Diary of a Happy Black Woman

african-fairy: dang i didnt even tink of that but thats so true white allies used to be right there...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:44:39 -0400

dang i didnt even tink of that but thats so true

white allies used to be right there willin to get their ass kicked, torn apart by dogs, hosed down

everything for equality

but now our “allies” cant even handle criticism

can we trade yall in for your grandparents and great grandparents?

What would MLK think..

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:40:22 -0400

about this verse in”Im In It” off of Yeezus? (*le sigh*)

“Your titties, let ‘em out, free at last

Thank God almighty, they free at last”

Have yet to listen to the album..To those who have…is it worth a listen?

"Lose yourself to improve yourself. Only when we shed all self-definition do we find who we really..."

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:29:21 -0400

“Lose yourself to improve yourself. Only when we shed all self-definition do we find who we really are.”

- RZA (via sowetogriot)

"White people in America are a trip… they exterminate the Native American and then try to dress just..."

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:16:56 -0400

“White people in America are a trip… they exterminate the Native American and then try to dress just like them. What kind of necrophilia is that?”

- A Huey P. Newton Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19WrVx-kS8

(via asantecanuslove)

No but seriously…it’s weird….

(via ethnicnraunchy)

African American Documentaries

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:15:47 -0400

African American Documentaries:

Well dear readers, I have been watching a lot of documentaries lately (the product of waiting to go back to work) so I thought I would share the one’s I have seen and my thoughts with you. However, the list alone is a multi-page word document (when I commit, I commit; Oops) so I will start with the list of African American specific documentaries and go from there:

4 Little Girls (1997)

A Man Named Pearl (2006)

A Question of Color (1992)

A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs & Freedom (1996)

African American Lives (2006)

African American Lives 2 (2008)

All of Us: Protecting Black Women Against AIDS (2009)

America Beyond the Color Line (2005)

BaadAssss Cinema: A Bold Look at 70s Blaxploitation Films (2002)

Banished (2006)

Bastards of the Party (2005)

Between Black and White (1994)

Black American Conservatism: An Exploration of Ideas (1992)

Black Is – Black Ain’t: A Personal Journey Through Black Identity (1995)

Black Like Who? (1997)

Black on Black (1968)

Blacking Up: Hip Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity (2010)

Breaking the Huddle (2008)

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2002)

By River, By Rail (1998)

Chester Himes: A Rage in Harlem (2009)

Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed (2004)Citizen King (2004)

COINTELPRO: The FBI’s War on Black America (2009)

Color Adjustment (1991)

Crisis in Levittown (1957)

Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty (2003)

Ethnic Notions (1986)

Eyes on the Prize Series (1987)

Awakenings, 1954-1956

Fighting Back, 1957-1962

Ain’t Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961

No Easy Walk 1962-1966

Mississippi, Is This America, 1962-1964

Bridge to Freedom, 1965

The Time Has Come, 1964-1965

Two Societies, 1965-1968

Power! 1967-1968

The Promised Land, 1967-1968

Ain’t Gonna Shuffle No More, 1964-1972

A Nation of Law?, 1967-1968

The Keys to the Kingdom, 1974-1980

Back to the Movement, 1979-mid 1980s

Fannie Lou Hamer: Voting Rights Activists (2009)

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (2008)

Freedom Riders (2009)

Good Hair (2009)

Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)

Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks (2000)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

It’s a Damn Shame: Homosexuality in Hop-Hop (2006)

Jazz (2001)

Just Black?: Multi-Racial Identity (1992)

Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History (1998)

Lady Day Sings the Blues (2005)

Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994)

Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies (1994)

The N Word: Divided We Stand (2006)

Passin’ It On: the Black Panthers’ Search for Justice (2006)

Prom Night in Mississippi (2009)

Racism in America: Small Town 1950s Case Study

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man, Celebrated Writer (2009)

Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (2004)

Roads to Memphis: the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010)

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (2005)

Secret Daughter (1996)

Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change (2007)

Slavery and the Making of America (2004)

Slavery by Another Name (2012)

Soul Food Junkies (2012)

Soundtrack for a Revolution (2009)

Strange Fruit (2002)

The Abolitionists (2013)

The Black List: Volume 1 (2008)

The Black List: Volume 2 (2009)

The Black List: Volume 3

The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 (2011)

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (1998)

The Black Wall Street

The Central Park Five (2013)

The Darker Side of Black (1996)

The Language You Cry In (1998)

The Loving Story (2011)

The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry (1991)

The Mirror Lied (1999)

The Murder of Emmett Till (2003)

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2004)

The Two Nations of Black America (2008)

Two Dollars and A Dream (1989)

Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives (2003)

Underground Railroad: the William Still Story (2012)

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005)

Wattstax (1973)

We Shall Overcome (1988)

When the Levies Broke (2006)

With All Deliberate Speed (2005)

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:15:19 -0400

““Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.””

- Zora Neale Hurston (via dotropolis)

Natural Hair Bloggers from NYC- Natural Hair docu series

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:48:00 -0400

Hey fam! Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on a mini docu-series called The Third Rail with a partner, focusing our attention on issues within the Black Community. With two episodes recorded (will be launched online soon!) our third episode will be pertaining to natural hair. Though the rise of the natural hair community and transitioning has been talked about thoroughly, we are looking to take a different spin on the matter (looking to discuss the obsession with length and particular curl patterns that is used in the marketing and advertising of natural hair products etc.)

