“Her blackness is fine, the blackness of her skin; the blackness of her mind. Her beauty cannot be measured with standards of a colonized mind.”

—Me’shell Ndegéocello

Seeing Naomi Campbell As We Do Not Usually See Her

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1. Seeing the darker skin at Naomi Campbell’s joints is the reason for this post. 

2. Here Naomi Campbell communicates some feeling / atmosphere / affect that fabulous and fierce Naomi Campbell is not usually invited to communicate.

3. This is skin usually evened out for editorials to create smooth lengths of mahogany and ebony. Here we’re confronted by the skin’s life and history.

4. We read Wole Soyinka’s ‘Telephone Conversation’ in English Lit. The words “has turned / My bottom raven black” prompt one of my classmates to ask me if I too have a black arse, like the man in the poem.

5. Cambridge, a decent chunk of the country’s elite is at this party, on MDMA, watching interracial porn. A friend screams ‘YUCK!’, swivels her head towards me and demands to know if my labia are also black like the woman’s in the film.

6. Here, Naomi Campbell’s body is not what black women’s bodies often are in these editorial contexts. Which is:

7. Naomi Campbell’s body does not tell the viewer anything at all about whiteness - which is to say, she is not an instrument

8. Naomi Campbell’s skin is not mahogany or ebony - which is to say, she is not an ornament. Here, almost pathetically human.

10 black child geniuses you should know

rollingout.com

If you only watched the evening news or depended on pop culture to paint a picture of young blacks, you would probably think that the majority of black youngsters were only ambitious about sports and music, or caught up in crime and debauchery.

However, the face of black success isn’t limited to the fields that are occupied by Jay-Z, Beyonce and LeBron James. There are a multitude of young blacks who are achieving at a high level in science, math, classical music, chess and other knowledge-based areas and preparing to change society.

Click the link to view the 10 black child geniuses you should know.

My hair isn't a political playground: As a white person should you ask Black people about their hair?

Yesterday I was in my first class of the day minding my own business; being in the state I was in from the recent lost in my family, I definitely wasn’t in the mood to be questioned by the sudden change of my hair.

Reference photos most recent:

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While I was doing my work my Professor (whom is a white) decided to come up towards me in front of everyone and ask ” Is that a wig?”

I instantly held my breath and felt my muscles clench. I wanted to ball my fist and call her a clueless white woman (as usual) but knowing I needed this class to pass it. I just laid it all out and told her I had gotten a weave to protect my own hair and give it a break. I didn’t go any further, she asked me

why

and I simply responded because I wanted too.

This isn’t the first time white people have come up to me asking to touch and pet and asking me how do i comb my hair when it’s nappy. How many times do i wash it? Saying it’s exotic and different not as nappy.

To make a blank statement obvious:

As a white person should you ask Black people about their hair?

No

No you shouldn’t, do you know why? Black people don’t ask you about your hair because your hair is normalized. Your hair is what Black people for years have been torturing ourselves over in order to be closer to whiteness. Through internalize racism Black people have been straightening and weaving their hair (not all but this is a big indication of why straight hair is preferred in our communties)

Our hair becomes! a political playground because having natural hair IS TURNED INTO a political statement. Majority of our identify has been tied into OUR hair not by us but by white society. The identity of what white society thinks Black identities should be and not by us! To us our hair is our hair and it comes in many different forms and ways that white hair cannot compete with.

So when my Professor asked me IN FRONT of every person in the classroom if my hair was a wig. There was no need.

She would have never asked a white woman if their hair was a wig, she would have never thought a white woman to wear their hair as a wig, or that Black people cannot have straight hair naturally.

This mentality, this act, it’s embarssing, and it’s disrespectful. After years and years and oppressive behaviour white people participate in surrounding our hair (calling it pubes and gross and unkempt and unprofessional) and created boundaries still in place today! to bluntly ask in front of a huge amount of people about Black hair. Is unnecessary.

I’ve receieved several your hair looks better from people in the Black community ( internalized racism) and from POC whom are non-Black. I’ve also received a smirk from my higher up manager because of the change in my hair. These little acts are indication that wearing my hair in it’s most natural state (white people wear their hair in natural state and no one EVER thinks about it being a political statement because once again your hair is normal and what every other POC so strive for it to be like)

I’ve been on interviews and around white people who have the nerve to say my hair is unprofessional. Because of the racialized system put into office jobs. Black hair is unruly and gross to the Professional world. When really this is an indication they want me to strip me of my Blackness and identify into whiteness. Because my Blackness is threatening to them. It SCARES them.

