Rape Ain’t Spectacular
I need to know when rape became so acceptable to the point of trending? No, maybe not when, buy probably why? First, writer/ BET correspondent Toure posted on Twitter some rather confusing comments about how he believed some female slaves were ok with massa raping them because it would sometimes lead to freedom:
“Of course most were raped, …but most were sharp enough to trade that good-good for status and liberation.”
How liberated did Sally Read more...
Gabby, Mo’Nique & Oscar
Sunday before last many of us watched as Mo’Nique took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. With a white gardenia in her hair and rocking a blue dress by Tadashi Shoji, Mo’s look was in tribute to Hattie McDaniel. Personally I was just watching to check the gowns and the entertainment. I could care less about the actual award because when it comes to Black films they usually don’t see the same beauty, Read more...
Screw Cupid
“I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy.” ~Anais Nin
If life is like a box of chocolates, then why do we get so crazy over gifting and receiving chocolates on Valentine’s Day? Because like Christmas and Easter, Valentine’s Day is yet another marketing scheme developed by the confectionery industry to get our Read more...
Wyclef Responds!
The same day I sent out a blast about my recent post Yelé Haiti, I received a note from a reader who asked if I had seen this? I had not seen the tax papers or even heard the accusations about Wyclef Jean’s non-profit NGO. But as soon as I read it I quickly responded:
Read more...Oh no I didn’t …so disappointing. Well I hope he does right now in the face of
Yéle Haiti!
The word yéle is actually a Creole word, and the right way to say it is lee-lay. And yéle means to scream. So when I say yéle, it means I’m screaming for freedom. Freedom of the mind. –Wyclef Jean
I was feeling a lil lousy yesterday—tired of the stress of work, feeling overwhelmed and non-motivated, and then I read tweets by a man named Troy who lives in Port Au Prince. He talked of sleeping Read more...
From Hottentot Venus To The White House
Last Saturday’s dreary grayness did not stop me and about 100 women from attending NY Open Center’s panel, “From Hottentot Venus To The White House: Black Women On Beauty & Bodies.” The panelists were Veronica Webb (Super+Role Model), Tricia Rose (Chair, Africana Studies @Brown U.), Susan Akkad (SVP Corporate Marketing/Diversity for Estee Lauder) with Michaela angela Davis (Cultural Critic) moderating.
I settled in with style maven Sharon Pendana sitting on my left and Ngozi Odita Read more...
Good Hair: Between a Rock & a Hard Place
I’ve had a press & curl, box braids, a relaxer, a texturizer, an afro, Bantu-knots and now I’m rocking long cornrows– $20 synthetic hair in the back and real afro-kinky hair for bangs. I know about Black hair– the good, the bad and the ugly. My hair has been two inches short and about 10 inches at its longest. I cut it, tease it, straighten it, extend it and twist it. For me hair is Read more...
Roxanne Shante Caught The Vapors
Last week on our Facebook page I posted this really amazing story about Roxanne Shante earning her Ph.D and how she so cleverly had her record label pay for her entire academic ride. It was impressive. Redemptive even. I was thrilled to hear that one of my favorite female rappers had the foresight to include in her contract a provision for her educational expenses. Homegirl had juiced the music industry and had her doctorate in Read more...
theHotness 2.0!
I have come to believe… that what is important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” –Audre Lorde
Rebooted. Re-ignited. Revised and Re-visioned. After a sorely needed hiatus and also some much needed retooling, theHotness is back, baby!
On March 31, 2000 I launched theHotness in the form of an e-newsletter that “celebrated the creativity, ingenuity and straight-up flava of women of color.” Read more...
I Am Not My Hair!
I guess it was yesterday or maybe Wednesday when singer, Solange Knowles was snapped by paparazzi rocking a very short-cropped coif. And before this young mama could get back home, the Web was a’buzz about her buzzed cut. Of course the haters had their Yaki Platinums in a knot over the do saying she and others are allegedly biting “the bald look” of Kanye’s ex Amber Rose. And those were the sweet comments. Other Read more...