Oh So Simpatico!

JUST US SISTUHS! - KEEPIN' IT REAL!

Copyright © 1999 by Valerie Leigh Streeter

*******

BOBBI

You mean why am I cooped up in the house all day wasting my time on Oprah, Sally, and Montel if I want to work and am capable of working.

ROCHELLE

There ya go.

(Pause)

BOBBI (Reflective)

When my husband proposed to me eight years ago, I was struggling in my so-called job at a flower shop. Jesse had just switched career paths a year or so before--accounting to law. By that point he didn't want me working. And it was a welcome change, too, not having to beat the sound out of that alarm clock every morning or deal with these non-driving Atlanta idiots on I-85 in rush hour traffic.

TRACI

Girl, you sound like a soap opera diva.

ROCHELLE (Laughing)

I bet you started taking classes during the day and stuff like that, didn't you? You know, a knitting class here, a sewing class there.

BOBBI

Actually, I did. But I went straight for the big time and started taking real estate classes. I've got my license now, but Jesse doesn't think I need to work because he makes so much money. He started moving up the ladder in his firm and before we knew it, he made partner.

JANELLE

So you're not going to work, you're not going to do what you want to do, because your husband doesn't want you to? That's pretty domineering of him, don't you think? Just like a man.

BOBBI

Oh, just like a man, my foot. It has noth--

SHANTE

You know something? You're going to regret letting that man run your life like this. One day you're going to look back and ask yourself "Why did I let that white man play me like that?"

BOBBI

Girl, hush up. He's not running my life - he's living in it.

ROCHELLE

She's right you know, Bobbi. Look at me. I was so dependent on Leroy before he died that I never bothered to do anything for myself. When he died, I didn't know where to turn. With two kids to support, honey, it was, and still is, scary. I learned the hard way to be self-sufficient.

JANELLE

You can't let a man be your entire life. You don't exist through some unseen umbilical cord. Breath on you own.

TRACI

Yup. If I have a man in my life, that's fine; if I don't have a man in my life, I don't want to be made to feel like a lost child who can't take care of herself. That's part of what I'm fighting here.

BOBBI

You all have some good points, but I'm not letting Jesse rule my life. I can think on my own.

ROCHELLE

You can think on your own, but do you, baby?

BOBBI

Yes. I do, I am, and I have been.

SHANTE

Doesn't seem like it if what you really want to do is work and you're going to let your husband keep you from doing that. I mean, aren't you supposed to be happy too?

BOBBI

And whatever gave you the idea I wasn't happy? I'm very happy with my husband. He's good to me, he's good for me, he's just plain good.

SHANTE

And stifling. There's no way in the world I'd let a white man treat me like that.

BOBBI

Treat you like what Shante? You're creating these stupid images based on something you know nothing about. If you're gonna sit there and run your mouth, you should at least know what you're talking about.

SHANTE

Oh I know what I'm talking about. It's about you being enslaved! Your husband--

JANELLE (Stands to get soda)

Oh goodness, here we go again.

SHANTE

--has you doing and not doing things based on what he wants. Whatever happened to what you want? Sistuhs like you make it hard on the real sistuhs out here who love our bruthas, and--

BOBBI (Angry; raises voice; stands)

I'm 'bout sick of your little radical speeches! You want to sit there and spout--

SHANTE (Calm and even)

Yeah, I'ma spout alright. Mt. St. Helen's.

BOBBI

--black pride, you go do it somewhere else. I know where my pride lies and I don't need to be told how to display it from some kid who's probably repeating what she heard from someone else.

SHANTE (Still calm)

Second hand information ain't where it's at with me, sistuh. (raises hand in halting fashion at BOBBI) Talk to the hand, sistuh, talk to the hand.

BOBBI

For all your ranting and raving, you probably don't have one original thought in that nappy head of yours so--

SHANTE (Slowly standing)

Naw, Ms. White Thang, it's called a natural, and if you--

(TRACI fidgets uneasily, looking from SHANTE to BOBBI; ROCHELLE sucks her teeth loudly)

BOBBI

--you have to piggyback off of Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan. Don't come to me talking--

SHANTE (Standing; angry and confrontational)

Oh noooo, sistuh, or wannabe sistuh, my thoughts are my own and I don't need to feed offa' nobody else for them. Don't get mad at me--

ROCHELLE

Shante.

SHANTE

--'cause you're the one stuck with a pasty white man who thrives on dominating and controlling your sorry life, and if--

BOBBI (Stepping towards SHANTE)

Yeah, I'll show you how sorry--

ROCHELLE

Bobbi, Shante--

TRACI (Standing and backing away)

I'm getting out of the way of this.

SHANTE

Bring it on!

ROCHELLE (Anger; stands abruptly and shouts)

Shut up! Just...shut...up!

(The women are shocked into silence; JANELLE chokes on soda; TRACI stares with mouth open)

(SHANTE and BOBBI glance at each other but remain standing. ROCHELLE tilts her head and places her hands on her hips for emphasis)

 

 

END EXCERPT #2