Recently in Black Inferiority Complex Category
This Jamaican family is featured in this skin bleaching video. Bleaching is a global practice and transcends many ethnicities. Check out the woman in the video and how her skin has been burned by the chemicals. I think the fade cream chemicals should be banned.
I don't watch Tyra's show, but here she is detailing the highlights of some of her upcoming shows, speaking on Michelle Obama as her new role model, and there is clip of her interviewing three young black boys on how their mother uses skin lighteners on them. That mother should be charged with psychological child abuse.
This panel met at Howard University to discuss the black doll - white doll test. For those who are unfamiliar, the famous doll test was a survey taken years ago, where black school age children where asked positive and negative questions about black and white dolls. To sum things up, the kids overwhelmingly preferred the white dolls. The test was run again recently with the same results.
Panelist joining Brian Williams included: radio host Tom Joyner, author Michael Eric Dyson, entrepreneur Malaak Compton-Rock, screenwriter Kriss Turner, writer Kevin Powell, and columnist Mike Barnicle. Tim Wise, the Director of the Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) and Rev. Buster Soaries.
Reference:
Women have done it and continue to bleach their faces, and increasingly more black male youths in Jamaica are adopting this practice. Is something wrong with this picture? Read today's article on the subject which Paul Williams wrote about:
"Their necks, hands and torsos are very dark, but their faces are pale, deathlike, some replete with blotches and sores. And you wonder what affliction has beset so many of our young black-skinned Jamaican youths.
Sociologists will tell you their sallow facial skin, caused by bleaching, is the physical manifestation of deep-seated psycho-social malaise that goes way back to colonial times, to the plantations of slavery days, when the black-skinned man was reduced to the status of beast of burden. His identity was taken away from him, and he was told that his black skin was a curse. " READ MORE...
note-People from many ethnicities bleach their skin for various reasons, mainly I think due to inferiority complexes, but they are not the focus of this article. This article focuses on black males.
Follow the jump to check out a photo.
Many people have heard of the death of Christa Worthington, an affluent white fashion editor who was killed in her Truro, Massachusetts home in Cape Cod, and her toddler was left unharmed in the home with her body. The case received national media attention, and a black garbage collector, Chris McCowen was accused, charged, convicted of murdering her. The child’s father was married, and at first, I thought perhaps this married man could have been involved with her death.
There were a few theories I had heard circulating when this story was a hot topic; however, based on the information I read in the press, he appears to be very guilty of committing this crime. I will not go into any more specifics surrounding this case, but will provide a link to the story. I just wanted to provide some background info.
The big side story to this case is there is a hearing taking place to determine whether there was racial bias amongst jury members and whether a new trial should be granted. During the trial, one juror was let go for discussing the case with her boyfriend who was in jail at the time.
The main controversy is a dark skinned Cape Verdean juror by the name of Eric “Billy” Gomes, who is accused of making racist or biased comments against black people to other jurors. Now the clincher. His 74 year old aunt, Delainda Miranda, testified this week at the hearing and gave some damaging testimony on her nephew’s bigoted views. The aunt testified: “Indeed, he repeatedly denied being black, she said, even though she told him he was.”
Here are some of his aunt’s testimony statements:
“Billy has talked about black people. . . . He doesn't like black people.” In addition, she stated he said, “All blacks do is come down here and get in trouble and do drugs. N-word don’t like to work.”
Anatole Broyard was a New Orleans born Creole man born in the 20s, and at a point in his life decided to live as a white man, negating his black roots. He married a white woman and his two children had not known he was part black until he was dying on his deathbed back in 1990. He was an author and worked at the NY Times as a reviewer/ literary critic. This is just a pinpoint drop of biography on him, but his daughter Bliss Broyard, author also, has written a book called "One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life — A Story of Race and Family Secrets.” The book was released this past fall.
His story is the story of many who chose to pass as white for either selfish or unselfish reasons. There is an article linked to this site by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whom some have criticized as attacking a man for passing, after he has died. I don't know anyone who has lived a life like that, and I can't imagine living like that, as it seems like a life sentence of constant turmoil, fear, and frustration. I could be wrong, but Broyard lived the life he felt he needed to live. I suppose.
If you saw the movie or read the novel, The Human Stain, I think it was out in the 90's, it has been suggested that Anatole's life was loosely based on this film.
This YouTube video from Bliss's site, briefly touches on her experience and her father's life. WATCH VIDEO
Anatole Broyard Related Articles & Sites
BlissBroyard.com
NY Times: A Daughter Discovers Branches of the Family Tree Pruned by Her Father
NY Times: Passing Strange
The Passing of Anatole Broyard." In Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man. New York: Random House, 1997. Pp. 180-214
Passing for Creole in Early New Orleans. Sex, Race and Passe Blanc-myth vs facts. by Ted Duplessis
This is a challenge for those hooked on weave/wigs/hairpieces. If you are NOT hooked, then the open invitation to take the challenge does NOT apply to you. Liberate yourself for a week or month, and let your REAL hair down. Take the time to let your scalp breathe. Have friends or family members or even you forgotten what your real hair looks like? Take the challenge with a friend, or ask someone you know to take the challenge and share your experience with others.
When you share your experience, tell us why you wear weave/wigs hairpieces?
Why you decided to take the challenge and what was others’ responses to the wearing of your natural hair.
For me, personally, I am tired of the eyesore sight of some weaves, and the proliferation of owner/wearers in the community is disappointing. Why do people wear weaves? I ask that question not to start World War III. Yes, it is a matter of personal choice, but for SOME, it goes deeper than the usual explanations of weaves are versatile, save time, easy to manage & maintain, and makes maintenance of one’s appearance less cumbersome. Some people have really grown to hate the locks borne to them.
A really good article on commentary by Deborah Douglas at the Chicago Sun Times. The article makes reference to the recent Light Skinned Women party, Jena 6 and black folks sensitivity or lack of sensitivity to our skin color issues. It just emphasizes the fact, that in this day and age, we are still living by the brown paper bag rule.
On October 19, 2007 Douglas writes:
"It's a dark day in America when I can't get inside a club because my skin tone is too deep to be let in. But that's just what happened in Detroit recently when a promoter advertised free all-night admission to light-skinned black women, leaving us darkies standing outside -- unless we wanted to pay up.
Didn't black America just get mad at the white folks in Jena, La., for being too blase about their kids tying nooses on a tree on school grounds? Isn't this the same country that got distracted from the war in Iraq and Darfur genocide for a whole week because some old dude named Don Imus called a bunch of us nappy-headed?
Sometimes I wonder who's holding black folks back more? Them? Or us? Oh, yeah, it's dirty laundry time, and I'm gonna tell it.
It's us." READ MORE...
Recent Comments