From the Courtroom to the Classroom-Condom Negotiation

The National Institutes of Health is funding a researcher at the University of Houston who is working with 30 "at-risk" 14-17 year old girls and teaching them the art of "condom negotiation."

Dr. Danielle Parrish, lead researcher and Associate Professor at the University, wants to help empower young girls to make better choices and prevent unplanned pregnancies. If a young girl's boyfriend believes that condom usage is uncool, then she will be taught negotiation skills to get him to wear protection.

The study is titled, "Choices - Teen: A Bundled Risk Reduction Intervention for Juvenile Justice Females."

Read more.

NOT Dreaming of a White Christmas: Blackface Makeup Ads Are Just In Time For The Holidays

Last night, this ad appeared on the Facebook page for Illamasqua cosmetics. There is a corresponding white model wearing white-as-snow makeup. She's "not dreaming of a white Christmas" either.

 

We don't know about you but this looks like minstelsy to us.

What do you think?

Look at the rest of the pictures here and here.

Unsung Hero, Civil Rights Leader Lawrence Guyot Dies

Lawrence Guyot was one of the first volunteers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He died Thursday in Maryland at the age of 73 with his family after a long battle with heart disease and diabetes.

The Mississippi native was among the ranks of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lous Hamer, Bob Moses and others who helped register Blacks in Mississippi to vote. Guyot served the organization as a director of the 1964 Freedom Summer Project.

Guyot also co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and worked toward the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During the Movement, he endured severe beatings, the conditions of Southern prisons, and violence from jailhouse law enforcement.

He lobbied for Washington D.C. statehood and for voting rights until his death. He made it a point to vote early so that his vote would be counted in case his health failed prior to Election Day. 

Susan Glisson of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at Ole Miss, called him "a towering figure, a real warrior for freedom and justice." Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton called Guyot "an unsung hero" of the Movement. "Because of Larry Guyot, I understood what it meant to live with terror and to walk straight into it."

Learn more about Guyot here. 

University Professor Calls Thanksgiving America's "White Supremacist Holiday"

Robert Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, believes America's founding fathers were practically Nazis and that Thanksgiving Day should be a day of fasting and atonement.

In a piece titled, "No Thanks for Thanksgiving," Jensen proffers the idea that Thanksgiving is a glorified "White Supremacist Holiday."

Read more.

Harlem Police Commanders Are All Black For The First Time

All four police commanders in Harlem will be African American for the first time in history.

Some see this as mere window dressing to cover up the city's serious problem with stop-and-frisk.


One former official said anonymously, "Is any of this all an accident? Or is it a reaction to the department's problems over stop and frisk and other community issues?"

Others note that Black police commanders will not necessarily do superior work or be given a vital decision-making roles but it is nice to see the progress. 

Read here and make your own choice. 

Lawsuit Argued that Texas Minorities Mistakenly Passed a Ballot Initiative Due to Low Reading Abilities

Opponents of a ballot initiative in Austin, Texas believed that it only passed because it was too confusing to read. That's right - too confusing to read.

The ballot initiative is called Proposition 1, and it will raise property taxes to fund a new medical school and other health care projects.

The suit argues that minorities inadvertently voted for the ballot initiative because they “have lower reading comprehension than whites.”  Don Zimmerman, treasurer of the Travis County Taxpayers Union political action committee and his lawyer Stephen Casey believe the ballot initiative violated the Voting Rights Act.

Check out the language of the Texas ballot initiative below:

Typically lawsuits brought under the Voting Rights Act are initiated by groups being prevented from voting for illegal reasons such as Voter ID requirements and English proficiency tests. However, these plaintiffs allege that minorities were at a disadvantage as compared to whites because of their level of reading compression.

The Judge in the case denied a request for an injunction against this ballot measure.

Read more.

Vice President Biden Calls President Obama a "Homeboy in the White House"?

"So as the president said, when he was up here with the governor, we’re not going anywhere. We’re not not going anywhere. And you’ve got a homeboy in the deal who gets it." 

Joe Biden said this to a group of Hurricane Sandy survivors in New Jersey today. 

Did he mean President Obama? Or Crazy/Uncle Joe himself?

Now, we appreciate the VPOTUS' candid nature but this isn't the first time he has used coded racist language.

Is this a dog whistle? What do you think?

More here. 

'Party Like a Pilgrim and Drink Like a Indian' Flier

In honor of one of America's arguably racist holidays, a DC bar advertised its Thanksgiving celebration in a particularly offensive way. McFadden's is inviting its patrons to, "Party like a pilgrim and drink like a[n] Indian."

Partying like a Pilgrim must entail committing genocide against a group of Native Americans and celebrating their massacre with a of can of domestic beer. We weren't around during the founding of America, but we wonder, did the the Pilgrims and Native Americans sit around as drinking buddies before or after the Pilgrims raped all the women in the villages? Obviously, we are excluding the totally implausible love fest between John Smith and Pocahontas.

