15x05 - Gunning for Karamo

[bunniefuu]

- SHAVONDA: Previously, on "The Real World..."

- Oh my gosh, MJ!

MJ, see, that's gonna be my boy, my road dog.

Cool as hell.

- MJ: Being born and raised in a small town,

all I really know is Southern white.

- KARAMO: My father has influenced me in some ways

that I'm realizing now that are not right

and I need to outgrow.

- To the past and future and to a better understanding.

- To a better understanding.

- WILLIE: This is the true story...

- SARAH: Of seven strangers.

- LANDON: Oh my god!

- MJ: Picked to live in a house.

- KARAMO: Work together and have their lives taped.

- MELANIE: To find out what happens.

I'm over it.

- SHAVONDA: When people stop being polite...

- WILLIE: Oh, shut up!

- LANDON: And start getting real.

- EVERYONE: "The Real World Philadelphia."

- I mean, I've just heard this through hearsay

and not from you.

Wasn't your father the one who, like, kind of...

I don't know how to phrase this,

like, made you resent white people?

- KARAMO: No, what he did was

he tried to educate me on my people,

and he would feed me books

and he wouldn't fully explain to me.

- SARAH: Okay. - I always think to myself,

the people who were alive in the s and s and s

and who didn't want integration and who didn't want everyone

to have equal rights, those people are still alive,

and they are my classmates' parents.

Maybe Landon's parents, or MJ's parents

because you never know.

- [ba*ls clacking] - [no audible dialogue]

- MJ: 'Cause, like, when I was in kindergarten,

I was on the school bus, and I was like, "-- n*gg*r,"

and... - KARAMO: Just say "*-word."

Just say "*-word." - Bar of soap.

Made me eat a bar of soap.

I learned really fast.

The way I've been brought up is very open.

I was very lucky that my parents were educated

and they don't have prejudices on anyone.

I lived with a black guy in college and he was hilarious.

He was the same way just about white people,

and it was just funny.

- KARAMO: Like, what do you mean about white people?

- Like...

Like he always thought that I was telling jokes

behind his back.

- KARAMO: Were you telling jokes behind his back?

Be real. - LANDON: [laughing] No.

- Seriously. - LANDON: I just told you.

That's what I'm talking about.

Like, you don't believe me. - I know I believe you.

Landon makes comments that someone may find offensive,

but yet I still, because I'm trying to be open,

I'm trying to view it as not being malicious as,

"Okay, I'ma let this slide."

- LANDON: In the hole, baby.

- KARAMO: Scratched.

- [keyboard clacking]

- SHAVONDA: You gotta realize we're just trying to, like,

get our bearings at the house right now.

I think we're all gonna open up when we get comfortable.

- It's funny because the time y'all are ready to open up

is about the time I shut down.

I can see a point where I'd literally start causing --.

- SHAVONDA: Mm-hmm.

- I really just start acting ignorant.

Being out of my comfort zone

is being away from my people, to a degree.

It makes me feel like I'll start bugging out

and just start doing belligerent stuff.

We don't want that to happen and I don't wanna be

the cliche, like, angry guy. I really don't wanna...

- Angry black man. - [chuckling] The angry...

- My dad told me not to be the angry black woman.

I said, "Dad, I'm not angry." - [laughing] Yeah, exactly.

I'm not angry either, but... - I don't get mad.

- I have to check myself and take a step back

and know that I don't need to be bullying anybody

and causing any false problems.

- Love salsa on her salads.

- [phone ringing]

- MELANIE: Hello?

Karamo!

Telephone.

- SHAVONDA: May I have some red wine?

- Hey, mom. - SHAVONDA: Yeah.

We have another bottle, but there's a lot left, so.

- MOM: How's it going?

- It's not going good.

- MOM: Why not?

- Let me close the door and I'ma really talk to you.

- MOM: Okay. - Hold on.

- SARAH: 'Cause we're like, something weird's going on.

- Oh, we done something wrong? - SHAVONDA: Hmm?

- I mean, no one's done anything wrong.

- SHAVONDA: Unh-unh. - SARAH: No, no, no, no.

- KARAMO: 'Cause I mean, like, seriously, if I don't do

something to reactive my mind... - MOM: Yeah.

