Posts Tagged ‘BLACK WOMEN’

Crowds tear down statues, attack Wisconsin state senator – Times of India

July 5, 2020

Crowds tear down statues, attack Wisconsin state senator – Times of India

Crowds tear down statues, attack Wisconsin state senator – Times of India


— Read on newsinternational0.wordpress.com/2020/06/24/crowds-tear-down-statues-attack-wisconsin-state-senator-times-of-india/

BLACK QUEEN!-BLACK PEOPLE! -SEE OUR ETHIOPIAN QUEEN! -FROM CODEBLACK LIFE ON FACEBOOK!

July 5, 2020

BLACK REPARATIONS NOW!-BANK OF AMERICA MUST PAY US OUR REPARATION NOW!- SIGN THE PETITION NOW ON CHANGE.COM!

July 5, 2020

https://www.change.org/p/bank-of-america-pay-reparations-to-descendants-of-american-
slaves?recruiter=87616894&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-md-share_petition-no_msg
CLICK ON TO SIGN PETITION

PAY REPARATIONS TO HEIRS OF AFRICAN SLAVES!

https://www.change.org/p/bank-of-america-pay-reparations-to-descendants-of-american-
slaves?recruiter=87616894&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-md-share_petition-no_msg.

PAY REPARATIONS TO HEIRS OF AFRICAN SLAVES!
Petitioning Bank Of America and 12 others
This petition will be delivered to:
Bank Of America
CEO, Wells Fargo
John G. Stumpf
Wells Fargo
Aetna
American International Group – AIG
CSX
JPMorgan Chase
President and CEO, Bank of America
Brian Thomas Moynihan
CEO JP Morgan Chase
Thomas Kelly
CSX Contact
Mike Jackson
CSX Contact two
Phillip Young
Public Relations Manager
Cynthia B. Michener
Vice President, Investor Relations Aetna Inc.
Thomas F. Cowhey
Pay reparations to the heirs of African slaves

Pass H.R40
Lithonia, GA
3,742
Supporters
—>THESE INHUMANE ACTS & WAR CRIMES CAN NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED<—

The following companies still in existence today that benefited and was involved in the African Slave Trade 

Bank of America found that two of its predecessor banks (Boatman Savings Institution and Southern Bank of St. Louis) had ties to slavery and another predecessor (Bank of Metropolis) accepted slaves as collateral on loans.

Aetna, Inc., the United States’ largest health insurer, sold policies in the 1850s that reimbursed slave owners for financial losses when the enslaved Africans they owned died. 

JPMorgan Chase recently admitted their company’s links to slavery. “Today, we are reporting that this research found that, between 1831 and 1865, two of our predecessor banks—Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana—accepted approximately 13,000 enslaved individuals as collateral on loans and took ownership of approximately 1,250 of them when the plantation owners defaulted on the loans,” the company wrote in a statement.

CSX used slave labor to construct portions of some U.S. rail lines under the political and legal system that was in place more than a century ago. Two enslaved Africans who the company rented were identified as John Henry and Reuben. The record states, “they were to be returned clothed when they arrived to work for the company.”Individual enslaved Africans cost up to $200 –  the equivalent of $3,800 today –  to rent for a season and CSX took full advantage.

AIG completed the purchase of American General Financial Group, a Houston-based insurer that owns U.S. Life Insurance Company. A U.S. Life policy on an enslaved African living in Kentucky was reprinted in a 1935 article about slave insurance in The American Conservationist magazine. AIG says it has “found documentation indicating” U.S. Life insured enslaved Africans.

Wells Fargo – Georgia Railroad & Banking Company and the Bank of Charleston owned or accepted slaves as collateral. They later became part of Wells Fargo by way of Wachovia. (In the 2000s Wells Fargo targeted blacks for predatory lending.)

