Do Black Women Have a Preference for Thugs? (Video)

In this episode of Your Black Love, Deborrah Cooper and I ask whether or not black women have a preference for dating men that are not good for them.

Do you know a woman who dates one bad guy after another and then seems to spend all of her time whining about the fact that she can never find a good man?  Yea, I have too.  Well, it seems to me that, at some point, we must all have some degree of accountability for our relationship choices. 

Mo’Nique: Black Women Need to Learn to “Submit” to their Men

Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World 

Mo’Nique and her guests seem to think that black women work too hard to take control in their relationships.  In the video below, Mo’Nique goes into what women need to do in order to keep a man happy in a relationship.   Her disposition seems to imply that black women have been taught to be too independent and this leads to the breakdown of their relationships.

Click to read.

Tyra Banks Heads to Harvard Business School: A Lesson for Young Black Girls

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

Media superstar and modeling-model Tyra Banks recently announced that she’s headed to the Harvard Business School. While it’s still not clear if she’s getting an official degree (I assume its a short-term executive education course; I can’t imagine someone with her experience and schedule taking too much time off for school), one has to be impressed with her decision to continue educating herself. Some might think that education is simply a thing you tolerate long enough to make money to support yourself. Nothing could be further from the truth, since learning should be a lifelong process.

"I started last summer and I didn’t really talk about it. It was very incognito, my name and everything, but I decided to talk about it [now]. I think it’s a positive thing, especially for girls to see that you can still continue to educate yourself and you can still be fabulous and fierce and celebrate your femininity," Tyra said to MTV News.

Click to read.

Written by Anslem Samuel at AOL: 7 Types of Women for Men to Avoid

Written by Anslem Samuel at AOL: 7 Types of Women to Avoid

Whether a man’s looking for Ms. Right or just Ms. Right Now, chances are he’s going to run into a few Ms. Wrongs along the way. Problem is, a lot of men overlook the obvious red flags in a woman’s personality because they’re blinded by T&A or the prospect of a new sexual conquest.
However, once the honeymoon phase is over and he finally sees the light, it’s time to figure out the best exit strategy. In an effort to avoid all that extra work, here are a few types of women that men should just avoid right out the gate.

Click to read.

Is there a Difference between Being Curvy and Being Fat?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

Ashley Patrice Williams at AOL Black Voices recently wrote an article on the difference between being curvy and fat.  I am not going to get into the business of telling beautiful black women how to carry their weight (there’s already too much scrutiny in media making women self-conscious about their bodies), but most of us can agree that no one carries a few extra pounds the way a black woman can.

Two things come to mind in the curvy vs. fat debate.  First, there’s a difference between looking good and being healthy.  So, as wonderful as “sistuhs” might look with a little bit of extra “junk in the trunk,” we must always be cognizant of the wide variety of illnesses that plague our community that result from eating so much salt, fat, sugar and all the other things that keep killing us.  Big Momma’s Sweet Tea and fried chicken might taste better than candy, but Big Momma and her husband also died from cardiac arrest and diabetes.

 

Click to read.

Slim Thug Didn’t Mean What He Said about Black Women

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices

Many of you may already know about the "interesting" comments made by the rapperSlim Thug, and his frustration about the lack of loyalty among black women. His comments were met with resistance by myself and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill from Columbia University, who gave him the stable advice to keep his mouth shut. I say that "Slim Thugga" needs to be quiet, not because he’s wrong, but because this is a battle he can’t win and still sell records. Getting every black woman in America to hate you is simply not good for business. Even Talib Kweli, a fellow hip hop artist, had something to say about Slim Thug’s remarks.

On his twitter page, Slim Thug went out of his way to try to protect his image in the face of all the backlash:

Click to read

Dr. Boyce: Elena Kagan’s Nomination Overlooks Black Women

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

To the disappointment of the Black Women’s Roundtable, Elena Kagan was the latest white American to leapfrog in front of black women for a chance to serve on the Supreme Court. The second-class citizenship of African American women has been consistently enforced by our nation, going back 221 years to the date that the Supreme Court was founded. This nomination was especially disheartening for those who felt that the year of Dorothy Height’s death would be the perfect time for the nation’s first black President to do what should have been done long ago and nominate a black woman for the highest court in the land.

"Needless to say, we are disconcerted by the perceived lack of real consideration of any of the extremely qualified African American women as potential nominees," reads the statement released by the Black Women’s Roundtable.
After this is over, President Barack Obama will have serious trouble re-inspiring the millions of African American women who left the Hillary Clinton camp to back his "Hope and change" campaign. There was no logical reason for him to pass over a black woman for consideration for this post, only political reasons. Kagan was the nominee that could shore up the white female vote for mid-term elections and help the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party stop the bleeding set to occur in November. Roland Martin does a wonderful job of breaking down the losses within the black female demographic that are set to occur as a result of the Kagan snub on the Supreme Court.

