Mayor Daley vetoes minimum wage for Walmart.
Click here
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Black women demand respect
Here's another article on Black Women. Ms. McCloud is right on the money on how mass media and politicians attack Black Women. Let's not include Black men in it, for they too also benefit from Black Womens' degradation by society at large. Look at MTV, BET, the networks, cable, magazines, newspapers, hate radio, media pundits. They all have a role in the devaluation of Black women and girls. The hatred continues to spread to all quarters of American society. We export those hateful views around the world today. Here's the article below:
By MELODY McCLOUD
Published on: 09/12/06
Black women demand respect
Why are black women so increasingly ignored, abhorred, disrespected and rejected in this country?
Who declared "open season" on us, and why?
Increasingly over the past decade, the media have projected images of black women as battered about, cast down, kicked aside, ignored, denigrated and disrespected at the will of all who take delight and sport in doing so. It is tantamount to a public flogging in the modern-day town square — the media, the Internet, TV, movies and music videos.
The latest venue? The University of Georgia in Athens, where Chi Phi fraternity pledges flashed naked images of black women to passers-by. Why? Because they could. It's acceptable sport in the 21st century. They're just black women; who cares? One student told a reporter he thought it was funny. It's not.
The late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, enjoyed a lifetime of fame and fortune and received many a laugh saying, "I don't get no respect." Many of today's black women may feel Dangerfield's battle cry is one they, too, can claim. But hardly any are laughing.
More and more, black male models and actors are readily cast opposite white and Hispanic women, to the blatant, total exclusion of black women. Magazine ads frequently engage colorism — favoring light-skinned blacks over brown-skinned ones. Lighter black women often get the sexy ads and poses; they're positioned to look soft and desirable while brown-skinned women are posed stern, frowning and even masculine with bald heads.
It also seems that the media are ever eager to show black women as "crazy " — think U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), model Naomi Campbell, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth of the TV show "The Apprentice" and others — but won't allow others to be heard or seen. It seems, "well, there's Oprah," so that's all the room they'll allow for "good" black women.
Sadly, too, those blacks in position to present black women in a better light, including Oprah, often fail to do so. Tyler Perry and Martin Lawrence, more so, get rich on the image of the fat, gun-toting, loud black granny.
Shonda Rhimes, the black female creator/producer of "Grey's Anatomy," has the black male character sleeping with Asian Sandra Oh (who brushes her teeth in the kitchen sink), while Chandra Wilson, the lone black actress on the show, is "the Nazi."
And MTV — whose president, Christina Norman, is a black woman — recently aired a cartoon to young Saturday morning viewers entitled "Where My Dogs At," which had black women squatting on all fours, tethered to leashes. In 2004, U.S. Army reservist Sgt. Lynndie England subjected Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib to the same denigration and was convicted and sentenced to prison. Where is the justice for black women?
Someone must speak out against this societal poison. White women aren't going to say anything because they readily benefit from negative images of black women. Many white men — media executives, and obviously some UGA frat brothers — are having too much fun and cash flow at the expense of black women's dignity and social value; and sadly, many black men are inexplicably silent, standing on the sidelines.
This year, I wrote Marc Cherry, creator of the hit show "Desperate Housewives." Normally, to see a black woman get a recurring role in the No. 1 prime-time network program would be a major coup, a step in the right direction for American media and black imagery. But alas, once again, the lone black woman — on a show that mostly deals with sexy, alluring women with kinky trysts and family matters — is portrayed as a psychopath who chains her son in the basement.
I suggest congressional hearings to effect a tangible change in the depiction of women in music videos. Black women who participate in such videos must stop; there are better, more respectful ways to gain acceptance. Black men need to step forward: Say and do something. Honor your women. Speak to young boys.
Black film and music producers need to be socially conscious and think what effect the images they set forth have on the community and the world. White media and ad executives must advance past colorism; they also need to cast black actresses and models of all hues in loving, desirable roles.
White parents need to stop teaching racist attitudes to their offspring. And UGA students need to find something else to do in the town square. Denigrating and disrespecting black women is not a sport. It's sad that members of the Chi Phi fraternity think it is.
Dr. Melody McCloud is a physician and writer living in Roswell.
Find this article at:
Atlanta Journal: Black Women Demands Respect
By MELODY McCLOUD
Published on: 09/12/06
Black women demand respect
Why are black women so increasingly ignored, abhorred, disrespected and rejected in this country?
Who declared "open season" on us, and why?
Increasingly over the past decade, the media have projected images of black women as battered about, cast down, kicked aside, ignored, denigrated and disrespected at the will of all who take delight and sport in doing so. It is tantamount to a public flogging in the modern-day town square — the media, the Internet, TV, movies and music videos.
The latest venue? The University of Georgia in Athens, where Chi Phi fraternity pledges flashed naked images of black women to passers-by. Why? Because they could. It's acceptable sport in the 21st century. They're just black women; who cares? One student told a reporter he thought it was funny. It's not.
The late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, enjoyed a lifetime of fame and fortune and received many a laugh saying, "I don't get no respect." Many of today's black women may feel Dangerfield's battle cry is one they, too, can claim. But hardly any are laughing.
More and more, black male models and actors are readily cast opposite white and Hispanic women, to the blatant, total exclusion of black women. Magazine ads frequently engage colorism — favoring light-skinned blacks over brown-skinned ones. Lighter black women often get the sexy ads and poses; they're positioned to look soft and desirable while brown-skinned women are posed stern, frowning and even masculine with bald heads.
It also seems that the media are ever eager to show black women as "crazy " — think U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), model Naomi Campbell, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth of the TV show "The Apprentice" and others — but won't allow others to be heard or seen. It seems, "well, there's Oprah," so that's all the room they'll allow for "good" black women.
