Sunday, August 31, 2008

First step

These past couple of weeks, I hadn’t had too much time for my hair. Between the Phelps phenomenon and the Bolt fever of the Olympics, the Georgia crisis, the Obama-Biden partnership, the DNC, and the tiny events that unfold in my world on a daily basis, the interest that I had previously put on hair-related issues had faded.

What has surged instead is a thrust for holistic health, a drive to kick back all things unhealthy that stand between me and myself. Whether it is food, television, anger, or impulse buying, I am willing to claim myself back. The plan: exercising at least four times a week, control eating, less television time, more readings, meditation.

I am not in a hurry. One day at a time. As experience has taught me, no change has a greater impact than the small one that takes place on the home front or deep within—when no one is watching or when no one has a clue that we are rebelling against some long-cultivated bad habits, some silent addictions, and some inner battles that are undermining our well-being.

Being ‘nappy’ is just the first step of a long journey.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Friday, August 8, 2008

LIGHT SKINNED PRIVILEGE: BLACK IN AMERICA

Keith Josef Adkins

CNN's Black in America was a tease. From homicide to AIDS to single-parent homes to white ancestors and willing black concubines, it was interesting, daunting, frustrating and simply too much to cover in a short two hours. Blacks in America need at least a two month series dedicated to AIDS alone. But check this out: when the segment with Michael Eric Dyson started I got weird. The moment he and his incarcerated brother began to list reasons why two brothers, from the same household, made two different life choices and then a friend of mine yelled out "because he's yellow" and then Dyson himself said "cause I'm a yellow Negro child", I got weird....

http://blogs.theroot.com/blogs/diggingdeep/archive/2008/07/24/light-skinned-privilege-black-in-america.aspx