Like I said, my mom and I don’t argue often. So us having two arguments on the same day is really messing with my head. In the past, when we’ve hit something we can’t agree on, we’ve found a way to compromise. That’s what happened with the situation we would go on to call “the Kenya Barris conundrum.”

Kenya Barris is the Black guy who created, among other things, our favorite TV show, Grown-ish, the show my mom confessed to watching without me. She pointed out once just how fair-skinned the cast was for both Grown-ish and his other show, Black-ish. She said it seemed like he went out of his way to avoid casting dark-skinned actors. I didn’t really stop to think about it until Naija cosigned.

“I mean, damn, don’t he know no dark-skinned people?” she said, rolling her eyes when Grown-ish premiered.

I floated a theory around to them: maybe now that Mr. Barris had power in, his next project would be more inclusive. That theory went to hell when we saw the cast for his new Netflix show, called #BlackAF. I’ve seen more color in a blizzard than I have on Kenya’s new show.

“I think we should still support the show. It’s not the actors’ fault that the creator is color-struck,” I reasoned.

“You go ahead if you want to, but I’m getting off this ‘light is right’ train,” my mom said.

So we left it at that. When the new show came out, I promised I wouldn’t make my Hollywood mom watch it with me; she, in turn, promised not to roll her eyes when it came on.

We met in the middle. Is there any way we can do that now?

“You really young to have such an intense look on your face. What you over there thinking about?” someone says, pulling me out of my thoughts. It’s Nate Collard. He’s a See Us board member. Many of his relatives were members of the Black Panther Party. He’s always challenging my mom on what is best for See Us. And how the movement should progress.

Nate is in his forties. He’s handsome, smart and has a laugh that made me giggle when I was little. I always thought he had a thing for my mom. I’d catch him sneaking glances at her. But nothing ever came of it; at least, I don’t think it did. I’m kind of glad, because Nate and my mom together would be too intense.

“Hi Nate. I was just thinking about stuff. Nothing important,” I lie.

“You’re the voice of the young folks at See Us. You can’t let trivial things get in the way of that. I warned your mom, you should be homeschooled. That way, you won’t get distracted.”