“Have you ever been talking to someone about an activity you’re into and been told, “Black people don’t do that”? This common experience is the impetus for director-producer Angela Tucker’s popular Web series, Black Folk Don’t….”

Read more at The Root.

“Angela Tucker set out to actually query people — black people, in particular — about popular notions of what is and isn’t a ‘black thing,’ and whether those stereotypes ring true in their own lives. The result is her ingenious web series, ‘Black Folk Don’t.’ Besides applying the question ‘Are there things that black folk don’t do?’ to funny and provocative effect, the series does a stunning job of showcasing diversity in black communities, which tends to often be its own answer to the question she’s posing…”

Read the whole article at Turnstyle.

“I see black irony in the web series, Black Folk Don’t by filmmaker Angela Tucker, which questions the notion of black normative behavior and comes to the conclusion that black folk don’t agree on what blacks do and don’t do.” ~Toure

Read the full story at TIME Magazine.

“Black Folk Don’t, a project I came across at the recent Media That Matters conference in Washington DC, is a fabulous use of the webisode form. It drags into the spotlight a range of stereotypes suggesting that black people ‘don’t do’ certain things…”

Read the rest at SBS.

“Before there was Sh*t White Girls Say or Sh*t Black Girls Say, or Sh*t Gay Guys say or Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Gay Girls or whatever it’s morphed into (I lost track) – there was Black Folk Don’t. Produced by Angela Tucker, Black Folk Don’t is a web doc series that uses a unique approach to dispelling stereotypes – and it doesn’t feel like homework…”

Read the full story at Filmindependent.org.

“All through high school and pretty much through college, I worked as a waitress.  In fact, my very first on-the-books job was as a waitress at Friendly’s – you know, the place that makes those SuperMelt sandwiches and ice cream sundaes.  Anyway, my first few weeks of work was spent as a waitress-in-training, which meant that I had to follow around a tenured waitress, whose job it was to ready me for waiting tables of my own.  She took kindly to me, showing me the ropes on how to hold one of those large trays without dropping it, how to handle multiple tables at one time and dropping other pearls of wisdom to make my experience at Friendly’s more friendly.  On my first day on the floor my mentor pulled me aside and gave me one last tidbit of advice:  “Whatever you do, don’t take it personal.  Black folks just don’t tip.”  Huh?  I was stunned, short of offended, not only because she was brazen enough to say that to me but also because she was a black lady.  Surely, this lady was suffering from some sort of self-hatred issues.  Boy was I wrong.”

Read the full story at The Atlanta Post

As a teenager, my blackness was also questioned by some of the life choices I made that weren’t considered to be “black” choices. For example, joining the swim team when it is a known fact that “Black Folk Don’t swim;” or choosing to become a vegetarian when Blacks clearly love chicken. These choices and the various positive and negative responses to them helped to broaden my own perspective of blackness and, eventually, caused me to spurn these self-imposed limitations of “blackness.”

Read the full story at The Huffington Post

“Admit it. We’ve all had those conversations about what’s Black and what’s not. ‘Black Folk Do’:  believe in God; go to church; spend a fortune on looking good. You get the idea. And then, there is that other conversation that lays out what ‘Black Folk Don’t’: listen to country music; wear ripped jeans; go on backpacking vacations. And those are just the claims that probably won’t start a fight.”

Read more at The Skanner website

A brief and very welcome mention on Shadow & Act for our series.

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