Calling out the Well-Meaning White Women of AJLT

There’s been something on my heart for months now. It’s kept me up nights, forced me into screaming fits, caused me to throw my television remote across the room. Now I’m finally ready to talk about it.

The list of issues with Sex and the City revival And Just Like That is longer than a CVS receipt. To say the viewing community is disappointed is an understatement. Yet we tuned in, week after week, to watch Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and absolutely not Samantha sink deeper into a swamp of cringe.

I’m not going to reiterate all the issues here, though I agree with almost every think piece out there about the horrors of Che Diaz, the hyper-aging of Steve and the utterly offensive lack of sex. But what I do want to talk about is how all of these women somehow became poster children for the well-meaning white woman.

Who is the well-meaning white woman (WMWW)? I would argue that she’s more terrifying than a confederate flag wielding redneck at a Nascar race. You see, with our rebel flag waving friend, we know what we’re getting. We’re on his turf and he is showing signs of being a racist bastard right there on his sleeve. (Literally, as I imagine he has a build the wall tattoo). But with the well-meaning white woman, it’s hard to be sure. This woman donates to the NAACP. She lets her son play with the Black and brown kids on his after-school basketball team. She “really is trying” to learn more about other cultures, and back in 2020 she was shocked to learn about all of the transgressions of this great country of ours. She not only watched The Help, she bought the book and followed Viola Davis on Instagram. She is devoted to becoming an anti-racist hero! (We reached out for comment on whether she read The Help and our calls were not answered.)

CARRIE

At 55, Carrie celebrated her first Diwali in a Sari. That’s all. That’s the tweet.

CHARLOTTE

The only Black people who ended with a good storyline were Lisa Todd Wexley — aka Black Charlotte. She was referenced as Black Charlotte more than once. Someone please stop these writers. Please. I beg you — and her light-skinned brood. Oh, but even the fair-skinned, rich and upstanding Blacks fall prey to the WMWW. Charlotte comes over for dinner in maybe the most cringeworthy episode of the season when it comes to race relations. During dinner, she backs LTW up by explaining to her mother-in-law that the art around the home is an incredible investment. I couldn’t see this as anything other than a white savior moment. Why couldn’t Lisa or, better yet, her husband tell his mother to respect his wife and their art in their own home? Charlotte basically castrated him at his own dinner table. But let me stop before I go off the hotep deepend because we do not have the time.

MIRANDA

Right off the bat, Miranda mistakes her professor, Nya Wallace, for a student. She is mortified. But instead of sitting down and shutting up and doing her best from the back of the class, she proceeds to stalk Nya. Nya avoids Miranda as much as she can but, you see, a well-meaning white woman does not give up. Rambo/Miranda/This WMWW continues to appear in Nya’s life, pulls a white savior in the subway station and now Nya has no choice but to crack the door for her, just a little. My friends: A little is all the WMWW needs! She’s in like Flynn!

Next, Nya does what we all do with WMWW. We pick an intimate but upsetting situation to share with them to throw them off the scent. Surely taking this clearly exhibitionist relationship to a deeper level will scare the WMWW off, right? WRONG! This is WMWW catnip! Miranda’s claws are in. She is so attentive, racking up all the WMWW points with calls, texts and her version of genuine support.

Poor Nya succumbs. She starts to think that maybe this white woman is different. Maybe she’s truly a friend. She writes her a glowing recommendation for an exclusive program. She invites her and her fancy friends to repaint an uRbAn school. And just when she thinks she truly has a white BFF, Miranda ditches the program Nya used her clout to put her up for so she can go eat, pray and love Che’s pussy in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Nya is left alone in New York with no friend to hang with while her hot-as-hell hubby goes off to be surrounded by thousands of (fertile) women on tour.

It was tough to see these things happen in AJLT, especially following the series finale of Insecure. (On the same network, I might add.) In that gorgeous finale, we saw all of our ladies get a happy ending. Four Black women in one show and all of them got their own version of happily ever after. It was unheard of. And just as we thought we were stepping into a fairytale future for Black female characters on television, a future that allows these characters of color to be full, real, flawed, redeemed and emotional, the WMWW swoops in to do what she does best. She made all of the richness and culture that POCs bring about herself. She made it so they don’t even exist without her.

And just like that, we’re right back in the TV dark ages.

*