Hi everyone I stumbled upon your podcast as I gleefully fell down the rabbit hole of this amazing tv show, and mayne am I glad I did! Ash your ability to approach the light and heavy topics in this series make me proud to be a fellow teacher and educator! You represent our guild exquisitely! Now down to the reason Im emailing yall. Its been said a few times that Letti and Ruby feel out of place in the time setting of the show because they are headstrong, outspoken, not scared to cus and stand their ground. And as a daughter, granddaughter, and niece of black women who lived thru the 50s all that attitude is 100% accurate for that time period! My female family members where radically living out loud back then and knew plenty of other black women who lived the same. Due to respectability politics that existed then (and still in some ways now) many people outside our community dont always see the bad ass bitch ( as Ash says )side of black women. They see it exploited on TV and film as the sassy black woman in a white space trope, but not often do non-black people witness the atypical dynamics of gender roles that exist in the Black community. Theres a whole history of non-typical gender roles in Black communities thats tied to family structures being torn apart during slavery, and how because of the absence of black men in those family structures due to being sold away to other plantations, black women often found themselves having to find their footing in the feminine and masculine areas of the gender spectrum…but thats a whole other conversation lol. Ultimately the way the women in the show are acting is not a 2020 perspective the show runner and writers are projecting back onto this time period. Black woman have been that spicy for a LONG time, and It is so nice to see that aspect of us shown in a way thats not always used as a punch line. Love the show, love the conversation, keep on shatting on these hoes!!!! Lol be safe! Briana J.
