Entries from December 2009 ↓

3D modeling by @gem2001 for WhatAboutOurDaughters.com

No, we haven’t forgotten about a certain exploitive media personality. We’re just declaring a Christmas Blog Armistice. You can keep the conversation going by joining the What About Our Daughters Network. We have forums, chats, photos an other interesting discussions you don’t see on the blog.

Okay. Okay. We get it. If you’re a Black woman, you’re gonna die old and alone and be eaten alive by nine cats…. unless you kill yourself first which is the premise that the Washington Post offers us in this 5 page article called SUCCESSFUL, BLACK and LONLEY.

Andrews documents the lives of so many young black women who appear to have everything: looks, charm, Ivy League degrees, great jobs. Closets packed full of fabulous clothes; fabulous condos in fabulous gentrified neighborhoods; fabulous vacations, fabulous friends. And yet they are lonely: Their lives are repetitive, desperate and empty.WAPO

DId I mention y’all are lonely. So apparently Helena Andrews has  a book coming out called “Bitch is the New Black” – How freaking original. Instead of stereotyping Black women as Welfare Queens, Mammy, and whoever else, she falls back on the old weez all gon’e die old and alone and be eaten by 9 cats. I wish someone would write a book about kick@$$ septuagenarians who are ruling the world.

Clearly this book hops on the gravy train currently dragging Hill Harper
and Steve Harvey
straight to the bank- trafficking in the loneliness of Black women. THis is yet another rhetorical suicide bomb being set off in a room full of Black women. Gina, that’s harsh. No its not! If you want to take yourself out, fine, but don’t try to take all other Black women with you by saying stupid nonsense like this. Stereotype much?

Helena Andrews says she is a mean girl. That is where the title of the book comes from.

“It’s much easier if you have a mask, ‘Don’t [expletive] with me.’ Then you don’t have to worry about office politics.” She once asked a colleague, “Why does no one say hi to me in the morning?”

“Because you are a bitch,” the colleague replied.

Andrews wasn’t offended. That is her way of moving through the world. That way you don’t get hurt, you mask any softness or weakness inside. Washington Post

Helena won’t mind me calling her a rhetorical suicided bomber… she wears a mask after all . Helena here’s a tip MOVE!  Move! If you just HAVE to be married why the heck are you in Washington, DC? On a side note, being really BAD at office politics doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about office politics.

I am not anti-marriage, but I am also not anti-single. If you want to be married then be about the business of getting married. There are a number of Black women bloggers who have dedicated entire series towards this endeavor, if that’s the most important thing in your life, then be about the business of going for it, but stop doing the same crap over and over again and then whine because its not working out for you and write a book defaming Black women.

You can’t always get what you want, its called life! doesn’t begin or end when you get your MRS, it just keeps rolling along.    Stop letting these snake oil salesmen and women prey upon your fears that education, career advancement, and the ability to take care of yourself  equals slitting your wrist because you ain’t got no maaaaan. . Live your life. Enjoy your health… while you can. I promise y’all finishing at least one complete manuscript is at the top of my list for 2010. This Black Woman Preying Book Madness must be rebuked! Check out the Singled Out blog at Psychology Today.

Hat Tip to Blkchik who posted this on the What About Our Daughters Network Forum.

PPS. To Helena’s publicist, no need to thank me! make sure you get paid for this post. Have a great one!

At this rate, my long anticipated public unveiling of Tavis Smiley’s sycophants might get pushed back to Christmas week, but the hits just keep on coming. I initially read about this story, but didn’t post it, but that becomes almost impossible because irrespective of whether or not a 12 year old girl was raped in a stairwell by another 14 year-old student.

The legal system will do what it will, but the attitudes related to sexual violence by the administrators ranks right up there at the top of the WhatTheHeckWereTheyThinking scale of idiocy. Mother Jones has a collection of responses from school staff and administrators, but these two from the school supervisor and assistant supervisor stood out:

School site supervisor Marquita Dones: “If she was being raped, why didn’t she scream? Why did these students have to come up and tell us that somebody’s down there?”

Cannon again: “I know the girl and I know the guy… I know for a fact that that girl could’ve knocked that guy out with one hand tied behind her back.” Mother Jones

Oh really? Mr. Cannon are you saying she was as strong as an ox? Are you saying she was “unrapeable”? She was 12, the alleged assailant is 14. No difference in muscle mass and strength? Continue reading →

Fellow WAOD readers made me proud with their open-sourced activism yesterday related to Lamya Cammon, the little Black girl who was assaulted by her teacher and humiliated in front of her classmates when her teacher cut her braid off.

WAOD READER-ACTIVIST BlkSeaGoat

I spoke with Sheila in the office of the DA-John Chisolm, Office of Sensitive Crimes. She stated that they have no record of the case being referred to the office and had received one call regarding the case. She promised to look into the case an would get bach to me.

You may call, email, or write to:

Office of the District Attorney, Milwaukee County
John Chisolm, D.A.
821 West State Street, Room 405
Milwaukee, WI 53233

milwaukee.da@da.wi.gov

414.278.4653‎

WAOD READER JEN

I spoke to the NAACP-Milwaukee and they said they can’t intervene legally until the parent files a case. I also wrote to the principal of the school. Here’s the number and e-mail to contact the school directly:

Tel: (414) 616-5300
E-mail: 116@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us

We can also file complaints to the Milwaukee Public School System. I think their number is (414) 475-8467

Folks we got a child abuser teaching in the schools of Milwaukee. Beyond being incompetent, this teacher is a threat and an danger to children. I don’t care what Lamya’s Mama wants. This teacher has clearly taken leave of her senses. She’s a bully of the worst sort and the idea that this assailant would be allowed to return to the classroom is an indication of how little the Milwaukee school district values the lives of its students. Continue reading →

Hat Tip to BlkSeaGoat a judge just tossed the sexual assault charges against one of the defendants in the gang rape of an 8 year old Libreian girl. The girl’s case made national attention when wretched “parents” told the state they didn’t want to take her back because she was a rape victim. Continue reading →

UPDATE via BlkSeaGoat:

I spoke with Sheila in the office of the DA-John Chisolm, Office of Sensitive Crimes. She stated that they have no record of the case being referred to the office and had received one call regarding the case. She promised to look into the case an would get bach to me.

