I just started a group on MSNBC Speak Out Site for ECLECTICALLY BLACK PEOPLE - to lodge our opinions in reference to issues governing repuglycon attacks against President Obama, Voting Rights, Race, the 2014 Election, and a myriad of other concerns that don't seem to be getting a lot of currency in the Black community. I am asking that you join the group and comment whenever you come across issues and news items that are of concern to us as Eclectically Black People - that is, Black people regardless of whether you're from Africa, the Caribbean, the US, South America, Asia, Europe, France, Russia, etc. Or if you are of mixed heritage. Eclectically Black people represent the culmination of the highest and best of who we are as a people - and our opinions are important.
But please, despite the fact that the repuglycons are a bunch of thugs and mean us no good, keep the language clean while saying what you feel. It's an open forum for us - so much of the commentary has been dominated by hostile repuglycon teabaggers - or obscured by other groups that may or may not represent our concerns and opinions. Hopefully this will provide us the avenue to express who we are and what we think in a manner that will have greater impact on the meanstream media.
I will be adding a "logo" in the near future, but hope you will log on and use this as an additional vehicle for communicating your interest, concerns, disagreements (w/o being disagreeable), suggestions, etc. We need to be heard and adhered to.
Little Sister Gabby Douglass Makes History Winning the Gold in Gymnastics at the Summer Olympics in London, England - yaaaaay! Everybody loves her for her grace, poise, stamina and agility - yaaaaay! American Negroes only see her hair style, and so, completely miss the point-boooooo!
This my response to an article that recently appeared on Grio about Gabby's shock at people criticizing her hair, and her statement: "I just made history and all they can talk about is my hair? Well they can keep talking, because I'm not going to change it!" :
You Go, Gabby! by Gloria Dulan-Wilson
My congratulations to little sister Gabby for her stunning performance, her poise, her intelligence and her beauty. Kudos to her for her poise and grace in handling the hostile comments of Ne-gro (i.e negative growth) people who obviously think so little of themselves that they project their brainwashing on a young lady who has already gone further in life at 16 they they have at 30, 40, 50 or 60+.
Black people need to get a grip when it comes to our hair. It's borne of racism, and the negative comparisons we make of ourselves to caucasians; but in the 21st century, it's time to get beyond that and embrace our Eclectically Black spectrum.
Gabby has done nothing to be ashamed of; unlike those who made the insipid comments. She has, on the other hand, done a great deal to make us all proud. It's sad to think our measure of her achievement stems from what hair style she's wearing.
To those who made these hurtful, ignorant comments, I'm curious about what you see when you look in your mirrors at home. Unfortunately, far too often the people who need to read these feed back comments are off somewhere badmouthing someone else.
It's the collective negativity and self hatred that keeps us in Lodebar. Time to look at Gabby from the God side of the equation. And God has looked at Gabby and said "This is My beloved Daughter, in whom I Am well pleased." If God be for Gabby - and He Is - then those who stand against her need to step off. Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Brothers and Sisters: The foregoing is a response to the hue and cry about Gabby Douglass' hair. You may or may not know that I'm very passionate about NATURAL Black hair. I've worn a NATURAL since my Junior year at Lincoln University. That's more than two thirds of my life now. And I have never looked back or gone back to the bad old days of temporaries (a/k/a permanents); hot combs or the other ways that we have to "whiten up" our hair. I can truly say "I'm happy nappy!"
Now Gabby is not sporting a natural, but she has elected to style her hair in a way that makes it possible to execute her agility without having to worry about it. And, with such a cute little chocolate drop face, she looks beautiful, the way a wholesome, Black 16 year old girl is supposed to look.
Now, I know that not every Black person shares my love of NATURAL hair. And I have long since dropped the need to proselytize about why a NATURAL is better than other hair choices we might have - in fact we are the one race that can wear our hair in almost any style - "straight", cornrows, locks, short, long, medium, spiked, curly, and of course NATURAL. No matter what the choice, as long as you know who you are as a Black person, it's all cool with me. Because we're an ECLECTIC PEOPLE, and by that I mean only the most positive, self empowering, uplifting, life affirming qualities are part of the mix - the hair is not the most important thing on the criteria.
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL - still! Thank you Brother Stokely Carmichael for saying that nearly 50 years ago, and freeing a great many of us of the need to continuously compare our beauty to meanstream caucasians. Those who are still in that mindset do so by choice, because the evidence is overwhelming.
Ironically, while there are many Black African American women who love to wear their hair in natural styles; there are just as many Continental African women who seem to feel the need to wear wigs, or straighten their hair. It's almost as though they've become ashamed of what we are most proud of - our NATURAL African beauty. I am a big fan of African movies on DVD. But I can't tell you how many times I've seen the feature star wearing a wig and contact lenses to lighten up their eyes. I don't understand what is happening in Africa. It seems as though they'd rather approximate the colonial monsters who took their land (and apparently their minds and culture) than stand for the timeless beauty we have given the world through our music, rhythm, philosophies, and color.
Oprah Winfrey recently decided to wear her hair in a NATURAL style, and the Ne-groes went nuts!! But then again, so did the meanstream media. They called it "wild" style. No doubt a veiled throwback to their closet prejudice against Black women. They couldn't understand how she got her hair like that. TMZ made some ignorant (as usual) remarks, while the house Ne-groes on the show laughed nervously and genuflected to the host (whatever his name is - "I'm a lawyer").
In the meantime, the comments about whether or not her hair had been "manipulated", followed by whether or not it was a weave, etc., went throughout Yahoo - and no doubt the other run-of-the mill social commentary engines. Thank goodness there were more "pro" comments drowning out the "cons". I was actually rather proud to find that there are sisters all over the US who were proud of Oprah for displaying her NATURAL beauty.
