The Gift of Sight in Namibia

Not too many people know much about this coastal south African country, a former protectorate of South Africa. It's one of the world's least dense countries and also has one of the highest rates of blindness by cataracts. A former fashion designer now Dr. Helen Ndume, noticed this dilemma and has worked tirelessly for those who once blind, to now see.



This story says a lot about an African nation, which are traditionally believed by the West as places that can't help themselves. Even despite the assistance that Dr. Ndume is receiving from NGOs, she was the one who conceived the idea and brought it to reality.

I feel any person that finds themselves needing to "help Africa" should first look at how Africans are helping themselves. Despite some of the hardships that fall upon some African nations, I have noticed that generally Africans are creative. For example, I remember reading about two men in Kenya who found a way to use their bicycles to charge their phones. A man in Nigeria found a way to solve the electric grid problem and the sanitation problem in Lagos - simultaneously. In fact, some argue that Westerners should even look at Africa for innovation.

All in all, Africans have been helping themselves for hundreds of years. even though many Western media group portray Africa as "desperate." I think many of us forget that the one of the world's first great civilizations was in Africa. Also, something that many around the world start their day with - coffee - is from Africa (Ethiopia, more specifically), too. I'll save my list of innovations from Africa for another blog post.

"Your cookie is free, black lady"

Coming into work and finding stuff to blog about has always been interesting. Now I have yet to comment about last week's sanctioned murder of Troy Davis, but this other issue definitely has my stomach growling (but not with hunger).

Yesterday, a college bake sale at University of California at Berkley made headlines across the great USA. Not because the cupcakes could compete with Chicago's famed cupcake store, Molly's Cupcakes (my favorite place to indulge in Chi-Town), but because all of the baked goods were priced based on the customer's race and gender. The highest price were for white males and the lowest were for black females. All other racial groups were somewhere in between and all women got a discount.Crazy, huh? Well, guess what student organization was behind this? The College Republicans (not a surprise). Their point: to show the affects of affirmative action.



I don't know how many times the purpose of affirmative action must be explained, but let's be real. I thought we all knew that affirmative action is in place because historically (and still currently) groups other than white males are frequently discriminated against. Affirmative action is in place to help those in marginalized groups (women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians) cross the divide to ensure a fair chance at an education. It does not mean that those within these groups get it easy but it means that they have to work just as hard as their white male applicants to get in instead of TWICE (or more) as hard.

More bothersome about this bake sale was not the bake sale itself, but the fact that among those who planned it were Asian and Latino. Simply put, they wouldn't have been able to JOIN any college organization because some of them may not have even been accepted if it wasn't for affirmative action. And all because you may be seen as superior to black folk does make you equal to white men.

I don't know if I have said this before or not, but I strongly believe those who have not come from generations of societal (and many cases, legal) disenfranchisement don't (or refuse to) understand why several of these laws have been created - to prevent history from repeating itself and to program those of who come from generations of bigotry to understand what their generations of the past have done and what they are doing now is disruptive to a productive, "post-racist" and culturally relative modern society. If you're a white man and you don't understand why that white woman, who attended a school equal in calibur to yours, scored exactly the same as you did on the ACT and the SAT, got in over you, let me break it down. She got in because YOU have a better opportunity to get into any school of your choice because no one will turn you down because of your race or gender. That white woman could be turned be turned down from several schools simply because of her gender, even in today's society. Why do you think Hilary Clinton is not president today, despite the fact that she's more qualified than Barack Obama? America is still conditioned to think that men are more capable than women, regardless of race.

All in all, I think the discounts are well deserved. Based on data collected by the National Committee of Pay Equity, white men earn the most out of everyone else.

Miss Universe 2011 Hails From Angola

Sorry, this is late, but I must put it out there: It's great that this Miss Universe is a dark and lovely Angolan! Despite how utterly shallow the Miss Universe pageant is, I think it always seems to bring interesting discourse in regard to beauty. I could go into the many aspects of beauty, but today, I'll focus on one.

