August 2012
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July 2012
Meet: Sunyatta Amen
Sunyatta Amen is the owner of SiTea.
SiTea was born 2 doors from the world famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NY in 1976. As the counter help in Pyramid, her parent’s herbal shop & juice bar, Sunyatta was taught the value of teas & spices as she served uptown residents alongside entertainment luminaries. As she also traveled with her family on many spice buying trips, she dreamed of...
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Meet: Cheryl A. Lofton
Cheryl A. Lofton & Associates is part of a rich family heritage. Her grandfather started Lofton Custom Tailoring in 1939. He was the first Black person to have a tailoring school in conjunction with a thriving business in downtown Washington DC. Cheryl has continued in this tradition by starting her own tailoring company that is also seeing the kind of success usually reserved for few small...
Follow Friday: So This is a Thing That Exists?
What weird ass Tumblr blog should we all be giving a side eye to? Add the name of your favorite weird Tumblr blog! Last week’s Follow Friday: Video Stars (Please let me know if I missed any. I’ll do my best to keep it up to date.)
I’ll start us off:
breadedcats
moustair
posingsexywithbooks
awkwardwhitepeoplesingingrkelly
animalsbeingdicks
gurlgoestoafrica
Summer Reading List: Is Everyone Hanging Out...
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Book Description: (From Amazon.com) Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers...
Summer Reading List: The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Book Description: (From Amazon) Rooted in traditional Toltec wisdom beliefs, four agreements in life are essential steps on the path to personal freedom. As beliefs are transformed through maintaining these agreements, shamanic teacher and healer don Miguel Ruiz asserts lives will “become filled with grace, peace, and unconditional love.”
...
"Why can’t you just be nice?"
The answer to this is two fold. First, there are three implications in this question. A) That the person you’re speaking to has NEVER tried to be nice BEFORE. B) That this person hasn’t watched OTHER’S try to be “Nice” only to have their “Niceness” confused for weakness and ultimately been stepped on and/or stepped over. C) That the reason you are racist in the first place is because a group of...
Which Black are You?
Did you know that there are only four categories for a Black person to fit in? Did you know that Black people are barely “People” at all and are not multifaceted or intricate in any way? For your convenience, here is a handy dandy guide to explain your four choices. Which Black are you?
Ghetto. You achieve “Ghetto” status on your ninth birthday. Being “Ghetto” has nothing to do with...
Follower Help?
I keep getting questions about discussing things outside of the Black/White dichotomy. I’ve given it some thought and outside of giving stats or regurgitating facts, I don’t feel comfortable talking about races, or more to the point, the plight and ways to achieve betterment of races that I am not specifically a part of. I just don’t think I could/should do it.
With that being...
Follow Friday: Video Stars
What Video Star’s blog should we all be following? Add the name of your favorite Tumblr person who also does YouTube videos! Last week’s Follow Friday: The Look (Please let me know if I missed any. I’ll do my best to keep it up to date.)
I’ll start us off:
super-eklectic1 check out her YouTube Channel
Kid Fury check out his YouTube Channel
Summer Reading List: "Language is a Place of...
“Language is a Place of Struggle” Great Quotes by People of Color
Book Description: (From Amazon.com) “Language Is a Place of Struggle” is the first truly multiracial and polycultural quote book, collecting quotations from both historical and contemporary novelists and poets, activists and political leaders, and artists and musicians. Within these pages, readers will...
Summer Reading List: I Love My Hair
I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley
Book Description: (From Amazon.com) Tarpley’s first book for children joins a growing list of titles about African-American hair—linking it to issues of self- esteem and acceptance. Keyana tells how her mother sits her down each night to comb her hair and to rub coconut oil into her scalp; Mama’s touch and her words are always...
Louie: THE KIDS. THE KIDS! THE KIDS?
Remember last week when I wrote about the new season of Louie on FX? Remember how I was excited about the fact that his Ex-Wife was going to be played by a Black woman and how happy I was that he said he chose her because she was right for the part and he didn’t care about race? Well, not everyone shared my sentiment. For the most part, people don’t understand how DNA works. It turns out, that if...
