Over the years, I’ve seen brothers pimp women for many things; however, I’ve NEVER seen a black man pimp his own sister. Last night, though, I witnessed this for the first time as I watched the premiere episode of Fantasia Barrino’s new VH1 reality show, Fantasia For Real. One of Fantasia’s co-stars is her older brother Teeny, a 28 year old who’s lived on earth for nearly three decades, yet it doesn’t look like he’s provided a single positive contribution to the planet.
In his scenes, it’s made clear that Teeny has no job, prospects, or self-earned possessions. Feeding negative stereotypes black men have fought to erase for centuries, he’s shiftless and has no concept of reality.
Where do people like this live? Where do they go?
Well, Teeny’s living in his sister’s house. Actually, Teeny’s living off of ’Tasia. The starlet picks up all of his bills and takes care of him like he’s her child. In addition to having a luxuriously decorated bedroom in Fantasia’s mansion, Teeny has successfully lobbied his sister to buy him two cars, including an expensive classic-edition whip. It’s an existence reinforced through the years by a non-demanding mother, and an emotionally-spent sister, who he seems to believe can take care of him forever.
I thought my head would explode when, instead of looking for a job because his little sister pleaded for her shoulders to get a respite from carrying the entire family by herself, Teeny went to test-drive a Ferrari–and he didn’t even have a driver’s license. Leaning on yet another woman, the 28 year old had to enlist a female friend to provide a valid license to the dealership in order to go peeling back the asphalt in a fantasy joyride through the countryside. In contrast, Fantasia was busy getting her brains twisted into knots trying to pay the bills by reviving the pulse of her career.
I was almost pushed to the edge when he tore down his sister’s garage, including ripping out the floors, to make a musical engineering studio. “I want something so sexy that when you walk on it, it makes your shoes feel good,” he said, as if he had a dime to contribute to the construction.
But that wasn’t the worst part of Teeny’s delusional lunacy. The worst part is that in all of this madness, Teeny still has the audacity to be arrogant. The brother repeatedly called himself the “boss.” Unfortunately, he’s only the boss of one thing–his baby sister. –terry shropshire
