That Black Girl
Latoya Marie…..Danitra Vance
…..Francis Ford Coppola
…..Terry Sweeney
[ “That Black Girl” opening montage ]
[ open on That Black Girl, LaToya Marie, sitting on the couch in her posh apartment ]
LaToya Marie: Listen! [ giggles ] I just want you to be the first to know that.. um.. guess who’s gonna be the new Sparkledent girl! No, not the girl in the red! Me! LaToya Marie! Yeah! [ giggles ] Okay! I love you, too! Don’t forget to tell Mom! That I’m the new Sparkledent girl! God! [ giggles ] Bye! [ hangs up phone, as doorbell rings ] Who could that be? I’m not expecting anyone! [ bounces toward the door and opens it, grabbing an anonymous bouquet of flowers left for her ] Flowers! For moi? It must be from Donald, I can’t imagine who would stand them by the door..!
[ Francis Ford Coppola and Terry Sweeney enter the scene to interrupt ]
Francis Ford Coppola: Could you hold it for a second?
Terry Sweeney: Hold everything!!
Francis Ford Coppola: There’s something wrong.. wait a second.. I want set design in here, please?
Terry Sweeney: Set Design!!
Set Design: [ enters ] Is there a problem here?
Francis Ford Coppola: Yeah.. I want more squallor. I want more squallor. Run it down, I want more grit..
Terry Sweeney: It doesn’t look like anything!
Francis Ford Coppola: I don’t want to change anything, but everything’s wrong! It looks like moving reality, it doesn’t look like real reality. I want grit!
[ Set Design reassembles the set, as Francis pulls Danitra Vance in front of the set ]
Uh.. I want more, more.. I would like you to look at, into the, uh.. you’re not really like a black girl to me. You know? I don’t believe that you’re a real black woman. The scene doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the black experience, don’t you agree?
Danitra Vance: Uh.. I guess so..
Francis Ford Coppola: Can I see the writers?
Terry Sweeney: Writers, get in here!!
[ a trio of white, preppy, pipe-smoking writers enter ]
Francis Ford Coppola: Why aren’t there any black women writers on this show? I mean, do any of you really know the subject of this scene, you know, what it is to be black? To feel black? Well, the scene isn’t right. Come on, I’ll habdle this.
Terry Sweeney: [ to the writers ] Why do you write so poorly? Just a question.
[ the writers exit ]
Francis Ford Coppola: Danitra.. I want an unemployed, shunned, segregated, undereducated, maddened, oppressed black woman. Let the comedy come out of that! I don’t want That Black Girl, I want That Black Girl, okay? You can do it! Give it in! Go ahead!
Danitra Vance: I’ll try!
Francis Ford Coppola: Okay.
[ the scene starts again, the posh apartment having been rearranged into a ghetto slum. LaToya Marie sits on an old mattress as her phone rings. ]
LaToya Marie: [ picks up phone ] Thank you. [ hangs up, throws the phone across the room ] Ohh.. they want me to be the new Sparkledent girl. My big break. Big deal! They don’t know me. They don’t know the real me. This isn’t me! [ pulls off her wig ] I turn myself inside out to please them! But I’ve pleased them.. and I’ve lost me! I’ll finally be out of poverty, but I’m already out of.. integrity! I am somebody! I am somebody else! Smile, honey..
[ dissolve to ending “That Black Girl” montage ]