It was a few months ago when I initially began to see my Facebook feed filling up with links to a new YouTube post entitled “The Misadventures of the Awkward Black Girl.” I instantly judged and surpassed the postings time and time again. With all the negative news reports, studies, reality shows and stereotypes about black women I had no interest in participating by clicking on that link or any link that referred to the “awkward black girl.” All I could think was that it is not enough that we are stereotyped as uneducated, loud, promiscuous, angry and perpetually single…but now we are awkward too!? This was a classic example of judging the book by the cover and I could not have been more wrong.
“The Misadventures Awkward Black Girl” is a witty, humor-filled and refreshingly original web series. It is the brain child of filmmaker, creator, writer and star Issa Rae. Ms. Rae received her B.A. from Stanford University and has taken film-making courses at New York Film Academy and UCLA. The eight episodes, to date, have garnered over 1 million views on you tube and there has been talk of the web series possibly being picked up by a television network.
The series focuses on the resident awkward black girl J. We journey with J as she awkwardly navigates:
Relationships: When the series begins, J’s boyfriend breaks her heart and in turn she cuts off all her hair. Two week later, he returns to her only to break up with her again 1 week later using her low-cut hairdo as an excuse. This leads J to have a regrettable night with a co-worker which causes problems with her in the next few episodes, especially now that she has a crush on a new co-worker.
Friendships: J finds a kindred spirit in awkwardness and we see their friendship grow, breakdown and grow again within the span of 3 minutes.
Increasingly Hostile Work Environment: J’s arch nemesis is promoted the supervisor position and has a crush, as well, on the new co-worker. She decides to make J’s work life as difficult as possible by embarrassing her every chance she gets and belittling her achievements on the job.
What I love about the lead character, J, is she has a self-awareness that few people posses, with the exception of her rap skills. She is fully aware of her awkwardness and is doing her best is accept it by writing rap lyrics and reciting them loudly when alone. Warning, this series is not for the super politically correct crowd, so proceed with caution. It does include profanity and some politically incorrect language.
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl can be seen on www.YouTube.com or www.AwkwardBlackGirl.com