B.A.P.S (short for ““Black American Princesses”) was a 1997 comedy starring Halle Berry and the late Natalie Desselle as two working-class women from Georgia who luck their way into the world of the Beverly Hills elite. Dismissed by critics at the time as “tacky” and “abysmally awful,” and accused of playing into “ghetto” stereotypes of Black women, the film was later embraced as an inept but endearing cult classic. 2001 saw the publication of The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess, a tongue-in-cheek guide to the BAP lifestyle written by a group of Black professional “upper class” women. They listed rules like “NEVER date a man with a press and curl” (a reference to Berry’s boyfriend in the movie) and “NEVER wear gold teeth.” Houston rapper Monaleo was bor

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