Sadly, too, those blacks in position to present black women in a better light, including Oprah, often fail to do so. Tyler Perry and Martin Lawrence, more so, get rich on the image of the fat, gun-toting, loud black granny.
Shonda Rhimes, the black female creator/producer of "Grey's Anatomy," has the black male character sleeping with Asian Sandra Oh (who brushes her teeth in the kitchen sink), while Chandra Wilson, the lone black actress on the show, is "the Nazi."
And MTV — whose president, Christina Norman, is a black woman — recently aired a cartoon to young Saturday morning viewers entitled "Where My Dogs At," which had black women squatting on all fours, tethered to leashes. In 2004, U.S. Army reservist Sgt. Lynndie England subjected Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib to the same denigration and was convicted and sentenced to prison. Where is the justice for black women?
Someone must speak out against this societal poison. White women aren't going to say anything because they readily benefit from negative images of black women. Many white men — media executives, and obviously some UGA frat brothers — are having too much fun and cash flow at the expense of black women's dignity and social value; and sadly, many black men are inexplicably silent, standing on the sidelines.
This year, I wrote Marc Cherry, creator of the hit show "Desperate Housewives." Normally, to see a black woman get a recurring role in the No. 1 prime-time network program would be a major coup, a step in the right direction for American media and black imagery. But alas, once again, the lone black woman — on a show that mostly deals with sexy, alluring women with kinky trysts and family matters — is portrayed as a psychopath who chains her son in the basement.
I suggest congressional hearings to effect a tangible change in the depiction of women in music videos. Black women who participate in such videos must stop; there are better, more respectful ways to gain acceptance. Black men need to step forward: Say and do something. Honor your women. Speak to young boys.
Black film and music producers need to be socially conscious and think what effect the images they set forth have on the community and the world. White media and ad executives must advance past colorism; they also need to cast black actresses and models of all hues in loving, desirable roles.
White parents need to stop teaching racist attitudes to their offspring. And UGA students need to find something else to do in the town square. Denigrating and disrespecting black women is not a sport. It's sad that members of the Chi Phi fraternity think it is.
Dr. Melody McCloud is a physician and writer living in Roswell.
Find this article at:
Atlanta Journal: Black Women Demands Respect
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Links for 9-7-06
Devon Carbardo has written a post at BlackProf about racial profiling in dating/marriage ads. It's entitled Race and Desire
There's another article in Blackprof regarding racial stereotypes and academic achievement, Stereotypes and the Achievement Gap. This article appears around the same time news reports keep telling us that there's a real gap between Whites and People of Color with regards to internet access. In my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, city leaders are doing their best in making sure that internet access is available to all. I give Dayton Public Schools and the Dayton Metro Library System my props for making internet access available for all people. Keep up the good work! This is all I have for today, folks.
There's another article in Blackprof regarding racial stereotypes and academic achievement, Stereotypes and the Achievement Gap. This article appears around the same time news reports keep telling us that there's a real gap between Whites and People of Color with regards to internet access. In my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, city leaders are doing their best in making sure that internet access is available to all. I give Dayton Public Schools and the Dayton Metro Library System my props for making internet access available for all people. Keep up the good work! This is all I have for today, folks.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Rachel's Excellent Post on Transracial Adoption
Rachel's post on Reframing Transracial Adoption on her blog is excellent. She tells about mainstream media's tendency to posit transracial adoption in dichonomous terms such as good white parent vs. bad black parent, etc. She also wrote that media outlets have gone overboard on the black/white aspect of TR adoption while ignoring Asian, Latino, Native American children adopted by White couples. In fact, while Whites overwhelmingly adopt children from their own race, they adopt far more nonblack children of color than Black/Biracial Black ones. The media has it all wrong on that account.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Fetishizing Multiracials- Tired Junk
The media never gets it. Here they go again perpetuating such nonsense. Can academia and media pundits accept the humanity of multiracial people without resorting to fetishism and objectification? This book, Breeding Between The Lines by Mr. Ziv not only fetishize multiracials but sexualizes them as well. Mixed Media Watch has the good sense to reject it but bigoted pseudoscientists such as Steve Sailer endorsed it. There's a thread at AABLC.com regarding this stupid book.
I've seen enough fetishization of multiracials from Hollywood, mainstream media, BET, MTV, Madison Avenue, and, of course, academia. They cannot accept the fact that multiracials are human beings like everyone else. It's time to accept the humanity of all!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Aaliyah- Five Years Later
I really missed my Aaliyah. She would have been 27 this year and have a very successful music/acting career by now. Her life was cut terribly short by a plane accident in 2001. Aaliyah's influence is still felt in the music world, with singers such as Beyonce, Ashanti, Ciara, Christina Milian, Keyshia Cole, Cassie, and Teirra Mari today.
Here are several websites dedicated to Aaliyah's memory:
Aaliyah.com
A weeping willow tree in Aaliyah's memory at Central Park
AaliyahOnline.com
May Aaliyah rest in peace, always in our hearts and minds!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Negative Views on Black Women
I came across a conservative website on the internet just to be curious. One of the articles deal with the attractiveness of Black women. It's an old entry but let me tell you, it's racist, sexist, and offensive. Here's the link:
Black Chicks
and this one. Click Here
These people have perfected the fine art of Black woman bashing. We're not gold-digging predators, okay?
Then read the article by one author defending Black women:
Click here
Black Chicks
and this one. Click Here
These people have perfected the fine art of Black woman bashing. We're not gold-digging predators, okay?
Then read the article by one author defending Black women:
Click here
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