Meet: Barbara Brandon
Barbara Brandon was raised on Long Island, New York. Her father was Brumsic Brandon Jr., who drew the comic strip ‘Luther’. Barbara was atill very young when she started assisting her father on this strip. She studied Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, where she graduated in 1980. Magazine Essence employed her as fashion and beauty writer, and it wasn’t until...
AV Club: Recently added
Title: White Wash (2011)
Runtime: 1 hr. 17 min.
Studio: Virgil Films
Genres: News and Information~Documentary and Biography
Description: White Wash, the documentary, is a film exploring the complexity of race in America through the eyes of the ocean. Examining the history of “black consciousness” as it triumphs and evolves into the minds of black surfers, we learn the power of...
Meet: Morrie Turner
Morrie Turner, an Oakland, Calif., native, was the youngest of four children. His father, a Pullman porter, and mother, a devout Christian, instilled in him the faith — faith in himself, faith in others, faith in his ability to be a comic strip artist. He began drawing cartoons in the fifth grade.
As a young man, he served a stint in the service during World War II, where he drew strips...
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Black Women: Our Hair. Your hands.
There are shared experiences some of us have that have nothing to do with actually knowing or even having met each other. For Black women, having people putting their hands in our hair, uninvited and unapproved, is one of them.
There has been plenty said about why this is not okay. Why this makes it clear to us that you see us as a dog and not a human. Why this is tantamount to assault. Why this...
Meet: Ray Billingsley
Veteran cartoonist Ray Billingsley uses his own childhood of growing up in New York’s Harlem in a tight-knit family as the template for Curtis, which details the day-to-day life of a close-knit contemporary African-American family living in the inner city. Though it mainly features children, it is not necessarily “child-themed.” It is often called, “The...
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Laci Green Defenders: That’s Convenient
So much has been said about what did or didn’t happen with Laci Green. I would like to say that there is something about this situation that isn’t being discussed, that irritates me.
Before all this happened, people considered Lacie Green to be a PART of the Social Justice community. I have no idea if SHE did but I know that other’s did. Now, with a SINGLE TWEET, she is now not only...
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Social Justice Blogger vs Social Bigot Blogger
It’s time to take back the tag. Over the past few weeks, it’s seemed that one of the worst things anyone could ever call you is a “Social Justice Blogger.” We’ve all watched as this good and decent thing has been turned into a slur.
Enough is enough.
When did we start allowing Social Bigot Bloggers to set the tone? To say what is good? What is decent? How did we even get here? We allowed the...
Meet: Stephen Bentley
When you look through the photo album of the Bentley family, Stephen was the one holding the pencil even before he could hold up his head. It was apparent, at that early age, that drawing was going to be a big part of Stephen’s destiny. Born in Southern California in 1954, Stephen grew up in the South Central area of Los Angeles. In the late ’60s, his family moved to Pasadena, where...
It Was Nice of You to Lay it All Out For Me.
This is the guy who “Sicked” that forum on me. Let’s see where he stands on things:
Asking a non-Black person not to say the N-word = Comparable to Stalin.
Being racist = Individual Liberty
Finally, we see where he proudly proclaims that it was “OK” because he “Sicked /pol/ on the blog.”
In a previous post, you saw some of what these people had to...
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Started a New Account for Little Ole Me!!
Teens Admit to Trolling Tumblr: JK, There’s No... →
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Grey Out Comes to an End?
On reflection of the past two weeks of honor posts, I am tempted to repost every single name every time someone else is unjustly slain. Perhaps then, when forced to see them all, EVERY time, maybe then people would truly understand what’s happening. What has been happening. What must to stop happening.
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Michael Laney.
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Alan DeWayne Blueford.
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Tamon Robinson.
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Rekia Boyd.
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Tendai Nhekairo.
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Sheron Jackson.
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Ervin Jefferson.
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Kendrec Lavelle McDade.
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Jersey Green.
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Marquez Smart.
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Michael Lembhard.
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Wendell Allen.
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Nehemiah Dillard.
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Bo Morrison.
