Why You Should Be As Opinionated As Cauliflower Rice

          Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams are truly Two Dope Queens. Their podcast is unbelievably funny, and I’ve never listened to someone speak so freely about such controversial topics as they do (insert Phoebe talking about butt-stuff here). The podcast I listened to was called “Sleepover Accidents”.  It starts out with Jessica telling Phoebe about her newfound love for cauliflower rice. She talked about how she was riding first class on a plane and didn’t want to eat the rice while flying, so she kept it in the overhead bin. Jessica said “I pulled down my bag from the flight and it spilled completely on the floor, and it was like really right before the exit, so everybody had to walk over it. I’m on the floor scraping, getting it under my fingernails and it just smelled so bad” (25-40).  I laughed for an inappropriately long time at this, to the point of where I was almost in tears.












          I could just picture myself doing this exact thing (minus the first-class part of course, your girl is still in college and trying to make her car payment every month). I can totally imagine how awkward it was for her in that moment, because I’ve had such similar experiences, and I can honestly say I would’ve just left it and walked away. There’s no coming back from that and at that point you can start saying, well who dropped that rice everywhere, that poor person. The best option there is to deny deny deny. You won’t be able to pick it all up anyways, and someone will have to come vacuum the leftover pieces up. You may as well save yourself the embarrassment.

         One of the things I really enjoyed about the podcast was how Phoebe and Jessica talked about whatever they wanted too and didn’t seem to care what others thought about it. I can’t say for certain that they don’t care how people are going to react to it, but they certainly say it as if they don’t. I Love That. I wish I could be half as confident as they are when it comes to saying things I want to talk about, but feel as if I shouldn’t for fear of being judged. I thought it was really interesting how when we first read Phoebe’s book she talked about all the things she couldn’t say because of all the labels that could be put on her, such as “angry black woman” (184). However, as we progress towards the end of the book, she talks about how she stood up to the white director for his racist comment instead of just standing there and taking it like she did before. We get to read how she grew from a woman who was quiet, to a woman who is loud, and then we get to listen to her embrace that loudness on her podcast. Which I think is immensely cool.

          As someone who has always had trouble speaking up when I want to say something, and instead just keeping my mouth closed, I loved seeing how she bloomed. It made me think of my own journey of going from someone who always cared about how people would see and judge me, to not caring as much. My transformation wasn’t as direct as Phoebe’s though. I didn’t even realize that I’d stopped caring until awhile after it had happened. Instead of deciding that I just wasn’t going to care what people think of me anymore, like Phoebe did, I got a job where I had to no longer care what people thought. Believe me, if you think people are judgmental and rude to you now, go out in public with two children on the autism spectrum. The looks you will get are unbelievable, and I’ve had to explain too many times, that they’re stemming and flapping because they’re excited, not because they’re upset. So, you can continue enjoying your meal as well, or leave, though I’d prefer if you left. If there’s anything my boys have taught me it’s to not care about what others think. Each day that I work with them I become a little louder and a lot less caring about anyone else’s opinions. I think we all get to a point one day when we realize some people are going to treat you terribly for any reason they can find, no matter how you act. Since that’s the case we may as well be ourselves, say what we want to say, and like Phoebe Robinson, be unapologetically loud.

Picture Credit: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a31078/jessica-williams-phoebe-robinson-dope-queens/