March on Washington: 60 Years Later
2 years ago
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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Friday, August 7, 2009
Black women: The stigma associated with their hair
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Black women have fought the stigma of nappy hair since the slavery era. According to blackcommentator.com, the word “nappy” derives from Britain meaning a baby’s cotton napkin or diaper, in America, the word became racialized to mean unkempt wild and wooly hair associated with people of African descent-used to demean and to degrade African Americans.
The stigma of kinky hair as less beautiful than straight hair has haunted the black community since the slavery era, where enslaved people with straighter hair often reaped the advantage less rigorous work inside the main residence instead of the fields, according to cnn.com commentary: Why it matters how black women wear their hair.
A century ago the legendary Madame CJ Walker built a multi-million dollar empire on the premise that black women want to look like white women and that "good hair" is the key to independence and prosperity according to endarkment.com. One of her first inventions, a metal straightening comb, was one of the first inventions that gave black women the opportunity to level the playing field between “good hair” and “bad hair.”
“I remember after my mother would wash my hair I would run around the house with a towel wrapped around my head pretending that it was my hair,” says Tiobany Bruce, of Gladewater, TX who is a proponent of chemical relaxers. “I would never go more than six weeks without a relaxer,” she says.
During the 70s many African Americans tossed out their straightening combs that, once tamed their hard to manage hair, and went natural as a statement of pride. During the 80s the emergence of the career woman brought back the use of the metal straightening comb and other concoctions to tame black hair giving it a neater more career-like appearance.
“We wore our hair in afros. The bigger the afro the better,” says Jesse Crawford of Longview, TX, who has since settled into a straight style. “Back then it was all about black pride,” she says.
Today, in the new millennium, natural hair has reemerged for a variety of reasons. Some see it as a statement of pride, while others prefer natural because it’s convenient and more than anything it’s the “in” thing, very stylish.
Venitta Howard, of Longview, TX, says that while she isn’t one to conform to style or social pressures, she chooses to wear her hair natural because of the convenience.
“I can wear braids one day and that’s a style and then I can take it down the next day that’s another style, or I can comb it out and it’s really easy,” she says.
According to Howard, whatever the reason a woman chooses to go natural she has to be comfortable with whom she is when it comes to social acceptance.
According to afrotoronto.com, Black women who decide to stay true to their roots barely see any positive reflection of themselves in the media or anywhere else.
One of the most famous incidents to date is the Don Imus incident. According to denverurbanspectrum.com, Imus calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed ho’s” was the same as calling them “nappy-headed slaves.”
On the flipside of this is a movement among the African community called, “Happily Nappily” and some black critics within this movement say that black women shed the ancient racist shame and stigma of nappy hair by adopting white beauty standards, according to mlive.com.
“I remember when I first went natural I had gone home for the holidays and my hair was going through a transition. Before I walked out of the door my mother whispered in my ear, ‘Laqueshis, now when you get back home you take a straightening comb through your hair,’ I laugh now, but at the time I was furious and felt like no one understood me,” says Laquesha Lemons of Longview, TX.
African American women being bombarded by commercials and campaigns that glamorize European beauty standards is just one of the many reasons there is a lot of social pressures one must face when going natural. However Howard has a bit of advice for any woman who makes the decision to go natural, “Remember why you made the decision to go natural and when you look in the mirror if you like it it’s a thumbs up!”
Black women have fought the stigma of nappy hair since the slavery era. According to blackcommentator.com, the word “nappy” derives from Britain meaning a baby’s cotton napkin or diaper, in America, the word became racialized to mean unkempt wild and wooly hair associated with people of African descent-used to demean and to degrade African Americans.
The stigma of kinky hair as less beautiful than straight hair has haunted the black community since the slavery era, where enslaved people with straighter hair often reaped the advantage less rigorous work inside the main residence instead of the fields, according to cnn.com commentary: Why it matters how black women wear their hair.
A century ago the legendary Madame CJ Walker built a multi-million dollar empire on the premise that black women want to look like white women and that "good hair" is the key to independence and prosperity according to endarkment.com. One of her first inventions, a metal straightening comb, was one of the first inventions that gave black women the opportunity to level the playing field between “good hair” and “bad hair.”
“I remember after my mother would wash my hair I would run around the house with a towel wrapped around my head pretending that it was my hair,” says Tiobany Bruce, of Gladewater, TX who is a proponent of chemical relaxers. “I would never go more than six weeks without a relaxer,” she says.
During the 70s many African Americans tossed out their straightening combs that, once tamed their hard to manage hair, and went natural as a statement of pride. During the 80s the emergence of the career woman brought back the use of the metal straightening comb and other concoctions to tame black hair giving it a neater more career-like appearance.
“We wore our hair in afros. The bigger the afro the better,” says Jesse Crawford of Longview, TX, who has since settled into a straight style. “Back then it was all about black pride,” she says.
Today, in the new millennium, natural hair has reemerged for a variety of reasons. Some see it as a statement of pride, while others prefer natural because it’s convenient and more than anything it’s the “in” thing, very stylish.
Venitta Howard, of Longview, TX, says that while she isn’t one to conform to style or social pressures, she chooses to wear her hair natural because of the convenience.
“I can wear braids one day and that’s a style and then I can take it down the next day that’s another style, or I can comb it out and it’s really easy,” she says.
According to Howard, whatever the reason a woman chooses to go natural she has to be comfortable with whom she is when it comes to social acceptance.
According to afrotoronto.com, Black women who decide to stay true to their roots barely see any positive reflection of themselves in the media or anywhere else.
One of the most famous incidents to date is the Don Imus incident. According to denverurbanspectrum.com, Imus calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed ho’s” was the same as calling them “nappy-headed slaves.”
