Her name is Sweet Brown and she is either your worst nightmare realized or a funny anecdote to a story that could have been tragic.
Last Saturday, Brown narrowly escaped a three-alarm blaze that engulfed the Chateau DeVille apartment complex in Oklahoma City. The fire, which apparently started in the apartment of a wheelchair-bound woman, sent one resident to the hospital, destroyed five other homes and left as many as 44 apartments without electricity. Most of them will probably end up in shelters provided by the Red Cross until the complex is repaired or a permanent living situation can be found.
After the early morning fire had cleared, local news channel KFOR descended upon the scene to scope out residents for a first-hand account of how it felt to escape the fire. That’s when they found Sweet Brown. Donned in a carefully knotted mutli-colored head scarf and fronting a thick backwoods drawl, Brown described in the most dramatic fashion her horrifying experience, when she realized her apartment complex was on fire.
Said Brown, “Well, I woke up to get me a cold pop and I thought somebody was bar-b-quein’, I said oh Lawd Jesus, it’s a fare. Then I ran out, I didn’t grab no shoes or nuthin’ Jesus. I rr-ran for my life. Then the smoke got me – I got bronchitis. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
Have you started face palming yet? Well, you wouldn’t be alone. If you watch the actual video, you will see a young man lurking back and forth in the background, shaking his head and palming his face as well. But the story of Ms. Brown doesn’t end there. You see, yesterday, the video went viral with over 350,000 views. Pop culture blogs like Gawker proclaimed Sweet Brown as the next big viral star and Hip Hop Wired has said that she is coming for Antoine Dodson’s crown. And with that, six million black folks in the US collectively face palmed again. I can almost hear the chorus of many of them cursing her name and decrying how “she has set us back about 50 years.”
But me, I love everything about this clip. What’s not to love? First, who really does have time for bronchitis? Secondly, there is her name. That’s the kind of name you associate with somebody who makes sweet potato pies for a living or a Ray Charles song, not someone chilling at home, drinking pop (or soda, whatever you want to call it). Thirdly, who knew that Jesus was part timing it up as a television news reporter in Oklahoma? You would think that being the Son of God would garner him some cool perks like working in one of the top television markets. Must be the recession. And finally, she wakes up in the middle of the night, smells smoke and instantly thinks there’s a barbecue going on. Well played Ms. Brown, well played indeed.
Source: tampabayorganizer.com
Of course, not everyone shares the humor in Brown’s recollection of events. Clutch raised the interesting parallel between Brown and another YouTube viral video of the red bandana-wearing Antoine Dodson, whose catchy “Hide Yo Wife, Hide Yo Kids” message to a yet-to-be-caught rapist in his Huntsville, Alabama community catapulted him into international stardom. In that situation, it was hard to tell if folks were laughing with Dodson or at him or even if we should be laughing at all, considering the seriousness of a serial rapist on the loose in the community.
It’s true that TV producers can, on occasion, manipulate a report to try to shape a story, and the people within it, to fit their own narrative – just ask the 6-year-old witness to a crime, who was made to look like a thug due to some calculated editing. But what probably strikes a nerve among black folks, particularly those from middle class backgrounds, is that people like Sweet Brown and Antoine Dodson are embarrassing for them because they get a little too close to the clichéd and narrow picture of what black people are: loud, opinionated, eye-popping, neck-swirling, teeth sucking, gold tooth shiners and do-rag wearers.
Both Dobson and Brown’s entire natural persona sends chills down the backs of some folks, who imagine the coming of parodies of white people, wearing do-rags and mimicking how they feel these folks sound and having to defend themselves against allegations of being likeness with said character (i.e. All Black people act like this). It’s one of the burdens of a people who never really had control of their media image.
Who could forget the infamous Leprechaun in the Alabama Hood news report? Here we had to weather the perfect storm of uber-stereotypical behavior: a gold tooth smiling dude yelling into the camera, “Who else seen the leprechaun say Yeah!” and then the whole crowd behind him hoots and hollers like they are at a Jay-Z concert; The one woman, who assured the reporter that the leprechaun was actually a crackhead in the tree; the amateur sketch of the leprechaun on loose-leaf paper; and the militant black dude in army fatigues and bullet-proof jacket, going on about being part Irish and how he is going to catch the leprechaun with his special leprechaun flute. That had to be the most embarrassing display of foolishness ever put on television. But damn, if I didn’t laugh my behind off.
Why? Because it IS funny as hell. And secondly, because some people really do act like that. Some of them are in your own family. Maybe even your own mother and father. And quite frankly, there is nothing really wrong with that. And I know I’m not the only one. I’ve seen YouTube videos of news reports with crazy sounding white folks – like the guy describing how many bench press rotations he did at the gym during the Oslo Norway bombing. Or the white dude with the c**n [not racist] skin cap, who managed to evoke both the Dukes of Hazards and Dale Earhart Jr. into a description of a bank robbery getaway. What these viral videos do is to appeal to the intransient nature/habit of all of us – regardless of color – to smile or laugh at the quirkiness of life, especially during tragic events.
Never mind thanking the Heavens above that her thirst for a cold Pepsi woke her up in time to actually smell the fire, thus getting out of there before it affected her bronchitis (which was a strong possibility) and killed her. Never mind thinking about what she is going to do for the next day, two, or possibly weeks now that her living space is probably inhabitable. It’s much more important that she not embarrass us. Now does that sound right to you? I, for one, am glad that Brown had a sense of humor at the events. It means that she has a positive outlook on things and will probably bounce back better than most.
Now are there going to be people laughing at her instead of with her? Sure. Are they going to use this video to make bigoted assumptions about all black folks? Of Course. We still do live in a polarized society based upon race. But those people are racist and there is nothing you can do about it.
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