Where is the money going to? How will these companies do it? Simple, we want these companies to set up two massive banks, an economic development bank on the west coast and an economic development bank on the east coast, so descendants of African slaves can draw that money to get low interest loans or free money to build businesses and industries throughout the United States! Enough is enough. It is time for these companies to be held accountable for their active role in the African Slave Trade. 

A national boycott of these companies will be the last result, if they don't respond to their call to action! To Succeed we must be Unified an act Politically and Legally! This is an issue that all people should take a stand for regardless of Race Classification! And it is not all about a dollar amount which people are fixated on; it's about Justice, Admission of Wrong Doings and Atonement which will truly aid in Racial Reconciliation!
LETTER TO
Bank Of America
CEO, Wells Fargo John G. Stumpf
Wells Fargo
and 10 others
Aetna
American International Group – AIG
CSX
JPMorgan Chase
President and CEO, Bank of America Brian Thomas Moynihan
CEO JP Morgan Chase Thomas Kelly
CSX Contact Mike Jackson
CSX Contact two Phillip Young
Public Relations Manager Cynthia B. Michener
Vice President, Investor Relations Aetna Inc. Thomas F. Cowhey
Pay the heirs of African slaves reparations. Enough is enough. It is time for your company to be held accountable for their active role in the African Slave Trade.

Trending petitions
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Black officer (HALF-BLACK -CONFLICTED BY WHITE MOTHER),who detained George Floyd had pledged to fix police – Twin Cities

July 1, 2020

Black officer (HALF-BLACK-conflicted by white mother),who detained George Floyd had pledged to fix police
By NEW YORK TIMES |
PUBLISHED: June 28, 2020 at 10:26 a.m. | UPDATED: June 28, 2020 at 10:37 a.m.
MINNEAPOLIS — There were two Black men at the scene of the police killing in Minneapolis last month that roiled the nation. One, George Floyd, was sprawled on the asphalt, with a white officer’s knee on his neck. The other Black man, Alex Kueng, was a rookie police officer who held his back as Floyd struggled to breathe.

Floyd, whose name has been painted on murals and scrawled on protest signs, has been laid to rest. Kueng, who faces charges of aiding and abetting in Floyd’s death, is out on bail, hounded at the supermarket by strangers and denounced by some family members.

Long before Kueng was arrested, he had wrestled with the issue of police abuse of Black people, joining the force in part to help protect people close to him from police aggression. He argued that diversity could force change in a Police Department long accused of racism.

J. Alexander Kueng (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
He had seen one sibling arrested and treated poorly, in his view, by sheriff’s deputies. He had found himself defending his decision to join the police force, saying he thought it was the best way to fix a broken system. He had clashed with friends over whether public demonstrations could actually make things better.

“He said, ‘Don’t you think that that needs to be done from the inside?’” his mother, Joni Kueng, recalled him saying after he watched protesters block a highway years ago. “That’s part of the reason why he wanted to become a police officer — and a Black police officer on top of it — is to bridge that gap in the community, change the narrative between the officers and the Black community.”

As hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against the police after Floyd’s killing on May 25, Kueng became part of a national debate over police violence toward Black people, a symbol of the very sort of policing he had long said he wanted to stop.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, has been most widely associated with the case. He faces charges of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; Kueng and two other former officers were charged with aiding and abetting the killing. At 26, Kueng was the youngest and least experienced officer at the scene, on only his third shift as a full officer.

The arrest of Kueng, whose mother is white and whose father was from Nigeria, has brought anguish to his friends and family. “It’s a gut punch,” Joni Kueng said. “Here you are, you’ve raised this child, you know who he is inside and out. We’re such a racially diverse family. To be wrapped up in a racially motivated incident like this is just unfathomable.”

Two of Alex Kueng’s siblings, Taylor and Radiance, both of whom are African American, called for the arrests of all four officers, including their brother. They joined protests in Minneapolis. In a Facebook Live video, Taylor Kueng, 21, appeared with the head of the local NAACP to speak of the injustice that befell Floyd, acknowledging being related to Alex Kueng but never mentioning his name.

