‘Martin’ Star Tisha Campbell Questions Herself as a Mother After Son Dissapoints In Viral Clip
Veteran entertainer Tisha Campbell put her 23-year-old son, Xen Martin, to the test on his connection to Black culture.
After appearing in movies like “School Daze” and “House Party,” Campbell landed her breakout role as Gina Waters-Payne as part of the all-Black cast of “Martin.”
On April 1, the New Jersey-bred, multi-talented performer shared a video on TikTok of her playfully testing her oldest son on several well-known phrases used within the Black community.
“You just have to finish and answer the question, OK? Or finish the phrase,” Tisha explained to Xen. The mother of two then asked him, “When you were playing outside as a kid, when did you know to come inside the house?”
Xen correctly responded, “When the street lights come on.” The proud mom exclaimed, “Oh, look at you!”
Campbell read off sayings such as “God is good” and “I’m just trying to make a dollar out of…” However, her son failed to answer back with “all the time” and “15 cents.”
Xen did redeem himself after his mom asked what is the first question you ask if you see a group of people take off running. After initially responding with an incorrect answer, he changed his mind and said, “No, you don’t ask any questions. You just run.”
Campbell then began shouting, “Thank you! Thank you! My God! I thought I was gonna have to really just question how I mothered you! I mean, where is the blackness!? Jesus!”
The NAACP Image Award winner’s lighthearted conversation with Xen generated a lot of responses on TikTok.
“He’s such a good young man. You did great as a mom, Tisha,” one person joked. A second commenter added, “Nephew is funny… Y’all need a reality show.”
Another Xen supporter commented, “Tisha, leave my new nephew alone. He got the two most important ones right. Good job, nephew!”
“I see he’s got some of the questions right. He’ll get the rest of them right, eventually. It’s a learning process,” read a heartfelt message.
Xen regularly pops up on his mom’s social media pages, including when she jokingly crushed the dreams of her first-born.
“You can’t sing. You don’t have an ear, babe,” Campbell told her son when he expressed. his desire to be a singing superstar. He countered his mother’s critique by showing off his vocals, but Campbell had enough and blurted out, “Bye, Xen. Get out!”
Xen was born during Campbell’s marriage to “All of Us” actor Duane Martin. They former couple married in 1996 and welcomed their first child Xen in August 2001. He was diagnosed with autism at 18 months.
“My love… my sweet miracle child. You went from being completely nonverbal as a child to now attending college and giving speeches in front of groups of people,” Campbell wrote about Xen on TikTok in celebration of National Autism Acceptance Month.
She continued, “We went through this journey, together. We didn’t know where it was gonna lead us, and it was a rocky road sometimes, but no matter what, I hope you always remember that your mommy will always be by your side.”
Xen also has a 15-year-old brother, Ezekiel Martin, who also occasionally appears in Campbell’s TikTok and Instagram videos as well, born in 2009.
Martin and Campbell separated in 2018 and finalized their divorce in December 2020.
In 2019, Tisha recalled having a more serious discussion about race with Ezekiel. She had to explain to the then-10-year-old boy that Black people come in different shades after he thought his light-skinned mother was Caucasian.
