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Monday, December 31, 2012

Al Sharpton Honors Clint Eastwood's 'Empty Chair' And More At His Annual 'Revvies' Award Show

The Rev. Al is the host of 'Politics Nation with Al Sharpton' on MSNBC. This was the second annual year-end show where The Rev. and his panel gave awards for the high and low points of politics during the year. His panel included Jonathan Capehart, Victoria Defrancesco Soto, Krystal Ball, and Richard Wolffe.

Many of the accolades had ridiculous names such as 'The Empty Chair' and 'Lost Their Shirt' Awards. Also, the panel could barely identify one positive move made by a Republican during 2012, except for Chris Christie's post-Hurricane Sandy photo-op with President Obama - and even that was a back-handed compliment to the Democratic Party. You must take everything the Rev. Al says with a grain of salt as he has a history of stretching the truth. We remember those Tawana Brawley allegations, Rev. But take a look at his list anyway.



2nd Annual 'Revvie' Awards


'The Thriller Award' - Best Political Move - The Obama 2012 Campaign ground game turning out the vote to re-elect Barack Obama

'This Dud's for You' - Worst Political Move - The republican's engineering an aggressive voter suppression campaign

'The Spotlight Award' - Defining Moment of 2012 - Mitt Romney's 47% speech

Best Musical Performance - Governor Chris Christie's duet  with Jimmy Fallon on Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road. Watch the duet here.

Honorary Best Musical Performance - President Obama's performance of Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together'

'Rising Star of the Year' - Political Powerhouse of 2012 - Latinos, Elizabeth Warren, and Hillary Clinton

'The Empty Chair Award' - Award for Not Showing Up - Donald Trump's continued birther quest

'Lost Their Shirt Award' - Worst Investor of the Year -  Karl Rove's group, American Crossroads, for making a $91 million dollar investment in the 2012  presidential campaign with nothing to show for it.

'Bluebird Pie Award' Lifetime Achievement Award - Karl Rove, who is obviously Al Sharpton's nemesis. 

Biggest Winner of 2012 - 47% or 99% who showed up to vote and the tenacity of minority group voting coalitions.

Biggest Loser of 2012 - Right wing media who lost the ability to convince people that just because you put something on high rotation doesn't convince people that it is true.

Predictions for 2013 - The Supreme Court addressing key issues, such as marriage rights and gun laws, and states trying to undermine federal law.

Watch clips here and here and here.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Swaziland Bans Miniskirts And Criminalizes Low-Rider Jeans - To Prevent Rape?

Mini skirts.

Tank tops.

Crops tops.

Low rise jeans.

Now, all of these 'offensive' items of clothing can land women in jail in Swaziland.

That's right - jail.

Up to 6 months in jail

This law has been on the books since 1889 as part of the Crimes Act. The law made women who were sexually assaulted the sole party responsible for the attacks. And it's sad that more than 100 years later, Swazi officials seek to do the same thing today.

The new enforcement comes after police encountered women last month who wore mini-skirts in protest of sexual violence. In Swaziland, two-thirds of young women have been sexually assaulted and adult women have the same legal rights as minors in the country.

Police spokesperson Wendy Hlelta says that the laws are only being enforced so that women are not raped. 

Yes, because women are asking for it if they dress in revealing clothing. Even in Sub-saharan Africa where one of us spent a summer and can attest to the burning hot environment.

Hlelta said:
“We do not encourage that women should be harmed, but at the same time people should note acceptable conduct of behavior. The act of the rapist is made easy because it would be easy to remove the half-cloth worn by the women. I have read from the social networks that men and even other women have a tendency of ‘undressing people with their eyes’. That becomes easier when the clothes are hugging or are more revealing.
Yes, 'undressing people with their eyes' is the primary culprit of rape. 

However, the police will not be enforcing the dress code law when it comes to traditional clothing, especially when women dance in a g-string bare-breasted as part of the "indlamu" dance for the King Mwati.

And under this new system, anyone can complain to the police. Hlelta says that if the police receive complaints, "They will be arrested." No mention here of arresting men who harass and abuse women on the streets.

