The Braxtons, Church Girls? Now Really Though?

By Walter L. Hilliard III

The “Braxton Family Values” will soon return in for yet another season.  But I’m trying to figure out what family values they practice, such that the producers would name the show what they did?

Okay, I love Toni Braxton.  I mean, who doesn’t love “Unbreak My Heart” or “Another Sad Love Song”?   Sure, we know Toni recently went bankrupt, again, but she was ill and most of those who like to criticize her couldn’t sell over 40 million records or win six Grammys.  I also love all the Braxton sisters.

But did you know that Toni and her sisters were raised by a preacher who left his wife, their mother, for a younger woman?

Well, you do know this if you watched the show last season.

Whatever the case may be, I have come to a point where I can no longer ignore the fact that Toni and hers sisters, like so many other preacher’s kids, have some serious issues for a family of siblings that are supposed to represent a Black church family and a strict religious upbringing.  But this is a point I always make: hypocrisy is running rampant in the Black Church, including the fact that you might think you’re at a hip hop concert in some churches.  Not to mention that you can go to a MAC machine in many churches to get some “paper” to pay your tithes.  And as if this wasn’t bad enough, there are churches that even want you to bring in your tax returns so they can see how much money you make a year.

But I digress

Anyway, one cannot help but wonder what’s wrong with the Black church when considering the attitudes and behaviors of the Braxton sisters on the show.  As if the exploits and reprehensible behavior of the Eddie Longs and Creflo Dollars of the world wasn’t bad enough?

Well, anyway, let’s see what kind of things I learned watching the Braxtons . . .

. . . Toni, who told the world she usually has to do a Number Two before every show (too much information . . . uhhh, yeah-AH), said she’s going to pose nude for Playboy, I suppose in the tradition of her recently showing her booty’s beauty in Vibe Magazine and other media venues throughout her career

. . . Trina, the lush with the DUI, does threesomes with her serial-cheater husband (a ponytail wearing Rico Suave), and had the nerve to pull down her panties in front of her hairdresser and sister to show the hairdresser how to masturbate (Wow!  I mean, really . . . how is she going to pull down her draws and . . . never mind). 

. . . Tamar, this is the whiny, materialistic sister who constantly argues with her husband about wearing sexier clothes so she can “drop it like it’s hot,” as she likes to say  every five seconds.

. . . Tracy, the fusin’ cusin’ sister that told Tamar to kiss her a–, was said to have been raised by a pack of Hoodrats.

. . . As if all this wasn’t enough, another sister,

. . . Towanda, is married and puts up with a husband, the father of her children and “loser,” as she calls him, who doesn’t work, sleeps with other women, and moved into Toni’s house with Towanda and the kids after they were evicted from the house they were renting.  Oh, by the way, Tamar calls Towanda’s husband a babysitter who drives the car she, Tamar, bought Towanda.  But Towanda, in the angriest state I’ve ever seen her, insists he’s a good father.   Also, Towanda said, “I wish someone would ask me to do Playboy . . . I’d show a little ‘T and A.'”

“Braxton Family Values” is an example of the problem with religion and the bible-quoting, church-going folks — hypocrisy.  But they judge everyone, quoting the bible like they know their name, and then carrying on like heathens.

And hence the problem with the non-churchgoing (not every Sunday) crowd — they cannot stand the hypocrisy and would never do half of the things the churchgoing, bible-quoting folks do.  And these folks do it in God’s name and in and around his house.  But they judge you for not going to church much.

Go Figure?

Geeeeese!  Black folks.