We’ve got a crier! For the third time in three episodes, Carmen shows that she’s nuts. When she gets called out for referring to a woman from Rose’s poetry group a “beautiful black creature,” she gets pissed. She defends her words by saying that they came from a place of pure love from her heart. This is the problem for me. She gets upset and cries every time she gets called on something (she did the same thing with the word bitch). She gets away with being the more likable white parent because she isn’t overtly offensive. However, the problem is that she never questions why it is that people are not happy with the way she phrases things. She needs to ask, “Why do I say things like this, and why does it bother them?” Instead of trying to understand that, she turns around the situation to put the blame on the Sparks’s for misinterpreting her. “I don’t want to walk on eggshells and choose my words,” fuck that. Getting emotional and crying is her defense mechanism. Sorry, that’s too easy. I want her to speak her mind, but I want her to own up to it. She needs to try and understand that you can speak words from your heart, but you need to accept that other people can criticize them rightly or not. Maybe I’m being too harsh … maybe she is trying … maybe this the Bruno “take it like a man” in me speaking?
The surprising part of the show was Brian changing the focus of his energy from Bruno onto his son Nick. This part of the story kind of struck a chord with me. I can relate to where Nick is coming from (I wasn’t always a TV-ologist). When I was about his age, I was a lot like him. It’s not just his perspective on race, but also how he got in trouble at school, and even his perspective on money without worrying about the consequences. I burst out laughing when he was explaining why he got kicked out of school. He said something like … “As far as I know, all Asians carry knives.” Did I laugh because it was yet another misguided stereotype? Was it because it was offensive? Nope. It’s because I used to carry a knife all the time at that age … I had a bit of a misspent youth, but that’s another story all together.
When I watched him get in trouble for buying that watch, I had flashbacks to my childhood. That lecture he got from his mother sounded all too familiar. He got yelled at in a way that I haven’t seen in a long time. I think that strong language and tone is looked down upon in these parts of Massachusetts. Instead of “Hell no, you can’t have that lollipop because I said so,” it’s “Let’s reflect upon the reasons why you want that lollipop, how those reasons are problematic for both of us.” This is another one of those messy intersections between race, class, and gender but interesting none the less.
Finally, the stroll through Leimert Park … I thought that the experience Bruno and Carmine had feeling unsafe and out of place would be a breakthrough for them. It, as usual, had the opposite effect on Bruno (black people are the racists) and Carmine cried. Between Carmine calling the environment “tribal” and Bruno mentioning gangs I’m surprised they didn’t call the five-0 on the native savages. What’s wrong with these people? Am I demanding too much? Deanna (another teaching recruit for the Wurgel’s) did an admirable job trying to break things down for them, but I think that Bruno isn’t listening, and Carmen just doesn’t understand.
I hope they put more focus on Rene (in white face) at some point soon. I also want to see how many more “coming out” or “you’re on candid camera” moments they can work in before someone gets really pissed.
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