Sadly, McFadden's is not the first bar to invite its patrons to "drink like a[n] Indian." In November 2010, Station 280 in St. Paul, Minnesota used a similarly offensive advertising campaign.

Note the drunk cowboy slumped on the floor with a passed out Native American and don't miss the scantily clad female who hardly passes as Pocahontas.

Surely racist advertising gets these businesses attention, but the United States consistently ignores how it almost obliterated Native Americans. Such ads are not acceptable, and neither is America's past and present treatment of Native Americans.

Ironically, November is Native American History month.

Read more.

Denzel Washington Tells His Daughter That She Has To Work Harder Because She Has Dark Skin

Denzel Washington said to the Hollywood Reporter that he told his daughter her dark skin could hold her back in the entertainment industry. His advice: work harder.  

I tell my daughter — she’s at NYU — I say: “You’re black, you’re a woman, and you’re dark-skinned at that. So you have to be a triple/quadruple threat.” I said: “You gotta learn how to act. You gotta learn how to dance, sing, move onstage.” That’s the only place, in my humble opinion, you really learn how to act. I said: “Look at Viola Davis. That’s who you want to be. Forget about the little pretty girls; if you’re relying on that, when you hit 40, you’re out the door. You better have some chops.”

Read more here.

Vermont Pays Women $10,000 Less Than Men? - Woman Sues For Pay Discrimination

Lynne Silloway, a female employee of the Department of Corrections is suing the state of Vermont. She claims is "alleging that she was being paid $10,000 less than a male co-worker for performing substantially the same work." She says the male employee shared the same title, performed the same duties, and had less seniority. The Human Rights Commission has joined her to sue the Department of Corrections, looking to have an independent organization audit all state employees to ensure the issue of pay inequity is addressed.

Read more here.  

What About Black Cowboys? That's Right - Black Cowboys

The Wild Wild West featured Black, white, Native American, and Mexican cowboys. But you wouldn't know that from watching American Western films. 

In fact, historians say that one in four cowboys were African American.

"Hollywood played a major part in dismissing the role of black cowboys. In 99% of Western cowboy films, there is no black cowboy. America was a divided country -- segregation -- Hollywood played their part down. Compare Clint Eastwood or John Wayne to the black cowboys. It just doesn't fit the image. Black cowboy. A hero." Filmmakers John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald hope to counter this with "The Forgotten Cowboys", a documentary, which follows contemporary Black cowboys competing in modern-day rodeos. Cowboys like Jason Griffin, who won the worldwide bareback competition four times.

Check out the trailer here and read more here. 

Rep. Marcia Fudge To Serve As Next Congressional Black Caucus Chair

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge has been elected to serve as the next Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) chair.

"I am humbled by the vote of confidence of my colleagues who have selected me to serve as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the 113th Congress.  Leadership of the CBC will be shared among all officers elected and I will continue to work hard and serve with dedication, the people who sent me to Congress," she said.

Congratulations, Madame Chairwoman Fudge.

Read more here.

"Make Me a Sandwich" T-Shirt Graces The Shelves at Wal-Mart

Yes, you can buy this t-shirt at Wal-Mart. No, you probably shouldn't.

Enough said.

It's official: Two Person Boycott.

Read more here.

P.S. And because one half of Strong Black Woman worked at Wal-Mart briefly before college and saw how women employees were paid a full dollar less than men and who was reprimanded for even thinking about collective action, we join the #notbuyingit movement without reservation. 

    

'Cover your butts up' Because Leggings Are Not Pants

A high school principal in Minnesota has instructed female students to "cover your butts up." Principal David Adney sent an e-mail to parents advising them that female student attire is "out of control." The principal did not issue a ban on leggings, but urged the students to dress more modestly.

Until recently, female students wore leggings with long sweat shirts or jerseys, but the trend to wear them with short shirts or to simply wear shear leggings with exposed rear-ends has proven to be too fashion forward for this principal. Teachers and school volunteers express concern that the exposed rear-ends are distracting to other students.

In previous years, the Minnetonka school issued directives about muscle shirts, exposed midriffs, and sagging pants.

Follow this story here.

And America's Most Diverse Metros Are...

Using U.S. Census data, Forbes has compiled a list of the most diverse metropolitans in America. 

See them below:

America’s Most Diverse Metros
#	U.S. Metro	% population in largest group
1	San Jose, CA	35%
2	New York, NY-NJ	39%
3	Oakland, CA	40%
4	Houston, TX	40%
5	Honolulu, HI	43%
6	Fort Lauderdale, FL	44%
7	Orange County, CA	44%
8	Memphis, TN-MS-AR	46%
9	San Francisco, CA	46%
10	Albuquerque, NM	47%
A lower percentage of population in the largest group means greater diversity. Among 100 largest metros.

Is your zip code included?

Read more here.

What About Male Domestic Violence?

According to the Domestic Violence Research Center, like all domestic violence statistics, male victims of domestic violence are underreported. However, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Justice estimate 835,000 men are victimized by domestic violence in addition to 1.5 million women every year.

Men? Where are the shelters accepting anyone other than women and children?