I don't know if this pageant marks the acceptance of black is beautiful, but at least this year it kind of sends that message. I remember watching clips from an upcoming documentary titled Dark Girls, which focused on the beauty politics among black females and the standards they feel they need to live up to not only in the greater American society, but also within the African-American community. I think many women struggles to attain the social construct of beauty, and I think what carried Leila Lopes of Angola to where she is now is not necessarily her looks, but how she views herself.

Having the confidence that you look beautiful I think is something people can see, even beyond "imperfections." In essence, what has been said a thousand times already, beauty is skin deep and it really depends on how you see yourself to portray beauty.

Vibrate Like My Nokia by Kenyan Hip Hop Group Weusi Familia

Can anyone out there vibrate like a Nokia? Try it to this song by Weusi Familia.

But, You're Big, Too, Miss Surgeon General

Okay. I know I am a bit late on this, but I have been having a few issues with my laptop (and it's finally in the process of getting fixed). Speaking of fixing things, this morning, after a few days of trying a new shampoo and using my favorite leave in conditioner, my hair has been doing very wonderful things. As a black person, hair is very important to me, and when my hair is acting the way I would like it to act, that puts a smile on my face. Now if I were a black woman, it would be even more important, and when the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin (a black woman) announced that relaxers (the black person's version of a perm, for some black women, their crack) are not good, I thought she must have a very intelligent reason other than what we do know (like how getting relaxers too often can lead to drastic to permanent hair loss or it's addictive quality, for example). This reason, however, I'm not too sure, but it begs for discourse.

According to an editorial in the Chicago Tribune, Dr. Benjamin believes that after a black woman spends $60 or more to get her hair relaxed, she is less eager to work out at the gym. Not that I disagree with what she's saying, since I know several black women who refuse to work out after a few weeks of getting a relaxer. Why? They don't want to wash out their silky straight hair after making a "critical" investment. Every woman, black, white, brown, et cetera, spends thousands of dollars on there hair within their lifetime, which shows how important it is to them. More so, out of all women, black women spend the most, making hair products for black women a $9 billion industry. But, what bothers me about Dr. Benjamin's statement is how SHE is overweight (sorry, I had to call her out on it).

I am glad she brought this to our attention, so then we can begin to use these "hair-friendly exercises" she's proposing, but I would love to see her spearhead it and do it herself. She should take the lead so every overweight woman (especially African-American ones) can get healthy. African-American women have the highest obesity rate in comparison to every other American female demographic group. These exercises, in combination with healthier eating and eating habits might just reduce this number, but, like I always say, this would happen if people actually do it. Not saying they should go from one unhealthy weight to another (as in too thin), but should reconsider their diets (and so should Ms. Benjamin).

World's Most Power Black Women (STUNNED Who Made The List)

Today I checked out Forbes' list of the world's most power black women. I was not surprised to see that Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey or Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's Finance Minister made the list. I was shocked, in fact floored, that recently announced pregnant Beyonce Knowles was on the list. Even more shocking (even though I am unsure that this list is a ranking), Beyonce was listed second to Mrs. Obama.

This is the first time I have disagreed with Forbes on a listing. Beyonce does not control a media empire. She does not do anything that could change the lives of millions. Her clothing line is like Juicy Couture, high quality and low taste, so she's not influential in the fashion world. Maybe she's influential in the music world, but that is where it ends. I am highly disappointed that in a league of black women who seriously make a difference in people's lives, an entertainer, with a small philanthropic resume, is included. Maybe when shaking that ass becomes paramount in feeding the hungry in the Horn of Africa and other parts of the world, then maybe would I agree with this list.

Blackface Mishap in Korea AGAIN?

It's one thing when you make a mistake once, but when you make the same mistake TWICE, that's a problem.

Like a growing but unknown number of black people across the world, I am fan of K-Pop. I don't know what it is that got me hooked, but when a song by Big Bang comes on or one of those cute Girls' Generation hits start making the speakers boom, it puts a smile on my heart and makes my booty do a little dance. But of course, it seems when there is anything good, there has to be something bad. In the case of the K-Pop world, that evil zombie created in antebellum America seems to show it's face (its blackface, which should have died in the 1950s).

