SOMETHING NEW follows Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan). Ambitious and fundamentally insecure, she's trying to make partner at a prestigious L.A. accounting firm and find her IBM (Ideal Black Man). As she and her similarly equipped, ambitious, and disappointed girlfriends -- Cheryl (Wendy Raquel Robinson), Suzzette (Golden Brooks), and Neda (Taraji P. Henson) -- commiserate over drinks, they cite the infamous statistic: 42.4% of black women will never marry, owing to a dearth of acceptable partners. Her friends arrange a blind date with a white man, Brian (Simon Baker). Though she does her best to put him off, he's a nice guy and shares some of her interests. As they enter into a romantic relationship, her wannabe-player, serial dating brother Nelson (Donald Faison) asks if she's "sleeping with the enemy"; her girlfriends insist her relationship with Brian is just about sex. And then, on cue, Nelson introduces her to his former law school professor, Mark (Blair Underwood), with whom she has "more in common." They share stories of "that old black tax," and understand without having to explain what it means to have to "work twice as hard just to prove yourself equal."