Okay, so I have more work fodder for you folks. Sorry, it seems the only things I have opinions on are work related these days. Here’s to hoping that Al Sharpton will do something interesting that I can comment on in the next 7 days. Until then….
Let me tell you about my cubicle neighbor.
She’s one of those Black women who has been through the fire and been through the flood. A sistagirl who is well into her fifties, loves the Lord and will tell it like it T-I-tis! When my department first relocated to our new office space, she came over to my desk and said: Hi, I’m Betty Lou. I just wanted to introduce myself because I’ll be all in your business and I know you are going to be all in mine. Hmmm, I said to myself-I’m not nosey…but okay thanks for the warning. And as if her forewarning of privacy invasion (a la the Patriot Act) wasn’t enough, I didn’t tell you how she had on a fuchsia leopard print pant suit with matching shoes and scrunchy securing her yanky ponytail to her head. But again, we are talking about a fuchsia leopard print pant suit! At work! How is that okay? But different strokes for different folks, not everyone likes to wear black and white everyday like I do.
And given this characterization of Betty Lou, I really should not have been surprised when she decided give me her 5 cents, when 2 would have been enough. I walk into the office thinking about how I am a good person and I am more than my job when Betty Lou starts telling me that she thinks I need to buy Steve Harvey’s book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man because, she knows I’m single.
Um excuse me? How does she know what I is and ain’t? Aside from the occasional “Bless You” after a sneeze or slight comment about how cold the office is (cause those folks like it that way) we don’t talk. I’m not going to Betty Lou’s cube to tell her about my weekend and how I spent most of it hoping some man would call me back…and asking her what that means.
And maybe Betty Lou was just being friendly. Maybe trying to prevent another black woman from falling into the pitfalls many single ladies find themselves in. But sometimes I find that every Black lady (married or not) wants to advise you on how to get, trap and or keep a man, all under the guise of “Baby, I’ve been there, done that.” And while it’s nice to learn from our elders sometimes it’s hard for them to realize that it’s a new day…and beyond that…I ain’t you, so fall back! And another think that’s bothering me about it all is that would have Betty dared made the same suggestion if I was Anglo or Latino?
Maybe I’m just being over sensitive in this super PC world of ours. If it was 1959 I might have welcome Betty’s advice as we smoke cigarettes in our lead paint office. But in 2009, you can’t tell an older, well meaning Black woman to mind her own beaver damn business. Well actually, in 2009 you can, but Amaretto isn’t of the ghetto variety. So instead I told Betty I’d look into getting the book…I probably won’t but Betty doesn’t need to know that.
See You In Seven
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4 comments:
Boo,
You need to tell Betty to STFU and go back to her space. I understand that you respect your elders and all, but damn. How can you take advice from a woman that wears a leopard skin outfit to work?
And from a man's point of view, I glanced through Brother Steve's book at Barnes and Nobles, and most of the shit in there you probably already know.
The whole book goes like this...
Men are simple
All we need is the nookie, food and quiet.
I just saved you $24.99.
You can thank me later.
@ Dirty Red - LMAO!!! That is SOOOO true about the book. Read on a quick lunch break and from a woman's point of view you aint lie. (chuckle)
@ Amaretto - Everytime I hear stories about this chick she seems desperate. Big ole EXCUSE ME to her. She is completely out of line. You know me...one of these days you need to lay a big fat one on I.T. in front of her...so she could really have something to talk about. This chick!
Okay now that crazy chic said her piece (chuckle) ... you sure this chick isn't joking with you. You know trying to be funny...but NOT.
Steve Harvey and his third wife are grinning and laughing all the way to the bank. Why not write a book for men? Steve knew that men will not spend $24.99 on nosense.
@Dirty Red-Well I don't know if I can tell her to mind hers...but I appreciate you saving me $24.99! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
@Courvoisier-LOL! You are a fool! I'm not kissing IT in front of her...she wouldn't know what to do. Might leave a book on dating people you work with on my desk! Might tell me where I can get a pink leopard print suit.
@Anon-You raise a good point. I can't imagine dude's buying a book... Act like a man, think like an educated, stylish, sensitive, complex, gentle, caring and loving woman! That book would be bigger than a dictionary.
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