 

Click to read

Your Black Woman: New Documentary Examines “The Souls Of Black Girls”

YourBlackWorld.com

A new documentary, written, produced and directed by Daphne S. Valerius, takes a critical look into the fragile souls of Black girls, with emphasis on how media images are “instituted, established and controlled.” With appearances by Jada Pinkett Simth, Regina King and Chuck D of Public Enemy, amongst many others, The Souls of Black Girls seeks to uncover some of society’s less-known realities about color-coding and racialized-gender bias. By examining “historical and existing media images of women of color” the documentary asks if  Black girls are “suffering from a self-image disorder as a result of trying to attain the standards of beauty that are celebrated in media images.”

The Souls of Black Girls Trailer:

AOL Black Voices Interview with Daphne Valerius:

Your Black Life: How To Eliminate Poverty (Part 2) — Shannon Joyce Prince

Poverty: Policies and Possibilities (Part 2 — Read: Part 1)

By: Shannon Joyce Prince

Contributing Writer – YourBlackWorld.com

Imagine a program that built a childcare center which gave teens construction work experience, used Department of Agriculture funds to pay poor women to cook for poor children, taught poor women to become day care teachers and run day cares, and helped poor women get their GED’s. Imagine this program also provided mortgage counseling and founded a health center that provided forty local women with jobs. Now imagine the program was run almost entirely by black welfare mothers. Such a program did once exist. It was called Operation Life. It was at its peak during the 70′s and 80′s and is detailed in the book Storming Caesar’s Palace by Annelise Orleck.

Operation Life was based on the principle that the poor themselves are the experts on poverty and many current successful programs make that adage their foundation. [...]

Another factor in reducing poverty is looking for creative solutions that solve multiple problems. [...]

For example, many poor neighborhoods have constructed community gardens in vacant lots. In Philadelphia, crime on some blocks dropped 90% after the creation of community gardens [...]

More At Your Black Life

Your Black Brothers: Would Sojourner Truth Appreciate Lil’ Wayne’s Music?

Would Sojourner Truth Want To ‘Lick The Rapper?’

By: Zekita

One morning while riding in my car I decided to venture away from my regular News programming on the radio and turned to one of our local Hip Hop and R&B stations. It wasn’t long before the commercial for some debt creating pay-day loan went off and my ears, mind, and soul was being violated by rapper lil’ Wayne’s song ‘Lollipop.’ As I listened in disgust to the monotony of his lyrics (similar to many I had heard in some contemporary rap songs today) about how some women wanted to ‘lick the rapper’ amongst other things, my eyes began to tear up from those degrading and humiliating lyrics. [...]

And then I thought back to the glorious African American women like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Nzingha, Yaa Asante, and Mary McLeod Bethune. I turned my thoughts to these women and I wonder. [...]

I wonder if Harriet Tubman feels like all 19 of her potentially deadly trips were traveled completely in vain. I wonder if Sojourner Truth still feels like a ‘woman’ [...]

More At Your Black Brothers

Your Black News Headlines: 12/13/2008

Black Student Stabbed In Russia

Obama Merchandise Sells Big In DC

Ohio Seeks To Address Black Male Issues

Haiti Deportations Faced With Temporary Halt

Black Women Struggle In Criminal Justice System

Zimbabwe Government: Cholera Introduced By West

Your Black Politics: How To Eliminate Poverty — Shannon Joyce Prince

Poverty: Policies and Possibilities
By: Shannon Joyce Prince
Reprinted From Black Agenda Report

“Poor people can use themselves as weapons against poverty.”

With the recession imperiling the nation’s well-being, poverty is on everyone’s mind regardless of their political orientation. Yet too often the poor are cast as ignorant and impotent pawns needing either a kick in the pants or a magical cocktail of resources and programs. The dialogue typically stalls around what “we” must do for or to “them” as though the poor lack ingenuity and agency.

In this commentary I identify four ideas that can be used to battle poverty: ending marriage penalties, deregulating selected industries, creating tax-funded social programs run by the poor, and creating community gardens. [...]

The problem often isn’t that the poor aren’t pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, but rather when they do so they are told they don’t have the appropriate credentials. [...] For example, many poor black women braid hair as a way of making money. However, as the National Center for Public Policy Research points out, many states have threatened these women with arrest because they don’t have cosmetology licenses; licenses that often demand taking courses that cost around $10,000, and frequently don’t even cover hair braiding in their curriculum [...]

More At Your Black Politics

Your Black Woman: Essence Dedicates Whole Issue To Obama

Essence may have scooped Vogue, sort of, in being the first women’s magazine to put Michelle Obama on its cover since the presidential election, but the Time Inc. title did so by relying on archival images. Essence’s January issue is dedicated to President-elect Barack Obama, with essays and commentary from Maya Angelou, Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Gwen Ifill and other notable African-Americans:

Read More

Your Black Health: On World AIDS Day, Activists Renew Struggle Against Deadly Virus

It has been 20 years since the first World AIDS Day drew attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Today, with some 33 million people living with HIV, World AIDS Day and events like the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, taking place in Senegal, December 3-7, remain “extraordinarily important for those who are trying to fight AIDS in this world,” says Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist for the World Bank’s Africa region.

