"Black Folk Don't..."

Shadow and Act tipped me off to a new web series called "Black Folk Don't..."  Each episode finishes that phrase.

The first episode is "... Tip".



I really hate that stereotype, and I think that it tends to be more of a class thing then a race thing (but poor white people are invisible, so Black people have to take on the poor people burden).  I grew up poor, but I had a friend who was a waitress and broke down the tipping thing to me when I finally had money to pay for my own meals at restaurants, and since then I hold pretty steady at 20%.  Most of the young  Black people who I've eaten out with tip about the same, but I've noticed having to compensate for older Black people when I go out and eat with them, so I wonder if it's also a generational thing.  I also think the suggestion that it has to do with Black people not having gone to the same restaurants as white people until segregation ended is interesting.  I wonder if waiters in Black restaurants back then had to live off it tips in the same way, or if they were just paid a fair hourly rate?

The second episode is "... Go to Therapy".



I'd agree that Black people do not go to therapy enough, though I wonder if this too, is a class thing that gets mixed up as a race thing.  Poor people are expected to suffer in silence, and Black people especially have suffered for centuries with no mental aid, so it makes sense that a lot of Black people think that you should just be strong and go to church.  I've been to therapy for depression, and I will probably go back before the year is out.  I don't know if I will ever tell my mom this, because she'll probably just start looking for churches down here for me to go to or worse, start thinking that she should move down here.  I think all people should go to therapy at some point in their lives, and if I ruled the world all poor neighborhoods would have free mental health care centers.