I'm Pam Newman.
I am awesome every day & you are too.
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I'm a writer of aricles, poems & songs. Here's some cool stuff I wrote.
From the article:
[…] it is a story that needs to be told. The documentary “Afro-Punk” did a great job of opening the initial door that allows people of color to show their underground stripes. However, as a woman, there is more to say, and Dawes does service to this by offering a beginning look into the female perspective of being attracted to and participating in the metal, hardcore and punk scenes.
Why I’m SO Hype about Rhonda Lee (the Black Meteorologist) getting axed for defending her hair to that Racist
A few years ago I worked for a company called Software Management LLC. They’re owned by a conservative family based out of Lexington, Kentucky.
While working there, I was experimenting with ways to wear my hair naturally. I’d stopped using perms, and was coming into my own with how to style & wear it. Mostly I still wore it flat-ironed, but every now and again I dabbled with wearing it naturally.
My job involved going to county clerk’s offices and training the folks there on how to use the company’s software. Often I also had to train people on how to use the internet, or even how to use a mouse. It was easy work for me, but not a job for everyone, as it required being tender with people old enough to be my parents, and who lived in towns where they could go an entire week without seeing someone who looked like me.
Nonetheless, I was amazing at my job, and all of my clients were very pleased with my work, and ability to train and support them.
One day, our HR manager brought me into our office to talk to me about my appearance. I mean, maybe she did need to talk to me about how I wore my beat up black chucks to work everyday, but my outfits were on point aside from my shoes. She offered to get me a makeover.
At first I legitimately believed that she wanted to do this for me as a reward, and to help me step further into being a young professional.
Then she mentioned my hair.
She mentioned that my hair was not professional. She mentioned that it might look nicer straight. She did not directly say that there would be disciplinary actions taken if I DID NOT straighten my hair, but it was implied.
So, I was hurt, and I didn’t exactly know how to express that I felt like she was degrading me with her racist assumptions about my hair lowering my ability to be professional
I ended up being passive aggressive about how I felt, because I lacked the ability to say, “That’s insensitive and racist, here are the reasons why.” I also had a sociopath for a co-worker and a total of 1 co-worker I enjoyed hanging out with. So I quit without notice and never spoke to any of those people again.
But anyway, the point of this story is that Rhonda Lee is struggling with the same issue. She’s dealing with leadership that is so racist that they punish her for being attacked publicly. She’s being graceful in the face of adversity and an industry that actively works to erase the face of black women, and absolutely our luscious locks.
She is at a point where she knows how to accurately articulate what’s going on — and I can honestly say I would be able to do so now as well — but I worry.
I worry about all the other young black women who are dealing with this shit in silence. I worry about the ladies fresh out of college who are sporting fly natural styles and may encounter a boss who tells them, “That’s not professional,” and they may not have the courage to stand up for themselves, or a support structure to tell them that it’s okay to do so.
Be someone’s support. Tell Rhonda Lee’s story to people.
Let the black women in your life know that we are BEAUTIFUL. Compliment her hair. Tell her that our hair is lovely, and goddamnit, it’s fucking professional.
I was just reading the March 2012 issue of Essence, and there’s an article in it about Scandal with Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes & Judy Smith.
In Kerry Washington’s interview it is mentioned that she went to the same high school as Gweneth Paltrow, and it is explicitly stated that Washington sought no advice from her on how to be an entertainer. The article says:
“Gweneth’s godfather was Stephen Speilberg,” she says to underscore how vastly different their worlds were.
But Kerry Washington did find insperiation in a girl she went to Boys & Girls Club with.
“I grew up blocks away from Jennifer Lopez,” … “She and I went to the same Boys & Girls Club. She was like the girl dancer who made it big and moved to Hollywood.” Years later, when they met, she told Lopez, “I don’t know if I would’ve taken a risk in my career if it weren’t for you.”
Women of color inspiring women of color in the arts. Doesn’t it make you all warm & fuzzy?
I just want to say that this is why minority representation in the media matters. Mae Jemison was inspired to become an astronaut after watching Nichelle Nichols as Uhura on Star Trek.
this gives me the warm & fuzzies all over
Obvious Beauties:
Kat Graham
Amber Riley
Amber Stevens
Shanola Hampton
Rutina Wesley
Freema Agyeman
Antonia Thomas
Ruth Negga
Angel Coulby
Kandyse McClure
Annie Ilonzeh
Taraji P. Henson
Regina King
Pam Newman
Phillis Wheatley was the first known African American poet and the first known female African American to publish a book. Her writings helped create African American Literature.
She was bought at 17 by the Wheatley family who taught her how to read and write. Many white Americans didn’t believe an African could write poetry so they examined Wheatley in court later concluding that the poems she wrote were hers.
So, roughly 240 years ago, the white-run government of this country was so in disbelief that other human beings who looked different, AKA Black People, were incapable of writing poetry that they took this woman to court.
And y’all wonder why Black people mistrust the government, and white folks at large.
Lindsay Taylor
I am loving everything about this picture, especially her hair!
(Source: blackfashion)
Moving preview for upcoming documentary about discrimination against black women with darker complexions.
Oh, this is heartbreaking.
Every bit of it.
(Source: jezebel.com)
A Girl Like Me
Here’s some background on this video/documentary:
”The Clarks’ doll experiments grew out of Mamie Clark’s master’s degree thesis. They published three major papers between 1939 and 1940 on children’s self perception related to race. Their studies found contrasts among children attending segregated schools in Washington, DC versus those in integrated schools in New York. They found that black children often preferred to play with white dolls over black; that, asked to fill in a human figure with the color of their own skin, they frequently chose a lighter shade than was accurate; and that the children gave the color “white” attributes such as good and pretty, but “black” was qualified as bad and ugly.[8] They viewed the results as evidence that the children had internalized racism caused by being discriminated against and stigmatized by segregation.
The Clarks testified as expert witnesses in several school desegregation cases, including Briggs v. Elliott, which was later combined into the famous Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional.
In 2006 filmmaker Kiri Davis recreated the doll study and documented it in a film entitled A Girl Like Me. Despite the many changes in some parts of society, Davis found the same results as did the Drs. Clark in their study of the late 1930s and early 1940s.”
“Boy, Black women are having the worst.two.years.ever.
They’re all single, married to gay men, on the way to a cat-ful existence and That’s My Mama re-runs, can’t handle the truth, and can’t find bras that fit. It’s hard out here for a pimp, but that’s nothing compared to how hard it is for a Black woman.”
AWESOME ARTICLE.
(Source: shardemarie)
Princess Angela of Litchenstien is from New York City. She is a fashion designer and designed her own wedding gown.
Here’s a photo from her royal wedding.
Theresa Harris day continues on Vintage Black Glamour with Ms. Harris singing “Daddy Won’t You Please Come Home,” in the 1929 film, “Thunderbolt.“ Ms. Harris was the inspiration behind Lynn Nottage’s new play, “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark.”
I would like for something similar to her style to be my signature hairstyle.
I can totally accomplish that with a flat iron and some foam curlers… I think?