Police officials have also advised women on how to pick up objects when they drop them, with an emphasis on preventing male rape. 

“For females it is polite that when you have dropped something, squat with your upper body still upright and pick up the item rather than bending half your body head first to pick up the item.”

You know what's polite? Not blaming women for rampant sexual assault and actually apprehending the perpetrators. 

This is not the first time Swaziland officials have taken to limiting clothing choices for women in the name of sexual safety.

Just more than 10 years ago, the Swaziland government passed a law requiring female students age 10 and older "to wear knee-length skirts to curb promiscuity as part of attempts to halt the spread of AIDS." Swaziland has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world with more than 1.2 million people infected. 

Read more here.

'All My Babies' Mamas' May Be The Trashiest Television Show Of All Time

It looks like Oxygen will begin airing 'All My Babies' Mamas,' a show centered around Atlanta rapper Carlos Walker, who is better known as Shawty Lo of the group D4L. We're sure 2013 is shuddering already. How can Oxygen even begin to top shows like The Bad Girls Club, I'm Having Their Baby, and Dance Your A*s Off?

Mr. Lo had his first child at the age of 15 and has not stopped since. 

Currently, he has 11 children with 10 different women.

However, as you can see from the series' title - these are not women, they are 'baby mamas'. 

Lo says he always knew he would have a lot of kids - he just didn't know he would have so many baby mamas. "It just happened."  

After the first few children arrived, we'd like to think he knew how they were made and where the baby mamas came from. 

Mr. Lo is no longer romantically involved with any of these women. In fact, he has a new girlfriend, age 19, who is the same age as 4 of his 11 children. One of the mothers questions whether the new girlfriend is actually a child of one of the original baby mamas. Sigh. Another mother refers to Lo as merely a "sperm donor."

"To you guys, he might be known as a rapper but here in Atlanta, he's known for having 11 kids and 10 baby mamas," narrates E'creia. She is known as "The First Lady Baby Mama" because she controls the rapper's finances and the other women say she is the best at getting money out of him. The First Lady introduces the other women as "The Fighter Baby Mama", "The Jealous Baby Mama", "The Wanna-Be-Bougie Baby Mama", "The No Drama Baby Mama", "The Shady Baby Mama", and (as expected?) "The Baby Mama From Hell".  

Drama begins and the power struggle ensues. 

The mothers report Lo lied about exactly how many children he had during the courtship stages. "They were coming out like presents. Every Christmas a child was coming out," one mother says. He sounds like a real winner to us.  
 
The mothers say the system with "The Black Hugh Hefner" is complicated but it works. All of the Baby Mamas even get together at least once a month. Aww.


The kicker of the pilot is probably when Mr. Lo sits down to prove he can name all of his children in order. He is not successful and skips over one of his sons after a few tries. 

Let us hope that Mr. Lo has learned how to 'wrap it up' and Oxygen will gain some sense and wrap up this tragedy of a show before it hits the airwaves next year.


You can watch the pilot here but we urge you to join our #TwoPersonBoycott of this trash.  

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Black People Do Not Eat Acorns and There's No Such Thing As A Kwanzaa Cake

Harambe!

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa.

Here at Strong Black Woman, we don't celebrate Kwanzaa but we support you if you do.

Which brings us to Kwanzaa cake. 


We actually just found a recipe for Kwanzaa cake in the December 2001 issue of Southern Living Magazine. 

And of course, there's Sandra Lee's infamous Kwanzaa Cake.

If you feel so inclined to follow the recipe - see it here. Warning: it includes canned icing, store bought angel food cake, apple pie filling, pumpkin seeds, and yes - acorns. And if you feel so inclined to taste it, please don't. 

Monday, December 24, 2012

Blackface For The Holidays? Zwarte Piet Lives On - Unfortunately

The Dutch have a tradition of dressing in blackface for the holidays. They dress St. Nicholas' helper, Zwarte Piet, in an Afro wig with big red lips.



Zwarte Piet, also known as Black Pete, made his debut as a slave in a book published in the 1850s. Traditionally, he traveled with Sinterklass, Santa Claus, and handed toys and candy to the children. Black Pete always displays dim-witted behavior which is why many people have a problem with him today.
 