Alex Kueng’s sister Radiance posted a video of Floyd’s final minutes on Facebook. “Just broke my heart,” she wrote. In an interview, she said that as a Black man, her brother should have intervened. She said she planned to change her last name in part because she did not want to be associated with her brother’s actions.

“I don’t care if it was his third day at work or not,” she said. “He knows right from wrong.”

A FULL HOUSE

Through his life, Alex Kueng straddled two worlds, Black and white.

Kueng, whose full name is J. Alexander Kueng (pronounced “king”), was raised by his mother, whom he lived with until last year. His father was absent.

As a child, Kueng sometimes asked for siblings. Joni Kueng, who lived in the Shingle Creek neighborhood in north Minneapolis, signed up with an African American adoption agency.

When Alex was 5, Joni Kueng brought home a baby boy who had been abandoned at a hospital. Alex soon asked for a sister; Radiance arrived when he was 11. Taylor and a younger brother came in 2009, when Alex was about 16.

Radiance Kueng, 21, said their adoptive mother did not talk about race. “Race was not really a topic in our household, unfortunately,” she said. “For her adopting as many Black kids as she did — I didn’t get that conversation from her. I feel like that should have been a conversation that was had.” Growing up, Alex Kueng and his family made repeated trips to Haiti, helping at an orphanage. Alex Kueng and his siblings took a break from school to volunteer there after the earthquake in 2010.

Joni Kueng, 56, likes to say that the Kuengs are a family of doers, not talkers.

“I had to stay out of the race conversations because I was the minority in the household,” Joni Kueng said in her first interview since her son’s arrest. She said that race was not an issue with her, but that she was conflicted. “It didn’t really matter, but it does matter to them because they are African American. And so they had to be able to have an outlet to tell their stories and their experience as well, especially having a white mom.”

Joni Kueng taught math at the schools her children went to, where the student body was often mostly Hmong, African American and Latino. Classmates described Alex Kueng as friends with everyone, a master of juggling a soccer ball and a defender against bullies. Photos portray him with a sly smile.

Darrow Jones said he first met Alex Kueng on the playground when he was 6. Jones was trying to finish his multiplication homework. Alex Kueng helped Jones and then invited him into a game of tag.

When Jones’ mother died in 2008, Joni Kueng took him in for as long as a month at a time.

By high school, Alex Kueng had found soccer, and soon that was all he wanted to do. He became captain of the soccer team; he wanted to turn pro. The quote next to his senior yearbook picture proclaimed, “We ignore failures and strive for success.”

Alex Kueng went to Monroe College in New Rochelle, New York, to play soccer and study business. But after surgery on both knees, soccer proved impossible. Alex Kueng quit. Back in Minneapolis, he enrolled in technical college and supported himself catching shoplifters at Macy’s.

About that time, he started talking about joining the police, Joni Kueng recalled. She said she was nervous, for his safety and also because of the troubled relationship between the Minneapolis police and residents.

Given his background, Alex Kueng thought he had the ability to bridge the gap between white and Black worlds, Jones said. He often did not see the same level of racism that friends felt. Jones, who is Black, recalled a road trip a few years ago to Utah with Alex Kueng, a white friend and Alex Kueng’s girlfriend, who is Hmong. Jones said he had to explain to Alex Kueng why people were staring at the group.

“Once we got to Utah, we walked into a store, and literally everybody’s eyes were on us,” recalled Jones, whose skin is darker than Alex Kueng’s. “I said, ‘Alex, that’s because you’re walking in here with a Black person. The reason they’re staring at us is because you’re here with me.’”

By February 2019, Alex Kueng had made up his mind: He signed up as a police cadet. Only a few months later, his sibling Taylor, a longtime supporter of Black Lives Matter who had volunteered as a counselor at a Black heritage camp and as a mentor to at-risk Black youths, had a confrontation with law enforcement.

