Let’s hear it for the small victories that let you know you’re on the right path! It’s these kinds of moments that keep my smiling and marching toward my goals.

I was prepping some material for a client and we needed a voice over recording. To streamline the process, I jumped in the recording booth and recorded a track for them. They loved the read, they laughed in all the right places and said they were perfectly happy with the way it sounded.

And then they backtracked. In the best possible way.

“Wait,” the client said. “The characters on the screen will be white. Is this okay?”

“Yes, it’s fine. I said. As long as the voice sounds how you want it to, you can cast whoever you want.” But she was worried that because I was recording one of the character’s internal monologues that the voice and the body should match.

I asked if they liked the way it sounded.  She said it sounded perfect. That my voice totally matched the images. 

“But, you’re…black…right?”

Success!

She was looking right at me. And I’m not sure if it was the pleated suit skirt, the efficiency with which I handled their session or the voice matching I had just done. But she wasn’t exactly sure what I was.

And had I been thinking quickly enough, I would have lied and said that I wasn’t black. But the true win only comes when they don’t have to ask, they just assume you’ve got one hell of a tan.

She played the recording for a few more execs, and everyone loved the read.

Then she would bring the execs in to meet me, confusion would set in and they would leave the room to deliberate.

They ultimately decided to go with a different reader. But said they had a new campaign they wanted to use me for. They showed me the schematics for it. The main character was incredibly afro-centric: short afro, daishiki, poor credit score and all. 

“We’re going to go with someone else, but you’d be perfect for this!” The client said. And my heart sank just a little.

One step forward…you know the rest.

But she can’t deny my those few precious moments; and to those moments I will always cling.