Shaniqua White
Shaniqua Mishae White
shaniqua
Portrayed By Esther Baxter
Gender Female
Date of Birth March 15, 1984
Age 23
Zodiac Sign Aries
Aliases Shannie
Place of Birth New York City, NY
Current Location New York City, NY
Occupation Hairdresser
Known Relatives Desmond White (father), Lashonda White (mother), Lebron White (brother), Takeesha White (sister), Latonya White (sister), Gimmie Dat (cousin), Q-Train (cousin)
Significant Other None current
Known Abilities Hairdressing
First Appearance Get On The Bus

Hairdresser of ghetto fabulosity, Shaniqua owns the Up-Stares Hair Salon in Harlem. She's also the "responsible one" (be afraid, be very afraid) out of the grouping of Q-Train, Gimmie Dat, and Cherise, as well as being a sometimes participant in their schemes that usually involves her making of her hotness to be a distraction for them.

History

Shaniqua White was born in New York City, out in Harlem. Her family, like a lot of others, wasn't exactly wealthy…okay, that would be overstating it. Daddy was a bartender at a local dive, and Mama was busy raising Shaniqua and her four brothers and sisters. The neighborhood…well, let's not sugarcoat it, the neighborhood was a ghetto. Still, Mama had a lot of love to go around, and it wasn't a bad childhood. Shaniqua went to one of the local public schools, but getting an education wasn't really a priority…school was free daycare for the kids, mostly, and when she was young, it was just a place to have some fun.

Of course, then puberty hit. And it hit Shaniqua with a vengeance. She sprouted up, but out just as much. Boys started to notice her, and she started to notice boys. And being fine was a good local currency, cause she sure didn't have any of the real stuff. But boys were willing to compete for her, and buy her things, and well, she had two older brothers to put the smackdown on anyone who didn't respect her. Given that both of them were getting into the gang scene too, most people knew it wouldn't be a good idea to mess with her.

Of course, things turned sour when she was sixteen. Her brother Darnelle got shot in a fight between two gangs, and he didn't pull through. It was a tragedy for the family, and was a wakeup call for Shaniqua, to try and make something more of herself.

That can be a little difficult when you hadn't been paying attention to school though, and when your family has nothing extra to go around in terms of money. Being a straight-C student, trying to get a scholarship to college wasn't gonna happen, and she knew if she didn't try something, she'd end up with a do-nothing job. More of the same cycle. So she started taking summer jobs rather than just screwing around all summer, and once she graduated at eighteen, got a job as a stripper…not because she was going to stay there. Nope. She had a PLAN. Two years, during which she saved every tip, every bit of money she could. When she hit 20, it was off to beauty college.

She graduated from beauty school, and got a job as a hairdresser in one of the local salons. But even this was just to get her experience. She learned what she could from experience, the things that you couldn't learn at a school. She spent another two years there, getting some experience, and again saving up every penny she could get her hands on.

And then, she took the plunge. Took all the money she'd saved up, took her experience, and went in to go pitch a small business loan to a bank. Luck or good planning, no way to say. She got her loan, and then she opened up a salon of her own. That's right, baby. She had her own business. She was movin' up.

Of course, that's the point where life decided it needed to throw her another curve ball.

That's the point when her cousins from Florida, Gilbert and Quetzalxochitl (don't ask) showed up in New York…on the run and in trouble.

Shaniqua was less than pleased (to put it mildly) by her cousins showing up and essentially dragging her right back into the lifestyle she'd been working so hard to get out of, and she let them know about it in the sort of terms that only a ghetto girl can. But, at the end of the day, family is family, and they didn't have anywhere else to go. So now, they're crammed into her apartment, hanging out with her so they can hide out while they try to not get killed by the Mob, arrested by the police, beat up by random people they piss off, and somehow stay high during all of it. Shaniqua, for her part, is still a girl from the ghetto where it counts, even if she's made good, and even if her cousins drive her nuts, they're still her cousins. So right now, it's Shaniqua, Gimmie Dat, and Q-Train against the world.


Personality

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Shaniqua is a girl with a lot of willpower…enough to try and drag herself out of the regular ghetto scene. But make no mistake…even though she's a business owner now with her own salon…you might be able to take the girl out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the girl. She's feisty, full of sass, and god help you if you get on her bad side; that manicure ain't just for lookin' good, baby.

She's very loyal, almost to a fault. Family counts for more than anything…if you don't got your family, you don't got nothing. She lives on her own now, but if her family came to her with a need (like her cousins did), she'd be there for them, although she might very well read them the riot act when she does (And believe me, she did).

Shaniqua's temper is definitely something more in the down side than the up. She's fairly easy-going until something -does- trip her temper (and while she has her hot-button issues, there aren't as many of those as one might suspect), but when it does, look out! She goes into full ghetto-girl mode, all full of "Oh No You Din't!", and very long nails ready to claw somebody's eyes out.

Beyond that, while she's full of lots of ambition, she's not full of a whole deal of respect for the system. She thinks it's oppressive, and her disagreement with her cousins is more an issue of them dragging HER into this mess than over anything they've actually done. Despite that, she's loyal enough that she would never actually turn her back on family, anyway.

Shaniqua is well aware of her looks and the effect they have on guys. And while she isn't out there just slutting it up, she will MORE than happily make use of the effect her looks have on other people to her advantage…the way she sees it, some people are strong, and they use that, others are smart, and they use that. She happens to be a hottie, and she'll happily use THAT.

What she's going to do with her cousins remains a mystery. She doesn't mind helping them out, either with a place to stay or financially, but she doesn't have the kind of money it would take to pay off that debt…nor would she for years. And those kind of people don't take installment payments. So she's just trying to make it day to day right now, and hoping a solution presents itself.


Timeline

  • May 23 (Get On The Bus): Shaniqua gets pulled along on yet another of G-Dat and Q-Trains hairbrained schemes, this one to steal a bus. Cherise and Shaniqua go along to be the "distraction" portion of the evening's plan.

Relationships

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  • Gimmie Dat: Really, what can you say about her cousin? He's not that bright, he's not that accomplished, and he's at least half the reason her life has turned upside down right now. This all combines to him frustrating the hell out of Shaniqua sometimes. Still, he's family, and you couldn't ask for anybody better behind the wheel of a car. And well, the car is da bomb.
  • Q-Train: Most of what applies to G-Dat applies to Q-Train too. The only difference is that Q isn't so awkward, and he's more ambitious. Unfortunately, that ambition gets him (and all of them) in trouble more often than not. But, family. So what can you do?
  • Cherise: Shaniqua mostly likes Cherise, mainly because she has no problem slappin' her fool cousins upside their heads when they need it. At the same time, she rattles Shaniqua just a bit, because she sees in Cherise the way SHE could have ended up with just a little less effort than she put in. If anything, she feels sorry for her and would like to help.

Quotes

  • To be added once I get in a scene!

Videos

  • "Everything" — Shaniqua being fine. What more can you ask for?

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