Taylor Kueng and a friend saw local sheriff’s deputies questioning two men in a downtown Minneapolis shopping district about drinking in public. They intervened. Taylor Kueng used a cellphone to record video of the deputies putting the friend, in a striped summer dress, on the ground. “You’re hurting me!” the friend shouted.

As the confrontation continued, a deputy turned to Taylor Kueng and said, “Put your hands behind your back.” “For what?” Taylor Kueng asked several times. “Because,” said the deputy, threatening to use his Taser.

Taylor Kueng called home. Alex Kueng and their mother rushed to get bail and then to the jail. “Don’t worry, I got you,” Alex Kueng told his sibling, hugging Taylor, their mother recalled.

Alex Kueng reminded his sibling that those were sheriff’s deputies, not the city force he was joining, and criticized their behavior, his mother recalled.

After Taylor Kueng’s video went public, the city dropped the misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process. The sheriff’s office announced an official review of the arrests, which resulted in no discipline.

DIVERGING PATHS

Alex Kueng’s choice to become a police officer caused a rift in his friendship with Jones.

“It was very clear where we stood on that,” said Jones, a Black Lives Matter supporter who protested on the streets after the deaths of Jamar Clark and Philando Castile at the hands of police. “Our fundamental disagreement around law enforcement is not that I believe cops are bad people. I just believe that the system needs to be completely wiped out and replaced. It’s the difference between reform and rebuilding.”

After Alex Kueng became a cadet, Jones went from seeing Alex Kueng twice a month to maybe three times a year. He said he did not even tell Alex Kueng when the police pursued him for nothing and then let him go.

In December, Alex Kueng graduated from the police academy. For most of his field training, Chauvin, with 19 years on the job, was his training officer.

At one point, Alex Kueng, upset, called his mother. He said he had done something during training that bothered a supervising officer, who reamed him out. Joni Kueng did not know if that supervisor was Chauvin.

Chauvin also extended Alex Kueng’s training period. He felt Alex Kueng was meeting too often with a fellow police trainee, Thomas Lane, when responding to calls, rather than handling the calls on his own, Joni Kueng said.

But on May 22, Alex Kueng officially became one of about 80 Black officers on a police force of almost 900. In recent years, the department, not as racially diverse as the city’s population, has tried to increase the number of officers of color, with limited success.

That evening, other officers held a small party at the Third Precinct station to celebrate Alex Kueng’s promotion. The next evening, he worked his first full shift as an officer, inside the station. On that Sunday, he worked the 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. patrol shift, his first on the streets.

On May 25, Alex Kueng’s third day on the job, Alex Kueng and Lane, now partnered up despite both being freshly minted rookies, were the first officers to answer a call of a counterfeit $20 bill being passed at a corner store. They found Floyd in a car outside.

After they failed to get Floyd into the back of a squad car, Chauvin and Tou Thao, another officer, showed up.

As Chauvin jammed his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck, Alex Kueng held down Floyd’s back, according to a probable cause statement filed by prosecutors.

Chauvin kept his knee there as Floyd repeated “I can’t breathe” and “mama” and “please.” Through the passing minutes, Alex Kueng did nothing to intervene, prosecutors say. After Floyd stopped moving, Alex Kueng checked Floyd’s pulse. “I couldn’t find one,” Alex Kueng told the other officers. Critics of the police said the fact that none of the junior officers stopped Chauvin showed that the system itself needed to be overhauled.

“How do you as an individual think that you’re going to be able to change that system, especially when you’re going in at a low level?” said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality in Minneapolis. “You’re not going to feel OK to say, ‘Stop, senior officer.’ The culture is such, that that kind of intervening would be greatly discouraged.”

All four officers have been fired. All four face 40 years in prison. Alex Kueng, who was released on bail on June 19, declined through his lawyer to be interviewed. He is set to appear in court Monday.

A day after Floyd’s death, Jones learned that Alex Kueng was one of the officers who had been present. Around midnight, Jones called Alex Kueng. They talked for 40 minutes — about what, Jones would not say — and they cried.