While trying to sort out our ideas for this episode we are currently looking to attend natural hair meet-ups in the city and bloggers/gurus that live in the New York City area that we can interview. I would loove for you’ll input! If you are interested in being apart of this project wither you have ideas of where this documentary can go, if you would like to be interviewed or if you know of any hair bloggers that live in this area I would greatly appreciate your input.

Much Love as always!

-Z

Photo

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:38:26 -0400

"There is no doubt that if young white people were incarcerated at the same rates as young black..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:36:29 -0400

“There is no doubt that if young white people were incarcerated at the same rates as young black people, the issue would be a national emergency. But it is also true that if young black middle- and upper-class people were incarcerated at the same rates as young black poor people, black leaders would focus much more on the prison-industrial complex.”

- Cornel West in the foreword of The New Jim Crow (via daniellemertina)

clutchmag: New Film Explores the “Muted” Voices of Missing...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:36:05 -0400

clutchmag:

New Film Explores the “Muted” Voices of Missing Children of Color

The Federal Bureau of Investigation found more than 225,000 African-Americans reported missing in…

View Post

30 Signs You Went To A Black College

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:27:01 -0400

30 Signs You Went To A Black College:

Sound so smart, like you graduated college. Like you went to Yale but you probably went to Howard.

Jah bless HBCU’s

& shout out to the fact that Bennett College was mentioned in a piece about black colleges!!

"Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:19:34 -0400

“Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.”

- Unknown (via femputations)

A list of interesting things that I have been said to me during my first year of Grad School..

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:18:19 -0400

While this has undoubtedly been the most intense and challenging year of my life… I have been bombarded with buckets of ignorance during this year at NYU..

Let’s recount some of them shall we:

1. “I think mixed race couples make the best looking babies” Okay not terribly ridiculous but that fact that someone said that to me…i’m not gonna lie I was taken aback just a little..

2. “Black women were created in order to take a black penis..Whenever I see a black man with a non black woman I always imagine their penis going through their body and out their mouth..I mean how can they handle all of that?” I’m just gonna leave that here.. this anonymous person was going on about being obsessed with black men..because we all know what they say about black men *wink wink* *blank stare*

3. “How did black people come to America?” I guess I was wrong in assuming that the history was enslaved people was in all North American curriculums

4. “Did Martin Luther King free the slaves?” You’ll don’t understand how badly I wanted to lie and tell this person that MLK and Malcolm X worked together to free enslaved people..but I didn’t. Don’t worry I have a comprehensive history lesson.

5. Let me give some context for this next one. I was over at a colleagues apartment, when this anonymous person flips to E! to watch the Fashion Police. Not gonna lie I could care less about this show and this network..so when anonymous asked me about the particular celebrity being discussed and I replied nonchalantly about celebrity culture this was said to me: “You should be more open minded about white celebrity culture..you’re holding a real prejudice against this people and the interesting lives that they lead when you can learn a lot from these people.” Girl, bye! If you really think that if I embrace the lives of these stars that I can learn something from them. Not to sham her…but what does Kim Kardashian and the like have to offer me?

6. “Why are black people in America poor?” I don’t feel like getting into this one right now -_-

7. *Referring to my afro* “You’re hair looks like popcorn and I just wanna take a bite..haha right sister.” In all my years I have never heard this one before..EVER

Trust me there have been waaay more that has been said, however, these have been the highlight of my time here. Gotta love it…

If you're still looking for summer reading suggestions, there is a page on our blog called Summer Book Club. It has all the books we are reading this summer and a description of each one. I hope that helps :)

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:03:54 -0400

OMG thank you soo much! Yeah i’m still trying to compile a summer reading list. Thanks again!!

"do you think calling me “angry” is an insult. every time you call me “angry” i hear your voice..."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:26:06 -0400

“do you think
calling me “angry”
is an insult.
every time you call me “angry”
i hear your voice salt with guilt
and
i laugh.
look how easy it is to reveal you.”

- nayyirah waheed, anger is a healthy and natural response to oppression (via eibmorb)

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:46:26 -0400

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

- Alice Walker

almost every popular tv show nowadays: white guy meets another white guy. they develop a strong bond and a complex relationship. fandom praises the writers for their contribution to queer representation even though the characters are textually straight and their misleading sexual subtext is played as an edgy thrill. the critics acclaim the show for the fresh portrayal of bromance between the leads even though male relationships have been the engines of western narratives since the ancient times. female secondary characters are disposed to advance dude brotimes and manpain. virtually no one points anything wrong about this.

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:11:26 -0400

almost every popular tv show nowadays: white guy meets another white guy. they develop a strong bond and a complex relationship. fandom praises the writers for their contribution to queer representation even though the characters are textually straight and their misleading sexual subtext is played as an edgy thrill. the critics acclaim the show for the fresh portrayal of bromance between the leads even though male relationships have been the engines of western narratives since the ancient times. female secondary characters are disposed to advance dude brotimes and manpain. virtually no one points anything wrong about this.

lojikal: COMMON uh hmmm..

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:05:17 -0400

lojikal:

COMMON

uh hmmm..

courtneycymone:

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:05:02 -0400

courtneycymone:

Miss Representation

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:45:57 -0400

Miss Representation