Being A Bad Girl: Badu vs. Minaj (Part 2)
Bad girls make art that comes out of experience and not style. -Linda Goode Bryant
Have you seen the June/ July 2010 issue of VIBE magazine? It’s a double cover featuring Nicki Minaj and Erykah Badu. Both ladies are adorned in body paint. For Erykah it’s the kind inspired by the Indian henna work often seen on Hindu brides-to-be. Nicki’s body paint is more cartoonish than culturally based. Her entire upper body– ta-tas and all, Read more...
Shirley Sherrod: From Racist to Victim
This Shirley Sherrod gaffe speaks volumes about the power of right-wingers, how women, especially Black women, are perceived and treated when ish hits the fan, and lastly, about the lack of investigative reportage nowadays. When Andrew Breitbart, a well known right-wing troublemaker can get the Obama administration to force the resignation of a senior official, this said more about our current administration, media, race and gender relations then it did about bad boy Breitbart.
What Read more...
Being A Bad Girl: Nicki Minaj (Part1)
You know the state of hip hop is really in trouble when a rapper who has yet to drop her own record AND who lip-synchs her live performances wins a BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist. I was out of the country on vacation, but got back just in time to see Chris Brown boo-hoo his way to redemption and see Nicki Minaj proclaim she’s “fighting for women.” Ugh! Fighting? For me? Homegirl flashed Read more...
From Bootylicious to Bionic
What’s up with all these ladies morphing (at least on their album covers) into super sci-fi singers? Just as many women, particularly Black women, we’re beginning to let go of living up to this mythic Superwoman hero of a Mother, Wife, Working Girl, Sista-Friend, it seems like Erykah Badu, Janet Jackson, Janelle Monae, and Christina Aguilera have all shed their hot pants to become super beings ready to take over the music industry and yeah, Read more...
High Fashion or Low Class?
For some reason Venus’s provocative tennis outfit at the French Open got me thinking about Sofia Maldonado’s mural on 42nd Street and the uproar it created over whether it was a bold expression of art and culture or a simple promotion of stereotypical images of Black and Latina women. Why and when does art’s imitation of life become so problematic? High art or a low down dirty shame? Clearly it’s not just girls in the Read more...
The Killing of Aiyana Jones
Damn Detroit Police Department! You burned, shot and killed Aiyana Jones, a little seven year old girl. It’s my sincere hope that the cameras for A&E’s “The First 48” television series that trailed you and filmed the whole incident didn’t spur your heroics! I know reality shows, very well indeed. Please tell me that this wasn’t a performance for the cameras!
These words, believe it or not, are straight outta the mouth of Baby Phat Read more...
Wannabes & Jigaboos
Conceited. Pretty. Entitled. Ignored. Ugly. Marginalized. The Wannabes versus The Jigaboos is a psychosocial battle of the Light-skinned versus the Dark-skinned. Cafe au lait, high yella, and red boned on one side. Chocolate, ebon, and tar baby on the other.
It’s so crazy illogical to me that in 2010, even with a happily married and madly inspiring wannabe President and jigaboo First Lady, we still don’t see that Black is Black is Black. No matter Read more...
Lena Horne (6.30.1917 – 5.09.2010)
Between her appearances on Sesame Street and her starring role as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz, I thought Lena Horne was the prettiest, the kindest, loveliest woman in the world. Her demeanor was positively exuberant when she sang and in silence, she was dignified and divine. I swear, when I was little, I really thought she was this goddess of sorts. When I prayed to Jesus at night, I always envisioned Ms. Read more...
Womanism Is Not My Problem!
Womanism usually refers to outrageous, audacious, courageous, or willful behavior. (A womanist) is committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. ~Alice Wallker
Going through my blog I just realized that lately I’ve been largely writing in response to the shenanigans and ignorance that plays out on the Web and in the media. I’ve been playing defense and anyone who knows me, knows Read more...
Single, Black, Female & Fabulous!
Last night on ABC’s Nightline Steve Harvey and Vicky Mabrey moderated the panel, “Why Can’t A Successful Black Woman Find A Man?” The panel featured Sherri Shepard, Jacque Reid, Hill Harper and Jimi Izrael. This show was riddled with problems from the jump.
Let me begin by saying I’m single, happy and successful. I never wanted to be married in my 20’s and in my early 30’s I was ballin hard and loved the type Read more...