The Drip-Drip Method is a period piece, starting circa 1859. The story follows the life events of strong African American women who were enslaved.  This show will examine this dreadful chaotic moment in history from the resistance and triumphant point of view of Blacks.  How did they survive?  What were their resistance strategies?  How did they organize themselves behind closed doors? 

Although written in blog format, these brief episodes are the formative writing sketches for a one day TV series or feature film.  Thus after each title you will notice, S1 = season one, and E1 = episode one,  S1/E1.

Come back each week (approximately) for a new episode.  And please let me know what you like and don’t like about the series, as you would if this was one of your favorite TV shows.  Your comments will be helpful when I develop the final screenplay.  Thanks for reading/watching.

S1/Episode 1: Called to order

This meeting is now called to order, ReeRee said as she tapped the beaten corn cob on the wooden table.

“We come to order.”

All the women in the small kitchen stopped the chattering and casted their eyes up to ReeRee. ReeRee who was small of stature but brave and tall of heart called out, “Who has any new business?”

“I do,” said Velvet. “I wants to talk about how Tim keeps spitting on our children.”

“Yes” my mother Bird replied.

Sarah nodded her head and the other women from the community nodded their heads up and down with slow emphasis in agreement. Cedric’s mom added, “I also want to talk about Sethaline and all of the goings on in that house”.

“Ok”, ReeRee responded, “The first order of business is to discuss Tim and then if we have time we can begin talking about Sethaline. Agreed.”

“Agreed” the women said in unison. “Pass the biscuits, please” my mother said.

Then the women began to devise a complex plan about how to penalize Tim in small drip drip ways. Drip drip ways was the women’s way of engaging in a form of social ostracism, that they called the drip drip method because ReeRee made the point that drips of water can make a dip in a stone. She also reasoned that the person who experienced their sanction would then feel something but it would not be egregious. Their subtle and nuanced actions would not warrant a beating because the subtle psychological acts within themselves were not punishable but the effect of all the subtle acts combined would correct the unwanted behavior. This strategy of the women engaging in resistant psychological battle was extremely effective. Slowly but surely the target of these group sanctions would change their behavior because the isolative and alienation tactics would only end when the desired behavior was changed. For example, one of the new hired ivory hand had slapped Sarah’s little two year old in the face for no reason. New hires would often terrorize children in order to gain the obedience of the adults in the community. The slapping, as this was referred to, was witnessed by lots of people. After he slapped her daughter, Sarah ran up to him and stared directly at his right foot. The man looked extremely confused with the stare and then left the scene bragging to the other ivory men about why he slapped Sarah’s daughter. Tim laughed and laughed and laughed.

The next day all of the women stared at the man’s right foot and then after the stare they would produce a minor smurk, just enough for him to make the connection for the stare. Then when the man was nearly broken about three months later, ReeRee delivered the antidote to him in her usual dramatic fashion. She fainted in front of him and then as he went to pick her up she spewed the antidote into his right ear.

“Buy the little girl you slapped new shoes and it might stop”…and then after she said it, she faked passing out again. The person hearing the whispered antidote would be confused but because they were on the brink of insanity they would do anything to make the torture stop. The community knew how to use their psychological power to slowly and methodically penalize ivory men and ivory women from engaging in unwanted behaviors.