If you REALLY feel the need to ask and it’s a burning desire PLEASE go read, do research, THERE ARE LITERALLY TONS OF BOOKS ON BLACK HAIR BY BLACK PEOPLE. Youtubes, blogs, websites dedicated to Black hair! BY BLACK PEOPLE Don’t ask other POC that are Non-Black, Don’t ask us directly because that is disresectful and exoticfying us, go do your research. We’re not your educators. The oppressed do not educate oppressors.

I will say ONLY if only you know the person closely ask them in private.

It’s a touchy subject because again our hair has been politicalized. This has to do with the break down of Black people, anthropology, and exotification of us while denying us our rights as humans.

It’s dehumanizing.

The answer is no

“ Every aware black person who has been the "only" in an all-white setting knows that in such a position we are often called upon to lend an ear to racist narratives, to laugh at corny race jokes, to undergo various forms of racist harassment. And that self-segregation seems to be particularly intense among those black college students who were often raised in material privilege in predominately white settings where they were socialized to believe racism did not exist, that we are all "just human beings," and then suddenly leave home and enter institutions and experience racist attacks. To a great extent they are unprepared to confront and challenge white racism, and often seek the comfort of just being with other blacks. ... Despite civil rights struggle, the 1960s' black power movement, and the power of slogans like "black is beautiful," masses of black people continue to be socialized via mass media and non progressive educational systems to internalize white supremacist thoughts and values. Without ongoing resistance struggle and progressive black liberation movements for self-determination, masses of black people (and everyone else) have no alternative worldview that affirms and celebrates blackness. Rituals of affirmation (celebrating black history, holidays, etc.) do not intervene on white supremacist socialization if they exist apart from active anti-racist struggle that seeks to transform society. Since so many black folks have succumbed to the post-1960s notion that material success is more important than personal integrity, struggles for black self-determination that emphasize decolonization, loving blackness, have had little impact. As long as black folks are taught that the only way we can gain any degree of economic self-sufficiency or be materially privileged is by first rejecting blackness, our history and culture, then there will always be a crisis in black identity. Internalized racism will continue to erode collective struggle for self-determination. Masses of black children will continue to suffer from low self-esteem. And even though they may be motivated to strive harder to achieve success because they want to overcome feelings of inadequacy and lack, those successes will be undermined by the persistence of low self-esteem. ... A culture of domination demands of all its citizens self-negation. The more marginalized, the more intense the demand. Since black people, especially the underclass, are bombarded by messages that we have no value, are worthless, it is no wonder that we fall prey to nihilistic despair or forms of addiction that provide momentary escape, illusions of grandeur, and temporary freedom from the pain of facing reality. In his essay "Healing the Heart of Justice," written for a special issue of Creation Spirituality highlighting the work of Howard Thurman, Victor Lewis shares his understanding of the profound traumatic impact of internalized oppression and addiction on black life. He concludes: "To value ourselves rightly, infinitely, released from shame and self-rejection, implies knowing that we are claimed by the totality of life. To share in a loving community and vision that magnifies our strength and banishes fear and despair, here, we find the solid ground from which justice can flow like a mighty stream. Here, we find the fire that burns away the confusion that oppression heaped upon us during our childhood weakness. Here, we can see what needs to be done and find the strength to do it. To value ourselves rightly. To love one another. This is to heal the heart of justice." We cannot value ourselves rightly without flrst breaking through the walls of denial which hide the depth of black self-hatred, inner anguish, and unreconciled pain.”

—bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation, “Loving Blackness as Political Resistance”, pp. 16, 18-21

“[I] was made to feel ashamed of being black. During those long years in Oakland public schools, I did not have one teacher who taught me anything relevant to my own life or experience. Not one instructor ever awoke in me a desire to learn more or to question or to explore the worlds of literature, science, and history. All they did was try to rob me of the sense of my own uniqueness and worth, and in the process nearly killed my urge to inquire.”

—Huey Newton, Black Panther and Socialist, from his book “Revolutionary Suicide”
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