Unfortunately, we didn't hear anyone mention male victims during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 

Read more here.  

27 Year Old Reporter Asked Nancy Pelosi If She Was "Too Old" To Be The House of Representatives Minority Leader - Speaker Pelosi Shuts Him Down

When reporter Luke Russert, 27 (son of Meet the Press' Tim Russert), asked Nancy Pelosi, 72, if she was too old to remain as the House of Representatives minority leader, the reporter was met with a room full of boos. It doesn't help that he asked the question while she was flanked by thirty women from the Democratic Caucus.

Russert asked, "Some of your colleagues privately say that your decision to stay on prohibits the party from having a younger leadership and it hurts the party in the long term. What’s your response?”

[insert 30 boos]

Pelosi responded, “Let’s for a moment honor it as legitimate question, although it’s quite offensive that you don’t realize that, I guess.”

She continued to put the reporter in his place by stating, "Everything that I have done in my almost decade now of leadership is to elect younger and newer people to the Congress.” Nancy Pelosi served as the 60th Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. She is the only female to hold that position to date. 

Read more.

This Week in History: Nat Turner's Execution

Nat Turner was an American slave from Virginia who led the largest pre-Civil War slave uprising. During Nat Turner's Rebellion, Turner and his followers freed slaves and killed between 55-65 white people. On November 11, 1831, Nathaniel "Nat" Turner was executed for the murders during his "rebellion." Turner believed revolutionary violence would change the attitudes of white people about slavery. Instead, they killed him.

And in response to the "Rebellion," the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation making it unlawful to teach slaves, free blacks, and mulattoes to read.

Read more.

Duke Lacrosse Player Wears Blackface and the Athletic Department Posted the Photo

As if the Duke Lacrosse has not faced enough negative attention with those charges of rape from 2006, but the poor judgment of team members continues to prevail. A member of the women's lacrosse team dressed up in blackface for Halloween. Members of the team dressed up as characters from "The Little Rascals" for a party held at head coach Kerstin Kimel's house. Junior Taylor Virden dressed up as Buckweat and she donned blackface.

What is even more asinine is that the Duke Athletic Department allowed the blackface photo to be posted on its blog. The photo was taken down after complaints.

Statement from Duke University:

“The Duke Women’s Lacrosse program celebrates Halloween with an annual gathering. This year, some of our costume choices were insensitive and entirely inappropriate. No offense was intended, but that does not matter because we should have realized how these choices would be viewed by those outside of our program. On behalf of our coaching staff and our student-athletes, we apologize to anyone we may have offended and understand while we believed we were making decisions in good fun, we should have been much more sensitive to the implications of our actions.”

Read more. 

40% of Babies are Born to Unmarried Women - Conspiracy Theorists Call Their Children "Anchor Babies"

The U.S. birth rate hit an all-time low in 2011, according to a Centers for Disease Control report.

“The 2011 preliminary number of U.S. births was 3,953,593, 1 percent less (or 45,793 fewer) births than in 2010; the general fertility rate (63.3 per 1,000 women age 15-44 years) declined to the lowest rate ever reported for the United States,” said the report.

Particularly interesting is that 40% of all babies born in 2011, were born to unmarried women. That means 1,606,087 babies were born to unmarried women compared to the 2,347,087 born to married women in 2011.

The conspiracy filled blogs and news articles suggest these unmarried women are birthing "anchor babies" and "the future carjackers of America."  Evidently, those commentators neglected to read the CDC report, or even glance at its Abstract. The total number of non-marital births has been on a three year decline.

Read more. 

Check out the CDC Report.

First Black Mayor Elected in Rialto, California

In a historic win, Deborah Robertson was elected as the first Black mayor of Rialto, California. She defeated her fellow councilman Ed Scott, despite dirty campaigning and financial difficulties. The 12-year city council member has also served on the regional council of the Southern California Association of Governments. Robertson says her priorities are to bring transparency, economic development, and strength to the community.

Read more about the new mayor here.

How Many Women in Congress Were Girl Scouts?

There will be 20 women in the Senate beginning in 2013. While this is a record number, obviously more work must be done to gain increased female representation on the national level.

70 percent of these women were Girl Scouts during their youth. Between both houses of Congress, 60 percent of our female representatives were Girl Scouts. Newly-elected Senator Elizabeth Warren even served as a troop leader.  

Overall, only about 8 percent of American women have participated in Scouts as children. Why do those who Scout as kids grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow?

Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA believes it is because, "From the very beginning the whole mission of this organization has been to create girls who are very sensitive and in tune with their community needs. We develop not only leaders, but leaders with a political conscience." She adds that former Girl Scouts abound in other fields such as business, noting that, "This organization has literally created the female leadership pipeline in this country. There's obviously a secret sauce in our methodology."

The two of us at SBW can attest to this secret sauce and we were both Girl Scouts as children, including a top cookie seller who filled up a sash and a vest with badges in three years. And that competitive spirit has stayed with us into adulthood.

Read more about this phenom here.