- I'm gonna go crazy. - MOM: Can't lose it.

- [chuckling] Trust me. - MOM: Don't lose it.

- I'm not.

- MOM: Because you're a powerful black man.

- Thank you. I'm trying to be a powerful one

and not, like, an angry one.

- MOM: You're just in a different environment right now.

- I know. - MOM: And it's a change,

so you have to slowly go with it.

- I mean, you can't, like...

Is he holding something against people?

- KARAMO: All right, mommy, well, I love you.

- MOM: And always say your prayers, okay?

- I will.

- MJ: Or just not being with his guys back home.

I think that Karamo needs a support system.

I truly feel like I could help Karamo a lot

if he would just come to me.

- SHAVONDA: The well done is on the right.

- KARAMO: She's amazing. Mmm.

- SHAVONDA: I buy a good cut of meat and you spice it right

and you cook it.

- KARAMO: There's nothing like a thick piece of meat.

- [touch tone beeping]

- [phone ringing]

- DAD: Hello? - Hi, dad.

- DAD: Hey, what's up? - Nothing.

- DAD: How's it going? - SHAVONDA: Good, really good.

Where we live, it's like New York. It's awesome.

We live next to Betsy Ross's house

and walk down the cobblestone where, like,

Ben Franklin walked down every day to get to his house.

- DAD: Good. - SHAVONDA: It's really fun.

- DAD: Good, I'm glad you're doing well.

- SHAVONDA: We're all, like, running out of money.

Every day, everybody wants to go out and eat,

and I'm like, I'm gonna stay home.

I don't have money.

I've never had money, and that's fine.

Like, you can't miss what you never had,

but a girl's gotta eat.

Some of us are struggling. No one else will say it.

- DAD: I'll be sending some money.

I get paid this Friday. - How much?

- DAD: I'll send, like, , bucks.

Hey, take care of yourself, Shavonda.

- I will.

I've been on my own since I was .

I've always had bills to pay or rent to pay

or a car payment or something.

My dad's not a very good dad. He was never home.

I remember being scared all the time.

I remember not wanting to have friends over.

My mom, like, beat the [bleep] out of me.

My dad used to never intervene.

He would just, either he was never home,

and I would call him and tell him about it,

but usually she would, like, smack me around

and my dad would just ignore it.

She would say that she disciplined me.

My perspective was that my mom hit me.

I cry all the time.

I'm nervous all the time.

I don't do well with change.

And my dad has never ever told me, you know,

"I let you down, I'm sorry."

And I'm not ballsy enough yet to...

- You're, like, making me cry.

- SHAVONDA: Sarah, don't cry!

- I just, when I heard, like, how horrible

her family was to her.

I just couldn't-- [sniffling]

I just can't imagine someone coming out of that

being so beautiful, like, from the inside out and, like...

- SHAVONDA: No, I've actually become, like, a lot stronger

because of the...

- I know, but I've never heard a story like this.

- WILLIE: Oh, oh, ooh! - MELANIE: Argh!

- WILLIE: Vonda, are you coming to lunch?

- I wanna go. - WILLIE: Okay.

- But I ain't got no money. Oh, I wanna call my dad!

- WILLIE: I hate my blue ba*ls.

- [Melanie chuckling]

- WOMAN: Please leave a voice message for...

- DAD: James M. - [message tone]

- Hi, Dad, this is Vonda.

I'm just calling to see if you had deposited any money

in my bank account, because I'm tapped out.

My dad basically promised me that he would help me out,

you know, keep me afloat until we got our jobs.

Instead, he turns his cell phone off and just ducks out on it.

- WOMAN: Hello? - Hi.

- WOMAN: Hi. - My dad's a jerk.

- WOMAN: What's going on?

- SHAVONDA: I thought my dad would come through

and put money in my account like he promised.

- COLLEEN: Are you sad? - Yes, I just wanna come home.

Like, it's just, I'm used to, like, making money,

and I don't like how I don't have money right--

I have five dollars to my name, and it's so frustrating.

I hate when people volunteer

or say they're gonna do something

and then they don't do it.

- COLLEEN: You know, I have a wonderful man

that's in my life right now, and I don't know if he wants to

front me some money and I can put it in your account.

