Toni, Toni, Toni. No I’m not talking about the 90′s R and B sensation guys, I am referring to Toni Braxton. I like Toni Braxton. I have always been a fan of her music and I also watch her show with her sisters The Braxtons. However, Toni and her sisters have a term that they like to throw around and it is disappointing every time I hear them say it.

You see, the ladies refer to White men as “snow”. If one of them admits to dating someone White then they refer to that as “playing in the snow”. Now some of you reading this might not see the big deal. You might not understand why I think the statement is insulting. If you are reading this and you are Black then you really might not get it.

I am going to stop you right there and offer you some free food for thought. If you are a Black woman and reading this, I want you to ask yourself this: What if you were dating someone White and he referred to you as “playing in the mud.” Would you find it insulting that he basically was degrading you to your skin color? Well, Toni and her sisters are doing the same thing. It is just that because they are Black, they can get away with it. hypocritical? Why yes. In a sense by doing this they open the door for them to be greeted with racial slurs. What’s good for the goose right? If a White singer, lets say Justin Timberlake was dating a Black woman and referred to her as “playing in the mud” or “playing in the dirt”, urban blogs would be ready to lynch him.

Also, recently Toni was on Chelsea Handler’s late night show where she openly referred to the White man she was dating as “snow”. She also went on to state that his skin felt differently than hers. He smelled differently than Black men. Now, she did not discuss if these differences were in fact negative or positive. She never said the White men she was dating was putrid smelling. Or that his skin felt prickly like a cactus. That was left to our own interpretation. Or perhaps even she realized how ignorant she might have appeared and decided to silence herself before she put her foot in her mouth even more. I honestly don’t think she meant it to be insulting or degrading. But the way it came across could have been interpreted that way. Especially if you were White.

It also made Toni appear, and I say this with love, low class and uneducated. You mean to tell me, you are a beautiful, talented woman who has traveled all over the world, sang in sold out concerts, won numerous Grammys and White people are still an anomaly to you? They still amaze and fascinate you that much that you had to discuss the differences int their smells from Blacks on TV. Come on now Toni. I get that she may not have ever dated a White guy so I can understand how the experience may be exciting because she is trying something new and out of her comfort zone. That I get and can respect from either spectrum. But to openly say racial slurs, and to make comments like his skin feels differently because he is White, left a bad taste in my mouth.

Like, I said, I am all for embracing the differences among cultures, even when you are dating but I think Toni showed a lack of taste, and made herself appear ghetto and even ignorant by these comments. As my homegirl put it, should this even be something that is discussion worthy? Something that she feels she needs to explain? People date outside of their race all the time. Why is it a cause for discussion with Toni? Is it because she is a Black woman?

But I could be tripping. Watch the video and you tell me what you think. Did I mention that I despise that awkward contraption she had on her head? Okay, now I’m being mean.