2012-07-13

Tiffany Pollard (1982- ), also known as Tiffany Patterson but best known as New York of “Flavor of Love” (2006-2008), is an American reality television star. As she puts it, she is one of the first and one of the baddest reality vixens – a line that started with Omarosa in 2004 on “The Apprentice” and continues to this day with “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” (2008- ).

She has been a main character on the following VH1 surreality shows:

2006: “Flavor of Love 1″

2006: “Flavor of Love 2″

2007: “I Love New York 1″

2007: “I Love New York 2″

2008: “New York Goes to Hollywood”

2009: “New York Goes to Work”

She was the breakout character on “Flavor of Love 1″. She was such a hit with viewers VH1 brought her back for the second season. Later they gave her a show of her own, “I Love New York”. It was a female version of “Flavor of Love”: a dating reality show where she lives in a California mansion and picks among 20 suitors.

On the shows she is a drama queen and self-admitted bitch. She goes there. She is like a train wreck: it is hard to not look. “A bobble-headed bitch that’s good for TV,” as Deelishis on “Flavor of Love” put it. Loud, foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, short-tempered, low-class, overbearing and in-your-face, she overplays the Sapphire stereotype, the main image whites in America have of black women. Add to that catfighting and a trashy-sexy appearance with fake eyelashes and fake breasts.

Despite all that a part of me likes her for some reason.

In real life I do not know anyone who acts like that, not to that degree. Such a person would have no friends. I know I would avoid her as much as I could. Even in the alternate reality of “Flavor of Love” she had no friends or allies. Because no one could stand her. Even Flavor Flav himself said he could not stand her “jealous ways”, meaning she is a controlling bitch.

I am not sure if whites understand that she is over-the-top to get more viewers. She is too close to one of their stock images of black women. And they seem to assume that blacks on television are more or less true to life (the BET Fallacy).

In media interviews Pollard often presents herself differently: charming, well-mannered and easy-going. She chooses her words carefully. She even talks about how fortunate she is, how she thanks God and trusts in him. She loves her haters as well as her fans. She can even look natural and beautiful.

Since her VH1 days she has been trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood. So far with little success. Like Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in “Star Trek”, it will be hard for her to rise above the character that made her famous. Add to that the short shelf life most actresses have: Pollard turned 30 this year. Being black narrows her opportunities even further.

She grew up in Utica in upstate New York. She has two children. Trinidadian cricketer Kieron Pollard is her cousin.

See also:

Flavor Of Love

Flavor Flav

Deelishis

Hoopz

The Sapphire stereotype

BET Fallacy

black actresses

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