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“I’m feeling a lot of sadness and a lot of disappointment,” Jones said. “A lot of us believe he should have stepped in and should have done something.”

He added: “It’s really hard. Because I do have those feelings and I won’t say I don’t. But though I feel sad about what’s occurred, he still has my unwavering support. Because we grew up together, and I love him.”

Jones said he had gone to the protests but could not bring himself to join in.

Tags: George Floyd

New York Times
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“SKIN BLEACHING: IDENTITY CRISIS OR MENTAL SLAVERY?”-BY ALICIA NUNN ON FACE-TO-FACE AFRICA

February 13, 2019

BY ALICIA NUNN, at 12:00 pm, December 15, 2018, OPINION

Skin bleaching: Identity crisis or mental slavery?

In 1492, Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Americas and Caribbean Islands in search of the East Indies. With open arms, the natives welcome him as their guest, oblivious to their impending doom.

Bringing with him diseases and a hidden agenda, he was following orders from the Roman Catholic church to revitalize the failing European economy under the guise of “civilizing the natives”. With him was a crew that included three vessels of criminals let out of jail in Europe to go on the voyage.

A similar strategy was used in the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; disrupting their way of life with the intent of enslaving them, stealing their land, massacring millions.

MORE ABOUT THIS
As Africa loses fight against skin bleaching, Rwanda deploys police to enforce laws
Blac Chyna is heading to Nigeria to roll out new skin bleaching cream
This Somali anti-skin bleaching crusader in the U.S. is ending stigma against dark-skinned women
Skin bleaching isn’t passe in Africa, it’s just been re-branded
In 1619, Africans, inhumanely stacked and packed like cargo in dark, rancid ships, began the ominous Middle Passage to the Americas during the most savage, diabolical slave trade in history.

Stolen from their homes, separated from their families, raped and bred, YOU20 million Africans made it to the shores of America; twice as many are killed: the African Holocaust.

Fast forward to 2018, model and entrepreneur, Blac Chyna makes the voyage home to Africa to launch her Diamond Illuminating and Lightening Cream, in partnership with Whitenicious creator, Dencia, Cameroonian-Nigerian singer, songwriter and entrepreneur.

Blac Chyna found her way back home to Africa, bringing with her the ways of her ancestors’ captors.

How did we get here?

Blac Chyna and Dencia have everyone in an uproar over their new partnership. While it’s inspiring to see two African Diasporan women coming together to build an empire, there is a deeper issue with Whitenicious.

What’s most sad and alarming is these two beautiful, powerful black women would resort to such drastic measures to make money. Let’s take a look into the mind of a black woman who feels she needs white skin to feel beautiful.

Skin bleaching is a multibillion-dollar global industry according to Sarah L. Webb in her 2013 article, ‘The Epidemic of Skin Bleaching around the World.’ Although Indians make up the largest skin bleaching market, a staggering 52-77 per cent of African women use skin lighteners. 20-50 per cent of Asians use skin bleaches and 20-50 per cent would use more if they could afford it.

In her article Webb lists the potential health risks of skin bleaching, “neurological damage, kidney disease, ochronosis, eczema, bacterial and fungal infections, skin atrophy, and Cushing’s Syndrome.” Furthermore, the body can form a dependency on the chemicals in bleaching products that ensure the multibillion-dollar industry sustains itself.

Europe, the instigator of the fixation with white skin, has instituted laws banning distribution of mercury soap for its own people but continues to export the product with no regard for the health and well-being of other people. Webb quotes Evelyn Glenn, Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The media messages are conceived and created by a few individuals and are projected throughout the world. In fact, distribution of mercury soap has been illegal in the EU since 1989, but it’s manufacture has remained legal as long as the product is exported”.

Keeping dark-skinned women in a perpetual state of insecurity is big business for Europeans. Webb calls this “race- or ethnicity-based capitalism.”