And even schoolyard bullies of today torment brown-skinned children and call them Zwarte Piet. 

Clever. Read more.

Friday, December 21, 2012

And The Winner of The AP Female Athlete of the Year Award Is...


...gymnast Gabby Douglas.

Chosen by the news directors and U.S. editors of The Associated Press, Douglas faced stiff competition from the top-notch female athletes from this past year.
 
Votes also went to Missy Franklin, Serena Williams, Allyson Felix, Lindsy Vonn, Britney Griner, and Carli London. 

Douglas is only the fourth gymnast to win and the first gymnast named since Mary Lou Retton. 
 
Douglas has also made Forbes' "30 Under 30" list and is among Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People".

“I want people to think, ‘Gabby can do it, I can do it. Set that bar. If you’re going through struggles or injuries, don’t let it stop you from what you want to accomplish.” says Gabby.

Read more here


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Short List For The TIME Person of the Year

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo! CEO












Only 2.5 women made the short list for the TIME Person of the Year: Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo!, Malala Yousafzai, the student activist from Pakistan who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, and Hillary Clinton as half of the Bill and Hillary Clinton nomination. 

What is Bill Clinton doing these days besides roaming around campaigning for other people? Yes, we are purposefully ignoring the many gains achieved by the Clinton Global Initiative. We believe Hillary deserves this nod without the likes of Bill.

The rest of the short list includes: Mohammed Morsi, president of Egypt; Undocumented Americans; President Barack Obama, the 2008 winner; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple; and the Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.


Read more.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"Red and Yellow, Black and White"--They Are All Precious

You know the hymn, "Jesus Loves the Little Children,"  with the lyrics, "red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight..." 

So where is the call to take away the guns when an African-American child is shot in the middle of gang fire? 


This is not a post about the right to bears arms or an attempt to disrespect the Newtown victims.

But rather, it's a question to the public about the lack of outcry when gun victims aren't White.

The NRA (National Rifle Association) took down its Facebook page and Twitter account in response to the Newtown shooting. Why now? Why not when Trayvon Martin died? Maybe one Black kid dying is not enough to get the NRA to respond.

When will President Obama issue a public response to the families in poor neighborhoods who experience gun violence on a regular basis? He is from Chicago and should know first-hand the number of inner-city children who have been victims to gun-related fatalities.

Perhaps, this shooting broke America's collective bubble about safety in America. Even the schools in the rich suburbs aren't safe. That makes me shutter. Maybe the mainstream would rather be in the dark about gun violence, but now we know--guns are colorblind.

Read more about race and violence at Clutch Magazine.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

ESPN's Rob Parker Says Robert Griffin III Is Not Black Enough, A 'Cornball Brother' - Stop With The Black-Checking, Please

On the Thursday morning edition of ESPN's First Take, commentator Rob Parker questioned the Blackness of Redskins quarterback, Robert Griffin III. (For the record, Parker is a middle-aged Black man.)

Now, I don't exactly know the rules of football. And I don't know much about RG3. (I may have had to Google him to find out his position before writing this.) The first time I saw him was on the Subway and Gatorade commercials. The few times I've heard him speak, he does it well and doesn't seem to be involved in bad behavior like some of the other American professional athletes. So no objections to RG3 in general.

See the First Take video here.   

Here are the highlights from the shenanigans: 

Parker: I've talked to some people in Washington, D.C. Some people in [Griffin's] press conferences. Some people I've known for a long time. My question, which is just a straight, honest question, is ... is he a 'brother,' or is he a cornball 'brother?' He's not really ... he's black, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really like the guy you'd want to hang out with. I just want to find out about him. I don't know, because I keep hearing these things. He has a white fiancée, people talking about that he's a Republican ... there's no information at all. I'm just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue. Tiger Woods was like, 'I have black skin, but don't call me black.' People wondered about Tiger Woods early on -- about him.

Skip Bayless: What do RG3's braids say to you?

Parker: To me, that's very urban. It makes you feel like ... I think he would have a clean cut if he were more straight-laced or not ... wearing braids is ... you're a brother. You're a brother. If you've got braids on.