On the flipside of this is a movement among the African community called, “Happily Nappily” and some black critics within this movement say that black women shed the ancient racist shame and stigma of nappy hair by adopting white beauty standards, according to mlive.com.
“I remember when I first went natural I had gone home for the holidays and my hair was going through a transition. Before I walked out of the door my mother whispered in my ear, ‘Laqueshis, now when you get back home you take a straightening comb through your hair,’ I laugh now, but at the time I was furious and felt like no one understood me,” says Laquesha Lemons of Longview, TX.
African American women being bombarded by commercials and campaigns that glamorize European beauty standards is just one of the many reasons there is a lot of social pressures one must face when going natural. However Howard has a bit of advice for any woman who makes the decision to go natural, “Remember why you made the decision to go natural and when you look in the mirror if you like it it’s a thumbs up!”
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Kilgore College creates special path for nontraditional students
By Latasha Goodwyn
Special Populations, a grant funded student support program at Kilgore College, helps as many as 2,500 students per year in their effort to achieve success. The program is geared toward nontraditional students.
“They are classified as Special Populations which means that they are a single parent, displaced homemaker, economically disadvantaged or ADHD student,” says Sandy Teel Learning Counselor at Kilgore College.
Students that qualify for this program are able to receive support in areas such as tutoring, childcare assistance, gas vouchers and textbooks.
“At the beginning of the semester we supply textbooks for the students and they return them at the end of the semester, this way we can add them to our library and other students will be able to borrow,” says Teel.
That the amount of help that a student receives depends on their personal circumstances however childcare is one of the main expenditures of the program.
“We pay full tuition for childcare. The only thing that we require parents to pay is the registration fee. We feel that it is important for parents to have something invested as well,” says Frank Mosley, director of instructional student support. “If they have something invested they will be more committed to the program,” he says.
Special Populations extends their boundaries beyond the walls of Kilgore College and out into the community. They have developed a referral system for their homeless students in order to connect them with services in the community.
“For people that are homeless we give them information about community resources and really try to encourage them that they can do it even when they have no support system at all,” Teel says.
Whether or not the student is homeless, a displaced homemaker or economically disadvantaged in order to qualify for the program they must pursue a Career Technical program. Kilgore College currently has thirty-three programs that qualify including accounting, cosmetology, nursing, surgical technology.
“We want them to enroll in a program that they can finish in one to two years. This isn’t something that they would be able to transfer to a four year school,” says Teel.
Kilgore has hosted this program for the past twenty years and boasts a ninety percent success rate. Both Teel and Mosely recall many success stories throughout the years.
“We’re talking about going from being economically disadvantaged to being a nurse. It’s pretty rewarding to watch that happen,” says Teel.
For more information contact:
Special Populations Coordinator
Mr. Frank MosleyEmail:
fmosley@kilgore.edu
Phone: 903.983.8683
OR
Sandy Teel
Learning Specialist
steel@kilgore.edu
Phone: 903.983.8205
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Charge dropped against Harvard scholar
(photo credit of yahoo.com)Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested by a white officer at his home near Harvard University after a report of a break-in.
The city of Cambridge issued a statement saying the arrest "was regrettable and unfortunate," and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
"There are 1 million black men in the prison system, and on Thursday I became one of them," he said. "I would sooner have believed the sky was going to fall from the heavens than I would have believed this could happen to me. It shouldn't have happened to me, and it shouldn't happen to anyone," said Gates on his website theroot.com.
Gates has said he returned home from a weekslong trip to China, found his door jammed and asked his driver to help him get it open.
Police said the 58-year-old Gates was arrested after he yelled at an officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after the officer demanded that Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home.
Tyler Perry sends 65 children to Walt Disney World
Tyler Perry treats 65 children from a Philadelphia day camp to Walt Disney World after reading about allegations that a suburban swim club had shunned them because of racism.
Creative Steps director Alethea Wright says she's thrilled about the offer, especially because Perry "comes from humble beginnings" like the children in her camp.
The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley has maintained that refunding the camp's swimming fee was not about race but rather a safety issue, in part because many children couldn't swim.
The black and Hispanic children who attend the day camp run by Creative Steps Inc. cheered Monday when they learned about the actor's gift.
Creative Steps director Alethea Wright says she's thrilled about the offer, especially because Perry "comes from humble beginnings" like the children in her camp.
The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley has maintained that refunding the camp's swimming fee was not about race but rather a safety issue, in part because many children couldn't swim.
The black and Hispanic children who attend the day camp run by Creative Steps Inc. cheered Monday when they learned about the actor's gift.
Boston black newspaper stays afloat with new investors
The financially struggling black-owned newspaper will accept a $200,000 loan from the city to avoid shutdown.
The loan will come from the Boston Local Development Corp., a private nonprofit administered by the city that provides cash to small businesses.
The 44-year-old Bay State Banner suspended publication this month, blaming a steep drop in advertising. Its last edition was distributed July 9, and the paper was expected to close by the end of the month, but could return to newsstands this week.
The Bay State Banner has been around for 44 years and is Boston’s only black newspaper.
The loan will come from the Boston Local Development Corp., a private nonprofit administered by the city that provides cash to small businesses.
The 44-year-old Bay State Banner suspended publication this month, blaming a steep drop in advertising. Its last edition was distributed July 9, and the paper was expected to close by the end of the month, but could return to newsstands this week.
The Bay State Banner has been around for 44 years and is Boston’s only black newspaper.
Henry Louis Gate’s arrest raises profiling questions
(photo credit of Yahoo.com)
Harvard University scholar, Henry Louis Gates, was arrested when police responded to a call about two black males breaking into a home near Harvard University.
Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said.
Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."
Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said.
Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."
By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.
Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused.
Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.
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