The internet and specifically social media gives the capitalistic influence of the West, instituted by Columbus in 1492, open access to the rest of the world. Tragically, to Africa. As if the African Holocaust was not enough, the degrading assault on the African woman, matriarch, mother of humanity, continues.

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pump images of white blondes and Kim Kardashian to unsuspecting women and men all day, every day, like drugs into the veins of an addict. No matter what you search on social media, whatever the people in power decide they want to inject into your brain will infiltrate your feed, sending subliminal messages; programing your mind.

The masses follow blindly like sheep to slaughter, rushing to buy the latest products to look like a false image of beauty. And eventually, EVERYONE, falls prey to the brainwashing. Even the strongest minds begin to question themselves.

Don’t blame Blac Chyna or Dencia. They are simply pawns in a diabolical game of chess. Their profit is pennies compared to the billions of dollars the cosmetic industry makes, laughing all the way tothe bank despite the emotional and mental cost to the unsuspecting masses.

African American girls and women have always scored the highest of all races and ethnicities on self-esteem surveys. White, Hispanic, and Asian girls and women score the lowest respectively. Yet black women are brainwashed to feel inferior to these groups of women.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a mental illness associated with skin bleaching and unnecessary plastic surgery. The DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, defines BDD as:

1. The individual obsesses over one or more apparent flaws in his or her physical appearance that are not visible or a big deal to others.

2. At some point, the individual has performed recurrent behaviors like frequently looking in the mirror, excessively grooming, or comparing his or her appearance to another’s.

3. This obsession causes clinically significant distress or impairment in his or her social or work life.

4. The individual’s preoccupation with his or her appearance cannot be explained by concerns with body fat or weight, which may be symptomatic of an eating disorder.

With the typical age of onset is between ages 12 and 13, BDD is associated with childhood abuse, depression, and suicide.

Although white women get cosmetic procedures done far more than any other race or ethnicity, the American Society of Plastic Surgeon reports the number of African American women getting procedures increased by 17 per cent between 2016 and 2017. The daughter of Hip Hop legend, T.I., was reportedly advised by doctors that she may go blind after receiving an eye implant to change her eye color from brown to“ice gray”.

According to DoSomething.org, 75 per cent of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating compared to 25 per cent of girls with high self-esteem. And teen girls that have a negative view of themselves are four times more likely to take part in activities with boys that they’ve ended up regretting later.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in 2016, the highest U.S. suicide rates were among Whites and lowest was among African Americans. Although suicide rates increased across age, gender, and ethnicity between 1999 and 2016. Suicides in the United States in 2016 doubled the number of homicides making it the second leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 34.

An alarming statistic is that African American children aged five to 12 are committing suicide about twice as much as white children the same age, according to a new study that shows a widening gap between the two groups. Social media replacing neighborhood play and isolation are cited as reasons.

The brainwashing by internet and social media have led to global assimilation to Eurocentric ideals, values and way of life. Money, individualism, competition, chaos. Traditional African value of family, community, love, harmony may explain the higher self-esteem and lower suicide rates among black people.

In his book, Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism, John Henrik Clarke quotes Columbus, “all the inhabitants could be taken away to Castile (Spain), or made slaves on the island. With fifty men, we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” The mission in Dr.Clarke’s words is, “to dominate the world and all its resources by any means necessary.”.

Columbus was speaking of Haiti, but imagine similar words spoken in boardrooms of the cosmetic companies and other industries that profit from low self-esteem and insecurity. “With a few advertising dollars, we can bamboozle the masses into believing they need whatever we are selling.”

Dr. Clarke warned, “All African and other non-European people should be on the alert, because a new form of slavery could be more brutal and more sophisticated than the slavery of the Christopher Columbus Era.” Mental slavery. The inability to make decisions or think foryourself. If someone else is dictating how you see yourself by the incessant mental images they project to you, how are you free?

You are not.