You may call, email, or write to:

Office of the District Attorney, Milwaukee County
John Chisolm, D.A.
821 West State Street, Room 405
Milwaukee, WI 53233

milwaukee.da@da.wi.gov Continue reading →

I’m a Girl Scout, Brownie and Junior. My best Girl Scout memory was going to Camp Arnold. For three days we lived off the land. Campfires, cooking peach cobbler by digging a hole in the ground throwing some peaches and cake mix in an iron pot and covering it with hot charcoal. Canoeing. It was the best. But as with all outdoor activities, you had to contend with pests. Insects. Mosquitos, fire ants, flies. You dealt with these minor annoyances. It was the price you paid for experiencing the great outdoors.

Blogging comments sections are a lot like camping. You can have a great time, but occasionally a troll or pest will be attracted to your festivities. For the most part you swat them away. After all, pulling out a can of Raid at the campfire kinda ruins the moment.

But at Camp Arnold along may of the paths you would find trees with florescent stripes sprayed on them. Attached to those trees would be a simple garden hoe

You see, while you were at Camp Arnold being at one with nature, there were some pests that were annoying- you swatted those away. Then there were other pests that were threats- these would be the copperheads slithering around. Should you find yourself in a confrontation with a copperhead, you were empowered to chop off its heads. Continue reading →

PBS, Tavis Smiley’s largest platform, is funded in part by YOU, the taxpayer through a private corporation created by the federal government called the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Yes, the same folks who brought us Sesame Street. Seeing as how YOU are subsidizing his primary advertising outlet, I think it is a legitimate question to ask PBS’s resident diversity check box where he and his business partner stand on the issue of child rape after Mr. Smiley’s publishing company set off a publicity blitz to announce their role in rehabilitating the image of R. Kelly, an accused pedophile with longstanding purported predilections for engaging in alleged sexual acts with underage girls.

Talk show host Tavis Smiley, founder of Smiley Books, said the publisher “was thrilled to be the conduit through which R Kelly will tell his own story”.Source

Now Mr. Smiley is free to engage in whatever legal commerce he want’s to, HOWEVER, Mr. Smiley has built an empire on the purported basis of “uplifting” and empowering the Black community, that empire is sustained and supported by taxpayer dollars, first on NPR and now on PBS. Therefore, I think its fair to ask him to make a clear unequivocal statement regarding the following:

• Does Mr. Smiley believe that it is appropriate for a 40 year old man to have sex with a girl that is 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11 or younger?
• Does Mr. Smiley believe that is is appropriate for men to videotape sex acts with girls that are 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12,11 or younger?
• At what age should a girl be before Mr. Smiley believes it is appropriate for an adult male to engage in a sex act with said girl?
• Does Mr. Smiley believe that it is possible for a man who has admitted to being illiterate to be marketed as having “written” a book?
• Does Tavis Smiley believe that Robert Kelly has engaged in sexual relationships with underage girls? If not, why not?
• What if any impact does Mr. Smiley believe that older men having sex with much younger girls has on the “empowerment” of the African American community?
• Would Mr. Smiley be “thrilled” to tell the story of Mr. Kelly’s alleged victims? If so, when?
• Do you believe the health and safety of African American girls is subordinate to profiteering?

For PBS

• Has PBS entered into any content-producing partnerships with African American WOMEN for nationally televised events? If so who, what, when, where and how?
• Will Mr. Kelly or his book be mentioned or appear on any PBS programming? If so when and why?

I have no doubt that Tavis Smiley will refuse to answer these very simple questions, but feel free to ask them anyway. If he does plan on answering these questions, he might want to think about answering them sometime in 2009.

To contact PBS’ funder, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting-

Comments Line
800-272-2190

Main Phone Number
202-879-9600

Mailing Address
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
401 Ninth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004-2129

Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO – PBS Contact Form (need an alternative contact)

Tavis Smiley

Producer:
KCET & The Smiley Group
4401 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90027
(323) 666-6500

Web site:
www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/

E-mail:
tsinfo@kcet.org

You can ask the PBS media folks for their statement, should they choose to provide one:

Lea Sloan, PBS, 703/739-5021; lsloan@pbs.org

Jan McNamara, PBS, 703/739-5028; jmcnamara@pbs.org

As always, I throw up the contact information that I pull up first in Google. Our wonderful reading audience always comes up with much better contact information, put it in the comments.

Notice I said ASK QUESTIONS, not launch World War V. . . we’ll leave the fighting for later.
Do us a favor, if you write about “Tavis Smiley” on your blog, hyperlink the words “Tavis Smiley” to this or other posts discussing this abomination .

They are sentencing the last of the four arrested in the Dunbar Village case today. Avion Lawson who testified against the other three will be sentenced today. Read the story.

So I saw the Princess and the Frog, which should be called “The Princess IS the Frog.”It wasn’t the kind of movie I would want to see again and again. It was no Lion King or Incredibles( Which I watch to this day), more like a Lilo and Stitch. There were only three children in my movie, the rest were adults. As it should have been since we didn’t get out until 9:30. The kids didn’t appear to be all that excited other than when she turned into a frog and with Mama Oldie. The love story made no sense.On the positive, the Princess was Black. Continue reading →