- No, I don't even know the guy.

- COLLEEN: 'Cause I have no money.

- SHAVONDA: Oh, I know, I'm not asking you.

I know you don't. That's not even the point.

The point is my dad said he would do it.

- COLLEEN: I'll try to get a hold of your dad

and find out what the hell's going on, okay?

I love you, Vonda. - Love you too.

- COLLEEN: Don't come home.

You're just having a bad day, okay?

A bad moment. You're having a bad moment.

- Okay. - COLLEEN: Okay? All right.

- All right, bye. - I'll talk to your dad, too.

Okay, bye. - Okay, bye.

My dad is [unintelligible]

My dad promised to give me money.

That is why, like, I spent $ on food last night,

'cause I'm like, "My dad's putting $

in my account today."

So I call my dad, and he didn't answer, like,

the first five times I called him.

I have learned that

my dad is not gonna be able to help me out ever.

My dad is not gonna be there for me.

- You're very practical and you've had to be

practical all your life, which is completely honorable

and great and I look up to that so much.

But when Willie or I say we want you

to come with us, Shavonda, we will cover your dinner.

It's not giving you money.

It's wanting you to be there

and have that experience with us.

Shavonda needs to understand it's not charity.

It's friendship.

We're not offering it to you 'cause we're like,

"Oh, boo-hoo, poor baby."

It's like, "No, we love Shavonda, we want her there.

"She's so awesome and beautiful and has so many funny jokes

to tell us."

If we were to pick up your dinner, like,

four bucks each, that's nothing compared

to having you there.

Sometimes you have to enjoy things

that aren't practical in life because it's about

being with people and enjoying an experience.

But that's the way I feel about that.

- Ooh, thank you there! - I just wanna give you, like,

a different perspective on this.

- [phone ringing] - SHAVONDA: Hello?

- COLLEEN: Vonda. - Yeah.

- COLLEEN: Hey. Um, okay, listen,

me and Troy are gonna put money in your account.

- SHAVONDA: Thank you.

My step-mom's new boyfriend, whom I've never met,

is sending me money, so I have to thank him

when I meet him, I guess? [chuckling]

- COLLEEN: You know, we're just gonna give you

a little bit to hold you over, like, bucks.

- SHAVONDA: Thank you. - COLLEEN: Okay?

- Thank you so much. - So calm down, quit crying.

Quit threatening to come home.

We don't want you home, okay?

Love you. - Love you too.

- COLLEEN: Bye. - Bye.

- KARAMO: [grunting]

- MJ: We should have some street ball later this week.

- Let's go.

- MJ, Landon and I were just trying to go out

and have a guy's night and have a good time.

- We have an after-school tutoring program

for an hour and a half a day,

That's where I've worked as soon as I graduated from college.

But my first day on the job, I'm driving into this,

one of the projects.

I mean, I'm a little nervous, 'cause I'd, like,

never really been in a project before.

I'm sitting there,

and some guys hanging out on the street,

they start walking over, and I'm going, "Oh, --."

I'm looking over and he's starting to knock on,

and he goes, "-- you doing in here, white boy?"

I was like, "I don't know." [blows raspberry]

- LANDON: [laughing] - Just got outta there.

But it's uncomfortable.

Like, so imagine how uncomfortable it is for you.

- KARAMO: I don't wanna be angry,

I don't wanna be, like, r*cist,

but it's like the other day, he said, jokingly,

he said the *-word.

- LANDON: I was telling you a story.

- Nonetheless, you understand? You're telling a story,

but it's how the word is used.

Truth be told, the minute you said it,

I could've slapped the -- out of you

and then it would've been over right then and there.

- Karamo thinks I'm, like, this white hick

from Podunk town nowhere and has no wits about me.

I've never been around anyone of race.

I have a lot of respect for Karamo.

I don't think he shares the same respect for me.

- Well, it's obvious that nobody in the house is r*cist.

- KARAMO: I'm borderline.

I used to be.

I told all of you that.

Deadass serious, like, and I told everybody, like,

seriously, I don't have any white friends.

My distrust for white people comes from

a lot of different areas, and I'm trying to work on it.

