#so many

I'm enrolled in a PhD now.

A lot of people like to “joke” and make aware that if Claire was played by Ayo and Sydney was played by Molly, there would be way less opposition to Sydcarmy. I think this is 100% correct, HOWEVER, it got me thinking about it objectively and on paper it could NEVER happen. Claire was written to be played by and only by a white woman, she is almost the complete opposite of Sydney.

Carmy is essentially put in a position where he’s yearning for a black woman and everyone is pushing him towards this “cool” and “great” white woman. And he gets around her and she’s not that great. Actually, she has done many things and said many things that Sydney Adamu could NEVER say or do.

Claire STOLE. Not only did she BRAG about stealing gum. But the part that’s most unsaid is how she got away with it. There’s no way a black kid could ever go into a store and steal, they follow you around the store. It’s something that’ll happen to you no matter how good of a citizen you are. Meanwhile, Claire benefits from the system so much that she thinks it’s funny. She thinks stealing and being a klepto is hilarious and a fun story because she’s not affected by that type of racism. Could you imagine a BW bragging about stealing? Unrealistic. (Even in the newer film “Boosters”, Claire represents the white token that does all the stealing while the BW get followed around.)

Claire gets to call herself a terrible driver that only does it for thrills and people (Reddit, Twitter, 4chan, etc.) applaud her and think that’s attractive. Richie called Sydney “aggressive” and “hysterical” and made it clear that he didn’t trust her behind the wheel in 1x02 and she’s a PROFESSIONAL DRIVER (UPS). Like, Sydney being doubted, ridiculed, and having micro aggressions thrown at her at the bias and assumption that she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Meanwhile, Claire says it like it’s funny and a big joke and no one thinks the worser of it. Another direct parallel to how Claire can joke about being terrible at something a black woman would get racially demonized for.

The MEDICAL MALPRACTICE! Omg. Where do I even begin? If you’ve watched or heard or glimpsed The Pitt on HBO, you know there’s a whole plotline and arc about how Tracy knows she can’t fuck up in any capacity or rate that Robby does. She comments on it. She says it, because it’s true, that if a BW is bad at her job or makes a mistake or even thinks/looks like she’s making a mistake she’ll be crucified. Robby and Claire get to almost kill people, be stressed, slammed, nervous, and go against orders and people root for them. Viewers feel bad for them. They want to hug them and tell them that it’s okay and it’s not the end of the world. Can you imagine if a Black!Claire told that malpractice story and she never apologizes for anything, she doesn’t even blame herself in the scene. She talks about it like it’s a stressful story and there’s nothing that could’ve been done about it. That’s Claire’s story of defeat. Sydney Adamu’s story of defeat is about a time that she couldn’t make pasta no matter how much effort she put in and probably got chewed out by a white woman. She got fired/put out of business because of a lack of product, EVEN when she found a solution. Could you imagine if Sydney told a story about how she forgot someone had an allergy and almost killed them in a restaurant but she’s never fired, she never apologizes, and people just hug her and make her feel better? It would literally NEVER happen.

The scenes where Claire is sarcastic about Carmy and his trauma would be less funny if she was Black. People would be telling him to stay away from her, that shes a bad fit and “doesn’t understand him”. People hate Sydney and make whole think pieces about how’s she’s insufferable because she “never apologizes or apologized to Richie for stabbing him”, something (I think) she didn’t even do on purpose. Like, WHOLE think pieces. Yet, Claire is always waiting for Carmy to say sorry, even though she tells him not to. The moment he screams sorry in 4x03, she considers the conversation over. She doesn’t apologize for getting his number from Fak, or almost killing someone (mentioned literally point before), the freezer comments, the under the table comment, the “on fire” comment, or going to the kitchen of The Bear without permission. Any of it, but you don’t see think pieces about that. Not even close.