Not Kofi, so get your knickers out your crack and chill your vaginas…
Look at him up there…looking like he read my piece and is ready to break a foot off in me.
I’m talmbout Ralph Angel, the prototype of the angry black man – a phrase oft overused but totally apropos as it regards this person. Seasons 1 and 2, I was all Tyra “we were rooting for you” for our poor downtrodden Ra. The way Ava and Co bathed him in blue hues and dressed him in all white suits to send his father home. They way he earnestly strove to make Blue a better man than he. The way he lied, cheated and stole to make sure that lil boy had food in his belly. The way he loved his daddy. They way he so clearly yearned for Darla despite her shortcomings. And the way they FINALLY reunited their naughty bits.
I think “we” – yes I speak French and for y’all – wanted to see him win so badly. We are innately aware of how the system devours our young men, sometimes taking their hopes and dreams with them. When a beloved family member is incarcerated, the rest of the family is in jail right with them. Once they are released, they are faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, stripped of their dignity, their privacy, their rights and their futures. So if they are angry, they deserve every right to that anger – but not forever. We are the descendants of slaves – we bend, but we shouldn’t break…and listen, I say shouldn’t with the full knowledge of my black girl magic and the opportunities it has afforded me. Plus I have spent time in the county jail, so I believe this makes me an expert on all things. Ahem…Ra is a young man that made some mistakes, BUT walked right back into a family that not only loved him, but coddled him. A family that would have (and has) supported him thru his comeback. This man had a father for chrissakes, he didn’t have that gaping hole left in his childhood that often leaves our boys with a hidden sorrow and rage…….which brings me to my point: this muthafucka is madder than the law should allow.
It came to mind to write this while watching last nights mid-season premier. I watched this man hurt a woman that has been fighting tooth and nail to be in his and their son’s life. This disrespectful ass nigga had the nerve to reference her “hoe-ing.” If, I could jumped thru that tv screen and strangled the fuck out his ass I would have. So I began to think, for once, not about fucking him, but about how in real life I wouldn’t say hello to this nigga with Stacey Dash’s mouth.
Darla is fucking struggling to hold it all together and all he does is seek to control and manipulate her. Pick up Blue! Get a job! Stay away from Blue! Leave your job and stay/come be with me! Move in! Marry me! NOW! This is a woman in fucking recovery and 97% of the time Ra makes everything in both of their lives about him. Structure and routine are key parts to her recovery that he seems to forget all about – until he wants to throw her struggles in her face. HOEING? HOEING NIGGA? ARE YOU TALMBOUT HOEING WHEN YOU WERE LOCKED THE FUCK UP?! How dare you disrespect your fiancee and son’s mother like that? Cuz her past caught up with her? Uncomfortably so at that. The ways she reacted to that man calling her Star? She wasn’t happy for that attention. Not one bit. It was heartbreaking to watch her demeaned on the street and then once again in her own home. No wonder she took to drugs. And if this asshole doesnt watch his step, she may be on them again. I for one would like to know how she got addicted to drugs and what part he played in it. Fucka.
THEN last season, when he yoked up Micah for ACCIDENTALLY pushing Blue? LAWD SOMEBODY CALL THE LAW! Charley should have found any and everything in that house to break over that muthafuckas head. THAT IS A CHILD. YOUR NEPHEW NIGGA.
THEN he wanted to be all butthurt and tell Charley and Nova how Ernest willed him the land. Well great, asshole. With what money are you going to run it? That move was so fucking spiteful it was pathetic. He didn’t reveal it for any other reason than to hurt the two women he FEELS are holding him back. He didn’t choose to tell them in private, nope…he had to wait til the long suffering Darla was there with them and ONCE AGAIN manipulated the family. He pit Darla against her employer and potential sister-n-law, Charley by insisting Darla knew about the will. WTF was the point of that? Darla was in a no win situation, stick with her man WHICH SHE DID, proving no good dead goes unpunished or side with her boss, thereby destroying the fragile relationship she already has to walk on eggshells to navigate. Im sick of him. Burn his ass down and start over!
I love Queen Sugar – from the moment it came on I was hooked. Im enjoying watching the honest portrayal of folks fairskinned, darkskinned, rich, making it, struggling loving and surviving. Three seasons in, I’ve watched all the characters grow. Charley went from Vanessa Bryant to creating her life on her own terms. Darla has kicked the habit and is trying to be the best woman possible. Aunt Vi has stopped thinking bout what it should be and is enjoying what IS. Nova has softened towards her sister in a way that warms the cackles of my dark heart and seems to be opening herself to the possibility of real love. Hollywood ditched Maxine Shaw Attorney at Law and is 150% there for his woman. Blue has began to speak in a way that lets me understand the words he is saying. Micah has faced such tragedy, but has chose to not let it break him, but has used it to become a more thoughtful and aware young man….maybe his uncle should try and follow suit.