- [people cheering]

- MAN: What's up, man?

- ♪

- KARAMO: I'm at the bar, and all of a sudden,

I feel someone patting me on the side,

and I see a cop on the side of me,

and I realize there's three more in front of me.

- MAN: You all right?

- Yo, MJ!

Yo, yo!

Yo, MJ!

- [sirens blaring]

- [inaudible]

- [sirens blaring]

- KARAMO: The officers had told me that

they're patting me down because they got an anonymous tip

that I had a g*n.

- Yo, MJ!

I'm pissed of at MJ because of the fact that

I am going through a volatile situation

only to find him talking to some random chick

when his boy, or supposed boy, needs his help.

Four cops just came up talking about I got a g*n on me!

- MJ: I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

- They all around me patting me down!

I'm ready to go.

- MJ: I'm not in a big hurry to get out because

I didn't realize how big the situation really was.

- KARAMO: Nah, you don't need my information!

I ain't got it on me!

Believe me, I know my rights on that.

You don't need nothing from me.

- Let me see your ID.

- MAN: Somebody probably saw that holster you had

with the microphone and thought it was a g*n holster.

- But my holster, I mean my microphone

has not been up all entire evening.

You writing me a ticket or something of that nature?

- We doing an investigation, all right?

- KARAMO: Investigation on some bull -- man.

- We get outside, I see Karamo surrounded by cops,

and he was raising his voice,

so I walk over and try to talk to Karamo.

No one understands.

- They've taken my ID.

Now, see, these types of things, you don't understand.

They are now taking me... - MJ: Yeah, but don't push 'em.

But just calm, breathe. - Yo, just go get Landon.

I'm done. I don't wanna talk about this right now.

Trust me, I don't wanna talk about--

Trust me!

With all these cops in my face,

I don't wanna talk about this right now.

- You're yelling! You're yelling right now.

- KARAMO: What -- you want me--

I'm in the club chllling, dancing, and...

- Somebody made a prank call.

- No, go get Landon and we'll talk later.

MJ is not trying to talk to me.

He's badgering me and making comments

as if I'm overreacting.

I'm not overreacting.

This is something that happens to me and my friends constantly.

- A call came out, a person with a g*n.

They gave your description, ok? - MAN: To the T.

- We didn't just rush up in there

and say, "Hey, you, come here."

- KARAMO: You're doing your job, and I respect that.

This is the bull [bleep] I was just saying to you all

that you don't understand!

I'm sitting in the club chilling but yet for some reason

I'm the [bleep] that got a g*n!

What the [bleep]?

Nah, I don't wanna talk about it!

- You're making a big scene about it!

I'm sitting here, like, with a mellow voice.

Just come down for a second.

- You're not understanding me because

you never been in this situation.

- MJ: Please stop pushing. You keep pushing me.

- KARAMO: I'm not pushing. Listen.

- I'm trying to tell him what I think what the situation is.

"It's just a prank call.

They didn't do it because you're black."

- This is not the first time.

This is what I'm trying to get, listen to me!

Are you listening?

- MJ: I'm looking at you right in your face.

- This is not the first time.

- Do you blow up like this whenever it happens to you

every single time?

- Why should I not?

How many times have you ever been stopped in a club

surrounded by police patting you down,

asking you if you have a g*n?

How many times?

Tell me, how many times?

How many times?

Just tell me that answer.

- I can't take your [bleep] thing

because all you do is run your [bleep] mouth,

and now you've pissed me off. - KARAMO: [scoffing]

- MJ: You don't listen to anybody, Karamo!

At all!

You have to settle down, and I'm sorry that I get pissed.

- KARAMO: You find someone that reminds you of your boys,

or somewhat of your boys back home, and so immediately,

you're just drawn to them, and then you're disappointed

because, damn, you realize, "All right, damn,

you're not my boys back home. I am alone again."

- MJ: It is almost impossible

to reason with Karamo about anything.

There's tension there.

It's just always... [grumbling]

- If he's not gonna listen to us...

- He's not gonna listen to you.

- Then what do we do?

Because I'll be honest... - You don't. You walk away.

- I absolutely hate just letting him go.

- LANDON: You walk away and go.

