Posts Tagged race talk

By Sesali B. • 11 years ago

Do as I say, not as I do: On language for SOME of us

From Paula Dean to athletes Riley Cooper and Roy Hibbert, 2013 has been the year of the celebs getting caught using discriminatory language. While all of the aforementioned have received their respective slaps on the wrist by way of fines, firings, and contract cuts, they did not go down without some finger wagging of their own.

Apparently many people still do not seem to understand the importance of context or the significance of self-definition (including the ownership of certain terms). In the case of the Deen and Cooper, who were both exposed for using the N-word, we’ve noticed the dialogue blame shift from the white people using words that are rooted in hatred and/or don’t belong to ...

From Paula Dean to athletes Riley Cooper and Roy Hibbert, 2013 has been the year of the celebs getting caught using discriminatory language. While all of the aforementioned have received their ...
By Syreeta McFadden • 12 years ago

Chris Matthews goes HAM on Preibus. Heads explode.

If you haven’t seen Chris Matthews go, (what I and others affectionately like to refer to as) H.A.M. (Hard as a Mutha@&$) on GOP Chairman Reince Preibus yesterday on Morning Joe, this is for you:

Shorter Chris Matthews: We see you. This is as good as Soledad’s recent smackdowns, yo. Matthews stumbles a bit, but you know something… I ain’t mad. Not one bit. I really, really, really appreciate that the responsibility of calling the GOP in their signaling and race talk strategy is not solely on the shoulders of a person of color or woman. The language is divisive and sometimes, we really need other people (white folks) to speak up when they see it. It means that ...

If you haven’t seen Chris Matthews go, (what I and others affectionately like to refer to as) H.A.M. (Hard as a Mutha@&$) on GOP Chairman Reince Preibus yesterday on Morning Joe, this is for you:

Shorter Chris ...
By Syreeta McFadden • 12 years ago

The unbearable politicizing of black hair

Full Disclosure: I’ve been natural for nearly 12 years. Many years ago, when I was working on a big real estate project as an entry level project manager, a fellow black woman admonished me for wearing a colorful headscarf. At the time, I wore my hair in double strand twists that I would do myself, a tedious,painstaking project that would warrant me wearing a headscarf for a day or two because until I completed it. She told me that she ‘didin’t want people to get the wrong idea about the project.’ Her hair, by contrast, was chemically straightened, permed in the natural parlance of black hair styles. She occassionaly wore hair pieces as well.

Context here is king: we were black ...

Full Disclosure: I’ve been natural for nearly 12 years. Many years ago, when I was working on a big real estate project as an entry level project manager, a fellow black woman admonished me for wearing a ...