La La’s Full Court Life – Episode 7 – Who Am I?

2012-05-01 | Crystal Puccio

Kiyan comes home from school with an assignment: a “Who Am I?” project. La La asks Kiyan if he thinks he’s white or black and Kiyan replies with “I’m brown.” Po then asks Kiyan what color La La is and he says yellow, just like Dice and Po. Dice says “he’s at the age now where color means nothing to him, which is good…” La loves that and so do we.





La La and her friend Angie hit up the gym to train with La’s super beefy trainer, Hino. After their intense work out, Angie, La and Hino grab some well-earned fuel. While at lunch, La takes Hino’s cell phone and scrolls through his photos. She can’t help but immediately notice one similarity between all the girls in Hino’s phone…they’re all white. La asks why she never sees him with a black girl and his answer is: their “attitude.” According to Hino, it’s “like they just want to argue for no reason.”



Angie and La La are instantly taken back by Hino’s comments. La La tries to explain to him that you can’t identify an entire race and gender by a specific attitude. Hino goes on to say that black women always “make their problems your problems” and they aren’t as adventurous (in and out of bed) as white women. La is hurt and tells him this offends black women.



La has a girls night and takes the opportunity to explore the topic. She and her friend Wiz get a cooking lesson by her make-up artist, Sheika. La brings up her conversation with Hino to get their point of view. Sheika says it’s especially disrespectful because Hino’s mother is a black woman, and she certainly raised him to not to talk about black women that way. Wiz agrees and says it’s rude to make such broad generalizations, women are all different: “women are going to be women whether you’re yellow, green, purple, black, white, whatever. It’s just about the type of person and the chemistry you guys have.”



Later, La La hosts a Q&A on the topic of race with the cast of Stick Fly, a Broadway play produced by Alicia Keys. As a Hispanic African-American woman, La is honored to be a part of a discussion dealing with issues as important as race.



La La calls Charlamagne over to Poe and Dice’s apartment to discuss Hino’s position because Charlamagne’s a black man who dates black women. According to Charlamagne, while black women do have what some might consider “attitudes,” he prefers to think that black women are commonly strong and confident. He thinks black women are often good at standing up for themselves, something that doesn’t bother him at all.



Back at home, La helps Kiyan finish his “Who Am I?” project, and she is more intent than ever on instilling in Kiyan that “yes, we are all different, but we should all be treated the same no matter what.” After seeing how unfair Hino’s generalizations about black women’s identity and attitudes were, La was newly inspired to help Kiyan learn about seeing people as individuals without prejudgements.



La finally makes up her mind that the best way to change Hino’s mind is to prove it to him. La meets Hino for a trapeze session, and La La bravely takes to the air. It’s one small step but La La is proving that black women are wild and adventurous!