- MJ: All I wanna do for Karamo is be there for him.

I don't care what our pasts are, who he is if he's g*y,

if he's black.

I'm here for Karamo and I wanna be there.

- MELANIE: Karamo.

- KARAMO: Chillin' man. - MELANIE: What's wrong?

Karamo walks in the door and he's really upset.

I definitely wanna know what's wrong with him.

- MELANIE: What happened? - SHAVONDA: What happened?

- We sitting in this club, chilling, having a good time.

All of a sudden,

about six police officers surround me.

- No way. - Uh-uh.

- KARAMO: Dead-a*s serious.

But what pissed me off, MJ's like,

"You're overreacting." - SHAVONDA: Uh-uh.

- He made such a big scene that I wasn't even able

to walk over and talk to him without a cop coming up to me

and going, "Hey, don't make it even worse."

I'm just trying to help somebody out.

- LANDON: Help a roommate out.

- MJ: Exactly!

- And I'm asking him, I'm like, "How many times have you ever

"had a swarm of police come around you

and ask you if you have a g*n?"

- LANDON: He isn't gonna listen to you,

he's gonna tell you.

"This is what I've been through.

This is my story."

He isn't gonna let you in no matter what.

- KARAMO: And then MJ sits there

and catches an attitude and said,

"This is why I can't talk to you," and walked away.

- [Shavonda gasping]

- And then so I'm trying to explain

to you all that may not understand

the dynamics of being a black man,

the many times this happened to me.

- SHAVONDA: I'm sorry, babe.

- LANDON: Let me know if you need backup, all right?

- SHAVONDA: I'm sorry. - [Landon sighing]

- MELANIE: Was it really crazy? - No.

- MELANIE: There was not, like, five cops or anything?

There wasn't, like, cops?

- Yeah, there was cops, but...

I don't know what to say. - Yo, yo, where your boy at?

- LANDON: He's right here, man.

- MJ: You listen to me now?

- KARAMO: I listened to you [bleep] walked away from me

when I was trying to ask you [bleep] a question and [bleep].

- MJ: You weren't asking... - KARAMO: Step back.

Take two steps back.

- You weren't asking me questions.

You were just talking... - I asked you.

The question I asked you... Listen.

In a calm voice, the question I asked you is

how many times has that happened to you?

Answer it now.

How many times has that situation happened?

- It never has happened to me. - Okay then, now ask me.

- LANDON: How many times has it happened to you?

- Over .

How many times do you think it's happened to me

when I'm chilling with people and I [bleep]...

- MJ: So you're gonna hold that against us?

- I'm not holding it against you!

What I'm holding against you--

- MJ: Then why are you getting volatile right now?

- KARAMO: Until you've been in my shoes when this has

happened to you more than one occasion.

This is not the first, second, third, fourth time

that this has happened to me. - MJ: All right, all right.

- LANDON: We're just trying to understand.

- MJ: Then, Karamo, man to man...

- No, we're not no [bleep] right now, [bleep]!

- LANDON: Hey, man, all we're trying to do

is understand you. - MJ: Then I'm done with it.

Then I'm [bleep] done with it. - Be done with it then!

[bleep] - MJ: Then I am!

He makes bigger situations out of stuff

and it always comes back to race.

- KARAMO: Tonight was all too familiar for myself

and I know many brothers out there.

- Lord, why?

Third time in two months?

Lord, why?

Why am I the anonymous tip?

I don't understand why, and it's k*lling me inside.

Yo, MJ!

Yo!

[inaudible]

Lord, you are my savior.

You are my guiding light.

Lord, I just pray that you continue, your Lord.

I've trusted in you, Lord,

and thus I shall never fault toward.

In your name I pray always and forever, Lord.

Amen.

[sighing]

- KARAMO: All right, it says, "The Philadelphia Soul

"needs your help.

We would like all of you to come work with us this summer."

- SARAH: We meeting Bon Jovi?

- [indistinct chatter]

- SARAH: I wanna meet Bon Jovi!

- KARAMO: I need you to be like my boys at home,

empathetic and sympathetic to the fact that

your boy was getting harassed.

Usually once you're dead, you're dead to me,

and I don't wanna deal with you any more.