New Hair Era | Same Old Racism When I first cut out my perm in the 1990s I had no reason to believe that I was going to live long enough to see a natural Black hair movement. Nobody, and I mean nobody at my predominantly White Penn State University campus was wearing natural hairstyles then and I remember feeling very alone. A lot of my friends and advisors would ask me … [Read more...]
#BlackOutBlackFriday
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Where Do We Go From Here? There’s been a lot of talk of boycotts in the wake of Ferguson and the grand jury’s refusal to indict officer Darren Wilson for the death of Mike Brown, Rekia Boyd's killer Officer Dante Severin who got off after a prosecutor charged him incorrectly, the death of Sandra Bland, LaQuan McDonald, schools being closed in Black communities, … [Read more...]
Racial Profile Policing
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(or “The It Is Only Barely Illegal To Illegally Arrest/Beat/Kill Black People” Policing) I wrote a portion of this piece in February 2010 on what was one of my earlier blogs called The Race and Law Report (shout out to Solo Practice University for helping me navigate the "what is a blog" phase of my life). It was just after the young man featured below, Jordan Miles was … [Read more...]
Relax, Relate, Release…Repeat!
Focus on the Important Things Remember that episode of A Different World when Whitley Gilbert (played by Jasmine Guy), couldn't get over the fact that her rich, ex-boyfriend Julian had moved on? In this scene (which you can see in the clip below) Whitley (who always had a capacity for les dramatics) tries to get over him and sees a shrink who whips her into shape with a dose … [Read more...]
Karen’s Body Beautiful: 10 Years and Beyond
As a resident member of the 7M Hair Type Category let me assure you that not all natural hair products are created equal. Neither are the companies that create the products. When I first discovered the Karen's Body Beautiful hair products I was impressed. Not just because of the awesome ways in which the products seem to enhance my 8G hair type (and believe you me, they … [Read more...]