"My father used to say great things come from great pain” Teddy Perkins

 

We are big fans of the show Atlanta. A recent episode this season titled “Teddy Perkins”, presents a secluded musician Teddy Perkins. This episode of Atlanta channels this type of relationship into a surrealist horror starring Lakeith Stanfield's Darius. In the episode, Darius has driven to a secluded mansion outside of Atlanta to pick up an old piano with multicolored keys that he saw offered for free online. He's greeted by the man selling it, Teddy Perkins, who lives in the mansion taking care of his brother, Benny Perkins, a famous pianist who has a rare skin disease—or so Teddy says. Teddy is a Michael Jackson-inspired character—with a high cooing voice, a plastic surgery-sculpted face, and bleached skin.

 

One of the key themes that Teddy Perkins represented was the idea of perfection to the point that it produces self hate. It is a universal understanding in the black community that we have to be twice as good to get half of what our counterparts get. Being twice as good has been a badge of honor for black people, but what happens when that idea does not match up with what you believe black excellence. As we continue to build our own networks and create our own lanes, we are able to create our own black excellence. Creating our own black excellence that is for us, by us will free us from the oppression and respectability politics that's associated with being twice as good.