You Can't Win

"If it's right, you always miss. You can't win. No."- Kelly Clarkson

Today, I found myself reading an article about how a black mother was upset with the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting because no black women were depicted in it. I mean black women do get pregnant, don't we? If you listen to certain pundits, that's all we know how to do. She also took issue with the fact that the book which has been deemed "the pregnancy bible" did not address black women specifically.

I found this interesting because when one of my closest friends became pregnant, I purchased a book specifically focused on black mothers. But do you want to know what her favorite pregnancy book was? That's right. What to Expect...During my practicum at a public library, I learned that the book was one of the most stolen books at public libraries. That and the Bible. Obviously there are a lot of pregnant heathens out there.

But while reading the blog, I noticed that a lot of my aggravation derived from the fact that I saw no point in putting a black woman in the movie just to claim diversity. If they had done so, she better not had been the unmarried woman because of course we don't need another single black mother portrayal. However, she could not have been the married professional black woman wondering how a baby would fit into her career plans because we've seen her too many times too. Maybe she could've been a housewife but then if everybody had decent jobs, the question would've been why did she have to be the unemployed one. And let's not even get into how could they possibly make her seem like an organic part of the cast if she truly was a main character because she must not be the voice of reason sister-girl so often seen in romantic comedies of a similar vein.

Yep, if I was white working on this movie, I would've left it alone too because black people have proven time and time again that you cannot please them and they will always complain. Even in a really simple romantic comedy about having babies.