Interracial awkardness on TBS’s My Boys

by guest contributor Stella Q

I am warming up to My Boys, a by-the-numbers, sitcom-ish TBS series about PJ, a cute tomboy navigating life as only a twentysomething can. The gimmick is that her friends are exclusively guys (all white and straight) with whom she talks sports, plays poker and generally hangs out. Her best (and only) girlfriend Stephanie is her polar opposite–a girly, high maintenance African-American woman she met in J-school. (Still not clear what said best friend writes about, but our tomboy is, of course, a sports writer.)

Anyway, in one of the first episodes, which you can access on-line, PJ wants to set up Stephanie with this African-American guy who is into sports and poker, i.e. the stuff that PJ lives for. Turns out that the African American guy is more interested in PJ (which makes sense, since, well, they’re both into sports and poker). After PJ tells Stephanie this, the dialogue (paraphrased) goes something like this:

Steph: Why did you set us up?
PJ: Because he’s a great guy!
Steph: Because he’s black?
PJ: (starting to look flustered): Er..
Steph: (interrupting) Have you ever dated a black guy?
PJ: (overcompensating for obvious discomfort by raising her voice enthusiastically) No, but I can’t wait to date a black guy!

And then the conversation reverts to the more innocuous rationale that PJ just wanted Stephanie to date someone PJ actually liked, and PJ was afraid of losing Stephanie to the kind of loser, I-banker douchebag Stephanie probably always dates, etc.

Anyway, thought this was a pretty realistic slice of life, and I would love to see this go somewhere. The episode is called “Team Chemistry.”