By Charles Hallman
Staff writer
Angela Tucker two years ago pitched her series idea on challenging racial stereotypes of Blacks. The third season of Black Folk Donāt premiered December 2 on BlackPublicMedia.org, the National Black Programming Coalition (NBPC) website.
āSeason three is going to spark conversations in homes and offices around the country as well as online,ā predicts Black Public Media Digital Media Director Nonso Christian Ugbode. āPeople take sides and even question the audacity of the assertions that are raised in the show.ā
A writer, director and producer, Tucker wrote on her blog a couple of years ago that she prefer ā[regular Black] people that had original points of views and were articulateā rather using ābeing Blackā experts. āAt first, we were going to reach out to people via social networks… But then I decided to do it the old fashioned way. We polled people on the streets.ā

After filming the first season in her native New York, and the second in New Orleans, Tuckerās Black Folk Donāt now heads to California.
āBlack people are far from the majority in California and that intrigued me,ā she said in a press release. āI found that people in Oakland, Los Angeles and San Francisco had such diverse views of the world, leading to a real clash of ideas this season among the interviewees.ā
In a recent MSR phone interview, Tucker says the inspiration for her series actually is somewhat based on her years growing up.
āIāve heard the term āBlack folk donātā while growing up, but I swim, camp, and do all these things that a lot of Black people donāt necessarily do en masse.ā As a result, the director-producer said that she wanted her web series to āinterrogate that idea of where does this idea that Black folk donāt do a variety of different things,ā using both a āsatirical and seriousā approach, she continues. āWhat does it mean if we donāt do these things?
āI think that we do have a very limited idea of what being Black is,ā says Tucker. āWhat always surprises me is whenever I want to do a topic, I can always find a modest number of people who do this thing [related to it].ā

Thus far, Tucker says that her series havenāt produced too many surprises. āIām typically not surprised because I know I am going to find people who are on opposite sides of the spectrum,ā she explains. āYou literally donāt know what people are going to say. People give me topics all the time ā I try to pick some topics that pertain more specifically to the location: for example, our first episode this season on go green, thatās a perfect topic for the Bay Area because people are very green in the Bay Area. I try to think of topics that pertain to the location.ā
An award-winning documentary producer, Tucker says shooting Black Folk Donāt āis challenging,ā she points out. āThe first season I shot it in New York, and that was easy. Iām from New York and lived here my whole life. I could just e-mail to a bunch of friends, and go into the streets and get people ā that was easy. Once I left New York, it became much more difficult.
āI now have it down in terms of the way I need to do it. [But] editing it actually is the fun part ā trying to get it down so it wonāt be too long.ā Tucker adds that the hardest part is making sure that she finds a good variety of people as respondents to her questions, she surmises.
Finally, Black Folk Donāt is shown on BlackPublicMedia.org, YouTube, PBS.org as well as at blackfolkdont.com.
āI thought Season Two was a little heavier so I wanted season three to be a little funnier,ā concludes Tucker. āI think thatās what people like about the series is the diversity of people.Ā And we want to keep that.ā
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com
Reach the MSR staff at msrnewsonline@spokesman-recorder.com.