Following this logic, Parker, who wears a receding-hairline fade, might not be a bona fide brother.   

Stephen A. Smith (presumably a real brother) later went on to say: First of all, let me say this: I’m uncomfortable with where we just went. RG3, the ethnicity or the color of his fiancée is none of our business, it’s irrelevant, he can live his life in whatever way he chooses. The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life, he can live his life.


Smith has it right. 

If a person has Black skin, they are Black. That's it. It's not too complicated. Their political affiliation, choice of significant other, or hair style should be a moot point. Too bad Parker is not "down with the cause" enough to know this. Shoving Black people into boxes - again, is probably not "down with the cause" either. Just call me a 'cornball sister.'

Parker is suspended "until further notice." Now that he has some time off, Parker will have the opportunity to take some anti-ignorance classes. 

Read more here

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

West Virginia High School Drops Standing Requirement for Black National Anthem

Move over school prayer. Now parents and students are upset over a high school principal's decision to require students to stand during the playing of the Black National Anthem. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a song typically reserved for Black History Month celebrations, but students at Capital High School in Kanawha County, West Virginia were required to stand while the song was played every Friday.

A West Virginia principal has come under fire for requiring students to stand up for the pledge of allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner, and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Several parents and students voiced concerns because they were confused about which song is the actual national anthem. 

Seriously?

A better concern for the parents and students to articulate is whether the playing of a song commonly known as the Black National Anthem serves to empower Black students more than non-Black students.

Read more.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Middle Schools Separate Students By Sex, ACLU Sues

The American Civil Liberties Union claims that two middle schools, which separate students by gender are in violation of Title IX. According to the ACLU's complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, Middleton Elementary School in Idaho and Huffman Middle School in Alabama are "forcing students into a single-sex environment with little or no alternative options, rely on harmful gender stereotypes and deprive students of equal educational opportunities merely because of their sex."

"We understand that teachers and parents want to provide the best education for their children. But coeducation was never the problem with failing schools, and single-sex programs are not the answer. These programs are poorly designed and based on pseudoscience and stereotypes that do nothing to enhance learning, and only reinforce discredited ideas about how boys and girls behave," said Christina Brandt-Young of the ACLU Women's Rights Project.

We couldn't agree more. Learn more here and here

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Another Installment of CNN's 'Black In America' Premieres Tomorrow




Tomorrow night, "Black In America 5" premieres on CNN at 8:00 p.m. ET. This installment is called "Who Is Black In America?" and will again explore "interpretations of race and identity for African Americans." In it, Soledad O'Brien will focus on topics of interracial marriage and multiracial acceptance in Black communities. Here at Strong Black Woman, we hope the program will be better than CNN's first round of "Black In America" back in 2008. 


Below is a little piece one of us wrote in after the first set of "Black In America" premiered.




CNN’s Black in America aka Black People are Reason for their Own Misfortune in America 

“You think you know what it’s like to be Black in America. You have no idea.”

This was how CNN advertised its self-proclaimed groundbreaking documentary series Black in America. CNN’s own multiculti poster child, Soledad O’Brien, was the host of what she said would give the rest of America “a good picture of what it means to be Black in America.” Unfortunately O’Brien, who identified herself as Black for the series in many promotions on Black radio stations, failed at fulfilling this lofty goal.

Originally a skeptic, I wondered who gave CNN the right to present the story of Black people to the rest of the country. I was, however, slightly relieved that FOX News was not offering its authoritative take on Black America. Still doubtful, I sat down to watch with low expectations. Right away, one of my friends mentioned that O’Brien said 'Black' like it was a disease or some other negative characteristic. At first, I thought she was thinking too far into things but soon came to agree with her.