Let me say this to those of you who think it's better to be caught naked than NATURAL: Look out Negroes - you wannabe whites are about to reveal your "true colors". You are a throwback to the days of Oreos (not the cookies) who need to have validation from the white realm before they can embrace their own. You're the ones who will watch a commercial where some white woman paints her toenails blue, and be the next ones to wear blue toenail polish in recognition of the fact that you follow all things white; but won't take the same notice when some one Black comes up with a positive idea on TV - that is, not until the whites give their nod of approval. Then you're all over it.
You'll imitate the worst images a Black person can portray - i.e. "Black' blondes, or brick red hair, and then wonder why the man you want is going after a white woman. Understand - no one wants an imitation. No one respects a person who hates herself. We've actually become the original clown show when it comes to our hair. It's obvious that we don't like who we are, or what we look like when we are who we are. Or those cutting comments about little Gabby Douglass would not have been the dominant factor.
By the way Oprah looked beautiful and literally 10 years younger with her NATURAL. Going NATURAL keeps you young. And while one commentary stated it looked as though she had "manipulated' her hair, wearing a NATURAL hair style does not mean that you can't be creative or stylish with your coif. Frankly, it actually affords you more opportunity to come up with a great variety of ways of wearing NATURAL hair without bleaching it, wearing tracks, or relaxing (demoralizing) it.
Anywaaaaay! Gabby Douglass gets much props, as my Handsome Son would say. He himself has recently completed an interview survey of Black women of all ages and walks of life who have decided to wear their hair NATURAL. Soon to be released on a Facebook near you.
While Gabby is not wearing a NATURAL, she is a Natural beauty, and is to be commended for her maturity, focus and for not allowing the ne-groes to rattle her.
I truly hope that if you come across any of those negative growth (NE-GRO) people, and they make a hostile remark about either Gabby or Oprah, you will kindly remind them that our hair roots run deeper than the continent of Africa, and will continue to rise regardless of what they do to put it down. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!!
WELCOME TO ECLECTICALLY BLACK VIP BY Gloria Dulan-Wilson
And for those who don't know me, I'm Gloria Dulan-Wilson!Wow! I finally got it up and running. I've wanted to do so for quite some time, but I've been too busy writing to write one.
At last, with the help of a dynamic sister, Ms. Von Doane The Blogger BlogMaster, I'm actually sitting down and doing this.
I've been a communicator all my life; and a professional one for over thirty-five years -- including writing, radio, television, screenplays, poems, activism -- you name it, I've been trying to communicate with our world for at least that long.
As an activist at the early age of 10 with the NAACP Youth Council, I sat in, prayed in, picketed and protested; and later with the friends of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) in the early days of Black Power I took my activism to another level.
As a feature writer from the Daily Challenge News, the New York Beacon, The Black Star News, The African Sun Times, or Our Times Press I tried to keep you informed when the mainstream tried to keep you misinformed or uninformed.
Numerous forays on the now defunct Donahue Show (14 times); Geraldo Rivera (4 times -- I was the perfect juror during the O.J. Simpson Inside the Mind of the Jury epison -- I Said that OJ was absolutely 100% not guilty. Appeared on The Joan Rivers Show (I had the privilege of being on with the late great Black legend Ms. Rosa Parks); the early versions of Montel Williams (2 times -- both times dealing with racists rednecks); and Good Day New York in reference to the Spike Lee movie, Jungle Fever, which at the time stirred up controversy over the interracial theme.
I always to present the ECLECTIC BLACK VIEW.I later became known for my One-on-One Personality Profiles, doing in depth articles on people from all walks of life, from the famous to the infamous, from the great to the not so great, I had the fantastic opportunity of writing about people who had made an impact on our lives and our community.
As much as I enjoy writing about individuals, celebrities, events, concerns, and issues that affected us as a people, what I don't enjoy is the delay in getting essential info to our community. It was often left to the whim of an editor, or whether or not enough ads had been sold, or whether it conflicted with another article, as to whether or not a particular article was published in a timely manner.
It used to really aggravate me to do the work, write the story and find out that a week or two later it still hadn't run. Well, now I get to post VIEWS INFORMATION PERSPECTIVES on issues as I get it. Hopefully I'll live up to my own stringent standards and get the info out to you in a timely manner.
I do warn you, though, I am definitely ECLECTICALLY BLACK in my views and orientation! That means that I resonate to all the facets of my African Heritage, including African, African American, Caribbean, South American siblings, as well as any relatives of American Indian and Asian extraction, who are also part of the panorama of Blackness.
We've got so much to learn from and about each other, so much to share with each other, I want to be a conduit for unity in our community. VIP means that the Views, Interests and Perspectives that concern Black People, whether it be political, educational, emotional, social, spiritual, financial, or other areas will alway have priority. I also plan to have a little fun as well, because it was our sense of humor that brought us a lot of stuff.I'm predisposed to good news, and will deal with "bad news", but if we can come up with some positive solutions or recommendations to the problem(s), rather than a pity party or gripe session, so much the better.
ECLECTICALLY BLACK VIP will be oriented to "anything they can do we can do better" for ourselves and with more class. This, hopefully will become the jump off point for consolidating the resourcefulness that made it possible for us to survive more than 400 years of oppression.
ECLECTICALLY BLACK will be a "love-fest", taking us to the next level of greatness. Love for our selves, our people, each other. It's open at the top for your input and reflection, as long as you keep it clean and uplifting.
So welcome to ECLECTICALLY BLACK: VIP. This is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship.
Visitors may post reviews, are encouraged to post comments, and other content; and use other communications; and submit suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information, so long as the content is not illegal, obscene, offensive material (items that promote hatred, violence, racism, or intolerance) threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy or spam.
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