This is all Barbie’s fault.
Halfway through her new book, Tiffany Cross explains how the path toward an abusive relationship began with Mattel’s signature doll. Aside from being the avatar of Caucasian beauty, Barbara Millicent Roberts managed to acquire a Dream House, a Dream Car, and a live-in boyfriend who kinda looked like white Jesus before he grew out his beard and stopped getting haircuts.
Although Barbie was the original “bad bitch,” Cross grew up with real examples of how a Black American could win someone’s love. Diff’rent Strokes, Webster and Gimme a Break proved that white families didn’t actually see color. Benson proved that a smart, talented, hardworking Black man could rise from a position as a lowly housekeeper to become lieutenant governor. Fortunately, Cross had no problem naming the lying, cheating f*ckboy who bamboozled her into this toxic relationship.
“This childhood outlook on America was indoctrinated in me at school, on television, in commerce and with policy,” Cross writes, before adding:
“The bitch set me up.”
I sat down with Cross at Roland Martin Studios in Washington, D.C., to discuss her new book, her career, the state of American media and Black women’s unkillable capacity to love.
Love, Me: A Letter to Black Women in a Toxic Country, Career, and Relationship is out today, anywhere books are sold.
