My ex is crazy! She’s Psycho!
How many times have you heard a guy call a woman this?
For the longest time I never questioned a man calling a woman crazy. I’d hear stories and shake my head and think to myself, “Sheesh, she sounds nuts.” I was never one to ever want to go through my significant other’s phone, social media stalk, and/or do anything “crazy.” I never thought I could be crazy.
It wasn’t until I was put in a situation that made realize some people bring out the best in you and others, well the worst. I found myself almost losing my mind including doing drive-bys determined to find my boyfriend cheating. I resorted to unusual (and by unusual I mean she-done-lost-her-mind) measures to come closer to the truth.
Eventually I uncovered the truth, and I was vindicated. He was cheating. He was married. He was a piece of shit. There were multiple obvious red flags. Of course, I chose to ignore them and create excuses for them.
Afterwards
I had a good laugh at myself regarding how I allowed him to affect my sanity. I started telling other women about my extreme measures and the responses I got surprised me.
“You used your car for the drive-by? Oh, no girl. Rule number 1: you gotta use your friend’s car.”
“All the things I know now. I wish a guy would try and cheat on me.”
Two things I took away: 1. This is funny and sad at the same time 2. This is happening more often than I imagined.
Being Mixed
Growing up, I never saw anyone on television or the big screen look like me. The closest actress that I remember well was Lucy Lu. When Charlie’s Angeles came out, I was assigned Lucy Lu’s character during playtime because she was Asian. But I never felt that assignment was accurate because it wasn’t. Why couldn’t I play the Caucasian woman, my other half?
I don’t identify being more of one race over the other. I’ve always seen myself as being mixed. Both heritages influence who I am.
Coincidentally, some of my closest friends are also biracial like myself. Our experiences are unique — we are a minority among a minority.
According to the Pew Research Center survey, 6.9% of Americans are of mixed ethnicities.
Lets do some math… the current estimated population of the U.S. is 325.7 million x 0.069 (mixed Americans) = 22,423,300 million mixed Americans. The Census Bureau predicts if the trend continues that percentage will triple by 2060.
Unfortunately, these numbers are not reflected in television and film. The mixed community is highly underrepresented in popular media.
Mixed + Nuts =
Commercial castings love ethnically ambiguous people. Why? Because they fit a broad range of roles and encourage a diverse audience to identify positively with whatever product is being sold.
Yet for theatrical roles, representation of our current population in the United States is not reflected accurately. Furthermore, the limited roles of color are usually a single race character. Biracial actors typically play the race they favor more, not what they are.
My frustration at the lack of representation combined with my quick trip to crazy town, motivated me to write my own unique story à la Mixed Nuts.
Mixed Nuts has been a two year passion project of mine. Click here to find out more!