Quintin LOVES being black but…

There are some people who would like to think that black people have a tendency to complain too much about racism… I just wanted to review a timeline of comments that teachers have made to my face so that you understand why my since of humor often revolves around that.

1. My high school theatre teacher, for whatever reason, admitted to me privately that he was only going to cast me in the school’s musical South Pacific because he needed a black student to play Henri the servant… He legitimately couldn’t stand me, but was desperate.
2. A dance teacher insisted that I play Michael Jackson in a dance performance of Thriller and then later told me that she regretted that decision because she thought I would “dance more hood”.  I then tried to explain to her that I was technically from “the hood” but never went outside because my mom didn’t want me to die before graduating.
3. My voice and diction teacher in undergrad told me that she didn’t like the way I talked.  She insisted that I learned how to develop a “Black Dialect” because that would be 80% of my work as a professional actor.  She then made me practice this “Black Dialect” for forty minutes after class once.  I had to talk like Weezie from Good Times in order to pass the class for the remainder of the semester.
4. I did costume design for a play at the same school and a teacher commented “You’re black. So you understand casual wear. But you really need to do more research about professional attire.”  This was prompted over the fast that I wanted to put a broach on someone’s blouse…
5. I earned a C+ in my first writing class in college with a note from the professor saying “You made a surprisingly tremendous improvement in your writing.  Given the cultural differences, you should know that your writing is good because it is now average.”  Granted, I did do my final essay on Britney Spears…

The list can go on for days.  It sucked at the time but now I find it funny.  I’m a paid actor and choreographer, I have a successful radio show, I work as a specialist in a fashion resource center, and I’m a published author.  I never confronted those teachers and although I still fantasize about walking into their offices to karate chop them in the neck, I’ve learned that I needed those negative experiences to know what I wanted to accomplish now.

Being a minority is a rough gig sometimes, but with a sense of humor you’ll find truth in your identity and the haterazzi hate hate HATE that.  They hate it.

Oh god they hate that.

My friend Greg sent me this video to cheer me up and now it has been my source of strength this past week. In theory, its everything that I am against, but the lyrics are so true to how I’ve been feeling and I like this chicks attitude about life.

Keep getting slick hoe,
Imma slap you with my phone.
When I knock your ass out,
You’re gonna hear a dial tone.

Pure poetry. Don’t you just love double edged swords.Tweet