The series started out with Reclaiming the Dream, a mishmash panel of “Black experts” discussing topics ranging from education and incarceration to HIV and Barack Obama. Harvard economist Roland Fryer offered a costly and implausible plan to keep Black students in school: pay them, costing already struggling schools $250 per student. Pastor and leader of Texas megachurch Bishop T.D. Jakes stated that black men go to prison for several years, come home after serving their sentences, and infect their whole families with HIV. That’s right: not only do Black men sleep with their “mothers, girlfriends, and children,” they only contract HIV after sexual contact with other men. No one on the program corrected his outlandish assertion or his antiquated thinking about HIV/AIDS transmission. I thought there might be hope for the program when president of Bennett College Julianne Malveaux attempted to correct the falsehoods presented by other panel members but ultimately there was a lot of superficial talk and no feasible solutions proposed.   

The next part of the series was a decent report about the assassination of Dr. King, highlighting conspiracy theories and evidence that pointed away from James Earl Ray. Nonetheless, the rest of the show was unable to draw a strong connection to the present.

The main two programs were separated into The Black Woman and Family along with The Black Man. It was CNN’s way of arguing that those two components of the Black community do not even belong together.   

The Black Woman and Family began with a Kodak moment of black family reunions. Unlike at most reunions, CNN was present to record the meeting of an estranged white woman with her Black relatives. The segment lasted long enough to zoom in on the white woman and her Black cousin walking hand-in-hand with smiles at the rural barbeque. Sadly, most of the documentary was not focused on the Black woman at all. An extended part of the program focused on the difficulties of a single father without mentioning the hardships that the millions of single women in similar positions face. The crisis in education, HIV, and violence comprised the rest of the program with a small mention of the increase in Black-owned businesses. “Most Black people have not been arrested. Most Black people are not poor,” said Malveaux, a point which the documentary makers did not seem to believe.

The Black Man focused on three things: the lack of responsible Black fathers, crime, and the lack of educated Black men. CNN could have stopped after a few sentences but chose to highlight man after man who dropped the ball in addition to negative statistic after negative statistic about the peril of Black men in America. After mentioning that there are almost 1 million Black men in prison, mostly for drug offenses, CNN brushed over mandatory minimum sentencing laws which force judges to impose long prison terms on users and low level dealers. Even though the second part of the series was focused on Black men, it neglected to emphasize the affect of the high level of incarceration on women and children.  It overemphasized statistics without placing them in the context of conspiracy laws, racial profiling, and general racism of the criminal justice system. Laws cannot be inherently racist, claimed a conservative legal expert. The Black Man continued with a brief discussion of the growing Black middle class and glass ceilings to Black professionals but again was overshadowed by its indictment of rap music and Black underachievement. The series ended with an interview of famous academic and social critic Michael Eric Dyson and his brother who is serving a life sentence for murder. The conclusion: dark-skinned Black children don’t get the same opportunities in the Black community as light-skinned children and that negatively affects the rest of their lives. In addition to being a huge overstatement and oversimplification, the documentary makers purported that this common plight was only that simple. Again, CNN blamed Blacks for holding their own children back in America.    

The major problem with this documentary was that it professed to tell “the whole range of our story” yet focused on the negative stereotypes and did not stray far from them. Black in America presented the effects without examining the causes of those effects. It highlighted a high level of unwed pregnancy among black women without examining the lack of health care and availability of birth control. It showed the prevalence of drugs and drug convictions in the Black community without showing the huge role of the government in the drug trade.  Ultimately, it did a great job of not holding the government or other societal institutions more than an iota responsible for anything. Its overall guise of showing “the Black story” to the rest of America was merely a farce for presenting its traditional overly negative portrayal of Black people for seven hours of television programming.


Tuesday, December 4, 2012

White House Aide: With These Republicans, "There'd Still Be Slavery Today"

During an MSNBC interview, NBC's Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd reported that a "very smart White House aide" told him that with the current tide of politics in Washington "there'd still be slavery."



That's a tall charge.

Todd posed the "Lincoln analogy" to the aide which asked about the similarities between Lincoln's fight to pass the 13th Amendment (outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude) and Obama's plan to raise the tax rates on wealthy Americans. 

This Lincoln analogy elicited a response that highlighted the disconnected politics rolling through Washington.

“You know, with this Republican — with the way politics of Washington are today, there’d still be slavery. Lincoln wouldn’t have been able to navigate the polarization between the media, between this ”--unnamed White House Aide