Friday, 05 June 2009

• Currently Flower Drum Song By Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Benson Fong, Jack Soo, Juanita Hall see related

  A Hair Question ...

  Today, I just found out that grease products that are petroleum or mineral oil based are bad for your scalp, and I have been a faithful user of Softee hair products for many years (all of their products smell fruity and I love it). I'm an African American girl with thick and healthy relaxed hair, and I would like to do what's best for my scalp and stop using petroleum and/or mineral oil based products. However, I have no idea where to start looking other than places that are more money than I would like to spend.

  Does anyone have any suggestions for a good smelling, very thick (I've tried thin grease, but it doesn't work), affordable, non-petroleum or mineral oil based grease products?

   

  • 9:59 PM
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• Currently West Side Story(Amazon.com Exclusive Limited Edition with Playbill) By West Side Story-The New Broadway Cast Recording see related

  Just getting stuff off my chest

  
  A group of beautiful Black women of different shades from the Tyra Banks photoshoot of Ebony. She wanted to show all the different beautiful shades of Black with her ANTM contestants because she believes we should value all of it

   

       This is probably an entry that either no one will want to read or will make people feel uncomfortable, but I feel like at some point I need to express myself on this or else it'll be mostly bottled up feelings forever. 
       Most of my life I've been blessed enough to not really experience racism, but unfortunately I've delt with my fair share of something that's just as bad, and sometimes worse: colorism. For whatever reason, though my family is 100% African American, my dad turned out lighter than most. Between that and his green eyes he not only faced the extreme racism of his time, but from his own race he was called names like yellow and bright and was looked at funny. Needless to say, I received most of my father's genes. From the time I was went to school I've had kids of all races assume my race (when I was little, always White; when I got older, mixed), and when I correct them, almost always when I was younger they accused me of lying, and now I just get looks of (frequently negative) disbelief. I never minded if people asked, but to just assume is rude. I don't care what your race or nationality is; if you experience someone assuming what you are and they get it wrong, you'd be offended. Or at least think wtf. And it's especially hurtful to hear these colorism attacks from people of my own race. We should be loving towards each other, not judgmental or nitpicking over technicalities.
       Then I have the issue of the way I speak combined with my complexion. My complexion throws people off enough, but then I also generally speak with proper grammar (though according to some, not necessarily proper diction unless I'm acting or doing bingo at nursing homes). This tends to lead to, generally, some of the White people with whom I associate telling me I don't act Black, I'm different from other Black girls because I don't have a baby-momma attitude, or when they say something about the Black race followed by except Tiara because she doesn't count. When I hear something like this, the reason why comments like this hurt is not because of any sort of hatred towards White people or it's a terrible thing to be mistaken for White but because a) that's not what I am and b) when comments like that are made to me personally, and I know a lot of other women in the same boat I am, it's expressing the negative connotation that I am ashamed of my Blackness or I am trying to hide it (those who know me know I love being Black, and I am very proud of it). And what's really offensive about these statements to not just myself is that these people are saying the norm for Blacks is to have the "baby-momma attitude" or to talk with incorrect grammar, and in my experience I have seen these stereotypes equally in all races, not just the Black race.
       I'm concluding with this video that I really like to watch (I actually like watching all parts and encourage people to watch this entire episode; it's a real eye opener to the narrow-mindedness we need to fight in society), hoping that it does some positive thought provoking. We should all be proud of who we are and rejoice in our commonalities and our differences and stop judging. You hurt and miss out on a lot of great people that way.

   

   

  • 12:04 PM
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