For those of you that are not familiar with blackface, here is a classic example from a movie starring one of America's sweethearts, Judy Garland.



Blackface, as defined by Webster's dictionary as "makeup applied to a performer to play a black person, usually in a minstrel show." However, one thing that Webster's does not tell us is that most of the time this was done by someone who was usually a non-black to push a stereotype of a black person, and almost always it was negative and had racist overtones, further marginalizing blacks from mainstream society. Blackface minstrelsy was prominent for over 100 years in the United States and has critically damaged the image of black people globally and can even be blamed for the black self-hate theory. Black people across the world are still recovering from its legacy.

The first time I heard of this blackface mishap going in Korea was back in 2009 when BEAST member Lee KiKwang was in classic blackface makeup on a variety show and there were complaints on blogs (English language blogs as far as I know) from mainly black fans. Yes, I was one of the pissed, but also I was curious why this was thought to be funny. At this point, I had met several Koreans (many of them are my good friends today) and I had never gotten a racist vibe from them, so assumed maybe Koreans thought that was cute. Then I went to Korea, worked on a documentary (coming soon) and learned that the views of black people vary, but there is general consensus pushed by the media images they get from the United States and other Western countries, which is not a very good image. I also considered the homogeneity of Korea, and, in general, when you seldom see any other race or ethnic group, you are ignorant of that group. Then, only a few days ago, a similar incident arises with Super Junior.

Despite the ignorance to to the lack of diversity in Korea and blackface is arguably a thing of America's past, why is it in Korea's present? South Korea is a highly developed nation with probably one of the world's most rigorous educational systems. So, how can a group of educated people be so ignorant, especially with the Internet being right at their finger tips? Well, there are two types of education that I feel a person needs to be successful on this planet: a formal academic education and a world education. The latter is a the type of education that no school can teach. An academic education is paramount to help one understand the world, but a world education helps you apply what you have learned in a formal educational setting. Both go hand and hand, especially considering how our world is "shrinking" and the economy is becoming more global, it's more important than ever to have both.

Sadly, from my interviews while I was in Korea, I noticed time and time again the most ignorant were the ones that had not left Korea and most of them were 40 or older. Many of people in their 20s and 30s, however, either have been outside of Korea or were planning on traveling to another country. Now, don't get me wrong, Koreans are extremely welcoming to foreigners, especially to me. I felt like a celebrity the whole time I was there because I was treated as such, but there was definitely a lot of ignorance about black people and if I was an extremely aggressive and easily offended person, things would have been different. Luckily, like I try to do any time I'm not in the United States, I arrived in Korea with an open mind.

Back to this recent blackface incident in Korea, most likely most of the blame does not go to Shindong, just like the incident with Kikwang; fingers can be pointed at their managers and producers, who are usually in their 40s. As in a lot of popular music today, the performer is pretty much does what their managers and producers tell them to do, or they could lose their job (and we all know that a paycheck is important). However, the performer and the producers have the responsibility to be ethical, especially in media. Whatever the reasoning was, even if it was an homage to black folks (because there are Koreans that I met that are obsessed with black people), it is still a caricature of a black person by someone who is not black and when something like that is done in a homogeneous society, it perpetuates a generalized image of an entire group of people that is far from true for every individual in that group. It legitimizes and preconceived distinctions between Koreans and blacks people and hinders successful intercultural communication.

So, should it have happened TWICE? NO! Koreans are not stupid people (well, I met a few that were, but there are dumb people in every society). If one K-Pop celeb does something that causes an uproar with your international fans, you should know not to do. And if you don't know why, RESEARCH why. As a producer, that is what you are supposed to do - keep the wrong type of press from your product. And if you are not doing that, you are failing at your job. Since Korea's government is pushing multicultural education, this is one thing that needs to be considered.