Any Day Now (TV Series)
It's Not About the Butter: Part 1 (1999)
Annie Potts: Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims
Quotes
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : [about racism] How else am I supposed to learn about this stuff other than dying my skin black? Hey, there's an idea, I could call it "Black like M.E.".
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Jimmy O'Brien : It's been over 20 years, peanut, what brings you down here?
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : I'm writing an article for the Birmingham Voice.
Jimmy O'Brien : About me?
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : About racism.
Jimmy O'Brien : What you call racism, I call patriotism.
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : He said he was going to kill you!
Rene Jackson : So what else is new?
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : He is crazy, Rene, just crazy, just take a gun off the wall and go kill people crazy.
Rene Jackson : I'm not afraid of your uncle, M.E.
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : Well I am.
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : Oh I get it, it's okay for her to hate me because I'm white but it's not okay for me to hate her because she's black!
Rene Jackson : It's not okay but you probably haven't been hurt as much as she has. I've been there, mad at the world. Why was that saleswoman rude to me, because I'm black? Why did that clerk wait on that person first and not me, because I'm black? Is this guy looking at me because I'm a black woman driving a Mercedes or because he's just a jerk having a bad day.
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : He's just a jerk having a bad day. You want to rock his world? Kiss me.
Rene Jackson : [pause] No tongue.
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : So we told Kelly if she wants her own car, she's going to have to get a job, which I think put that issue to bed because that would mean precious time away from Jason.
Rene Jackson : He seems like a nice kid.
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : So did the Menendez boys.
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Rene Jackson : Okay, look, yes, you and I can both experience sexism, when was the last time you experienced racism? Hm? And it's not just white hoods and Nazis and skinheads, it's the subtle stuff, stuff you don't even think about that happens every day, like the butter!
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : Here you go again with the damn butter!
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : We walk through every day pretty much invisible, you know? I mean we never have to think about being white, when was the last time you thought about being white?
[Colliar doesn't answer]
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : There, you see? And this stuff goes deep and it's all mixed up in the past with slavery and what we went through as kids. Do you ever think about those days?
Colliar Sims : As little as possible.
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : Well I think about them. I called Uncle Jimmy today/
Colliar Sims : WHAT?
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : He's the worst racist I've ever known! He wasn't at home.
Colliar Sims : Don't you be calling him back, Mary Elizabeth! You cut him out of your life years ago with good reason!
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : Daddy saw him last year, he was in the hospital, something with his heart.
Colliar Sims : The man has no heart.
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : He wasn't born with all that hate, Colliar. Where does that start? Where'd it start with my parents? With me?
Colliar Sims : So Rene's right, you're a racist?
Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : I don't know. I know my family's racist, or used to be. I know I can be pretty stupid.
Colliar Sims : Calling your Uncle Jimmy was stupid. You're crazy if you open that door back up again.
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : [watching her Uncle Jimmy from the car] Okay you bastard, let's talk.
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Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims : I can't write this article, Glenn, it hits too close to home, it brings up too many ghosts and I can't write it honestly anyway because it means that my family and friends would have to bring up all these old memories that are better off dead and I can't do that to them or me. I have an uncle in the Ku Klux Klan! Or he was, I guess he still is, I don't know, and I was going to talk to him and try to find out WHY he hates so much, but what good would that do? And WHY would I even want to TRY to understand something that is irrational and EVIL? And it's way too complex an issue, I don't have anything but my own experience and WHAT do I know anyway? So I can't write this article.
Glenn : If it scares you this much, Mary Elizabeth, that's why you HAVE to write it.