AIDS is increasingly seen as not only a health problem, but society’s problem, says Devarajan. “We need all the resources and all the mechanisms that we have in society to fight AIDS.”

HIV/AIDS Increasingly a Development Priority

Finance ministers and heads of state in hard-hit Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, are increasingly making the battle against HIV/AIDS a top priority, he adds. South Africa has rolled out one of the biggest antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programs in the world. [...]

While HIV prevention efforts are paying off, with behavior change noted particularly among young people. For every two people in Sub-Saharan Africa gaining access to treatment, five become newly infected. This ratio must change [...]

Read More

Your Black Woman: Hollywood Using Brown-Paper Bag Test?

Does Hollywood employ the infamous brown-paper bag test in casting Black females? Is it a racist, sexist and colorist industry? Do Black Women have a steeper hill to climb to become successful in the business? Are light-skinned Black female actresses, like Halle Berry and Alicia Keys, deemed less threatening than their dark-skinned counterparts? Well, many Black aspiring actresses think so. And to further legitimize their claim, well-established chocolate-skinned Black actresses like Nia Long believe so, as well.

A group of aspiring actresses share their experiences with Harvard-professor Henry Louis Gates Jr:

Actress Nia Long speaks unflinchingly about an industry she calls “very unfair”:

Your Black World Headlines: 11/15/2008

Michelle Obama Becoming New Role Model For Black Women

Valerie Jarrett Named Senior Advisor In Next White House

Toni Morrison Examines Slavery In New Book ‘A Mercy’

New Lawsuit Claims Discrimination In Katrina Aid

Are Black Professors Now Endangered Species?

Kanye West Arrested In England — Released

Your Black World Headlines: 10/14/2008

Milwaukee’s Black/White Jobless Gap Highest in U.S.

Sudan to Conduct Darfur Trials For Genocidal Atrocities

South Africa Finally Decides To Take AIDS More Seriously

Black Conservatives Facing Backlash From Black Community

Janet Jackson Cancels More Shows, Postpones “Rock Witchu” Tour

Your Black World Headlines: 10/10/2008

Africa Feel Impact Of Global Financial Crisis

Michigan Public Schools Accused Of Segregation

Center Honoring Shirley Chisholm Hopes To Inspire Activism

Black Women At Higher Risk For Domestic Violence

‘The Express’ Goes National

Your Black Politics: FOX News’ Clown Host, Bill O’Reilly Attacks Michelle Obama

The face of disgrace, Bill O’Reilly, found another way, yesterday, to take criminal swipes at the potential first lady, Michelle Obama. In a new segment he calls, “The Obama Chronicles,” an “extensive 25-part series” on Sen. Barack Obama, O’Reilly made some deeply reprehensible comments. In an effort to slime the independent-minded Michelle Obama, Billo – as he’s called by rival host Keith Olbermann – began by degradingly labeling Ms. Obama as “the controversial wife of the Democratic candidate.” To affirm this folly-inspired categorization, O’Reilly further claimed – rather baselessly – that Michelle Obama “looks like an angry woman.” Most YBW readers are aware of FOX News’ reporter, Cal Thomas’s despicable remarks, earlier this year, that most Black Women on TV are of some shade of angry. Bill O’Reilly, who has in the past, expressed willingness to lynch Michelle Obama — on the condition that substantive proof is given that she feels a certain way about her country, blamed the victims of Hurricane Katrina for their demise, publicly expressed shock at the idea of Black people acting civically at an Harlem Restaurant, and claimed inner-city kids are innately incivil, is in no way morally equipped to assess the temperament of anyone — let alone someone who, quite obviously, shatters the limited brain data he possesses:

Reposted From Your Black Life

Your Black News: Research Shows Racial Disparities In Breast Cancer Care

Doctors are less likely to give black women radiation therapy after surgery to remove early-stage breast cancer than white women, researchers said on Wednesday, adding to evidence of racial disparities in U.S. medicine.

The 37,305 women 65 and older examined in the study had undergone a procedure called a lumpectomy in which doctors removed just the tumor and spared the breast, a procedure less radical than a mastectomy, which removes the entire breast.

Standard care for a woman after a lumpectomy is a series of radiation treatments to destroy any remaining cancer cells. While 74 percent of white women in the study were given radiation therapy, only 65 percent of black women got it.

The study was one in a long line showing U.S. blacks get inferior care for cancer and a variety of other ailments than whites. Experts concerned about the disparities have struggled to understand why they persist.

Dr. Grace Li Smith of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who led the study released ahead of a breast cancer meeting sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and other groups, listed some possible explanations.

It is possible doctors offer fewer black women radiation therapy after lumpectomy, but also possible they decline such treatment or are deemed unable to complete it due to other health problems, Smith said.

“This is a very important area of follow-up research,” Smith told reporters in a conference call…

Read More