court day; she doesn't have to go to school on "court days." (If this practice continues, we assume she will either be repeating several grades, or having Beyonce-like intelligence.)
- "Loving a black man" includes putting lotion on his ashy feet.
- Bobby Brown is not a drug addict. Whitney Houston, however, is.
By:
Summer M. (Fort Wayne's Own Fecundmellow)
**a touch-up is the reapplication of a relaxer (hair straightener) approx. every 6-8 weeks.ROCK WIT'CHA: BOBBY, WHITNEY, AND THE TRIUMPH OF BLACK LOVE After Fecundmellow's anthropological exploration of the first couple of episodes of BBB, which should be published in somebody's academic journal if you ask Saf, or at least in an issue of
Source or
XXL, I thought that you - the readers - would appreciate some straight talk about a subject that I think is very real when discussing Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's union. And that's love. Yeah, I said love...and I wasn't joking, either.
Since Bobby and Whitney jumped the broom over ten years ago, people have been speculating on what brought and holds them together. The answer that everyone settles on is their twin substance addictions. People that watch the E! Network and know that Whitney's "urban" upbringing in Jersey rivaled Bobby's in Boston, despite the fact that Cissy was a "successful" singer, chalk it up to ghetto kinship. But no one ever gives these two credit for loving each other. They cast Bobby as the greasy, ghetto-fied gigolo, and Whitney as the rebellious good girl, looking to gain some street cred by hooking up with the craziest R&B nigga since Rick James in his heyday. They regard their union as a tragedy, the end of Whitney's career and the beginning of her decline into...what did Fecundmellow label it?...crack whore-dom. But I think that they, that we've all, been selling Bobby and Whitney short. Crazy as they are, and crazy as it sounds, I think these two dysfunktional mutha fuckas really love each other. Whatever the hell that means.
Throughout Episodes 1 and 2, Bobby gives mad commentary on being a husband to Whitney. Makes sense, since it is his job nowadays, singing career being defunct and all. He talks of loving Whitney, of wanting to make her happy, impregnate (God help us) her, of the support and care she gives him. He calls her by pet names, makes excuses for her outlandish behavior, comforts her as she weeps for her dead father. He joins in her crazy singing and dancing, doesn't flick an eyelash when she talks of rectal parasites over their Chinese food meal at Chopstix. He takes her out to a fancy gourmet dinner, does not crack on her wig or her burqa, shooes fans away from her table at the resort in the Bahamas. Laughs off her threats to beat his ass. I mean, he could be giving her tough love, forcing her into an institution, confronting her left and right about her "condition" or "problem." That's what we, the public, have done, in a sense. But not Bobby. He's stood by her. And even if it's illogical or unreasonable, it seems to me like he loves her. And she loves him. Or at least she's in too much of a stupor to work up a serious attitude toward his crazy ass, which is, in essence, love, you know, with the dopamine and shit. It's a semi-beautiful thing, Bobby and Whitney, rocking with each other across the hemisphere.
Anyway, the words for Episode 1 and 2, for me, are black love. Like Whitney said as she greased Bobby's ashy feet at the day spa. This is what it is to love a black man. This is what it is, I guess, for a black man to love a black woman. It's crazy as hell, but oddly sweet. Manic, depressing, but also uplifting. It's comical. It's shameful and shameless. It's not quite sweeping romance, panty-moistening passion, or tear-jerking tenderness, but it makes for a helluva an hour of reality television.
Rock on Bobby and Whitney, in life, love, and the pursuit of your respective career come-backs!
By:
Saf (Cleveland's Beloved Black Beyotch)