Dr. Clarke further states, “He was demeaned. This is the thing that is uniquely tragic about the African slave system. Of all the slave systems in the world, no other dehumanized the slave more than that started by the Europeans in the fifteenth century. Using the church as a rationale, they began to set up myths that nearly always read the African out of human history, beginning with the classification of the African as a lesser being.”

And over time black people began to believe they are lesser and seem to bow down to the people who colonized and enslaved them, when research proves Africans are the only people who are 100 per cent human. All other races share DNA with a vicious, disease-carrying subhuman species called Neanderthals.

Yet Africans have been convinced that they are the savages. And to hate the skin and hair which is 100 per cent human skin and hair. Unlike the skin and hair, they have been brainwashed to envy.

Loss of identity and culture can lead to genocide. When you can be convinced to change your skin, face, body, and hair to look like someone else, you can be convinced to do anything.

How do we stop the colonization and slavery of our minds? Block the mental images put in the media. Fight for your identity. Protect it. Take off the wigs, weave. Wear your natural hair. Touch your natural hair. Care for it. Love it. It is beautiful because it is yours. Nourish your skin with natural oils. Rub it. Love it. You are beautiful. Repeat until you believe it because it is the truth.

We didn’t start racism but we can stop believing it. And stop passing it on to our children. We must teach our daughters to love themselves. Their worth is not measuredby how they look or what they wear. Their worth comes from who they are.

Africa is at a crossroads. Her children are dispersed across the world, in search of something better.

The motherland is rising from the ashes of colonization and slavery. Surrounding countries see opportunity and are lurking to find a way back into the very continent they helped deconstruct and deplete. Have we learned from our mistakes? Or will we repeat them?

“When you have to call your former master back to do basic things for you, you are not free you have re-enslaved or recolonized yourself. There are Africans educated in Africa with African money who are scattered all over the world; they want to be everything but Africans,” Dr. Clarke warned.

“No matter what island you’re from, no matter what state you’re from, no matter what religion you belong to… we must develop a concept of our Pan Africanism that cuts across all religious, political, social, fraternity, sorority lines and allows us to proudly face the world as one people.”

Blac Chyna made her way back to Africa. Her intentions may have been misguided, but she made a giant first step towards getting back to her roots. Blac Chyna made it back home. All Africans are her family. Embrace her. Love her. Guide her. Heal her. Protect her.

No matter where you live, every person of African descent must return home. To our roots. Or face extinction.

“I think we should begin by finding a mirror and liking what we see. If we can’t like what we see, then we can’t make each other whole again. It can’t be just ceremony; we can’t just decorate the outside of the head forever without putting something inside of the head” Wise words from Dr. Clark.

ALICIA NUNN

Alicia Nunn, author of Take Off The Mask, is writer, activist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Nominated for Leaders as Heroes 2015 and Athena Awards 2014, she has been featured in the Chicago Tribune and Huffington Post.

BLACK PEOPLE-STOP BLEACHING BEFORE YOU KILL YOURSELF WITH SKIN CANCER!-AMIRA ADAWE FIGHTS BLEACHING 000!

December 26, 2018

FARIDA DAWKINS, at 09:04 am, July 17, 2018, CULTURE

This Somali anti-skin bleaching crusader in the U.S. is ending stigma against dark-skinned women
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Amira Adawe on her radio show, ‘Beauty Wellness Talk’…NHPR
Despite the dangers associated with skin-bleaching, the desire for some to change their skin tone has anything but lessened.  Many skin-bleaching creams include mercury, cortisone and hydroquinone; chemicals linked to skin cancer, high blood pressure, thinning of the skin, other forms of cancer, and kidney and liver failure.

Yet many women and men are willing to undergo drastic measures to be regarded as desirable and beautiful, including applying skin-lightening creams and lotions to their skin while pregnant.

The risks associated with skin bleaching inspired Minnesota public health advocate, Amira Adawe, who has made it her personal mission to seek out shops selling skin-bleaching creams and report their activities.

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The Universality of Skin Bleaching: Looking Beyond Africa
 

Amira Adawe…Minn Post

Adawe can often be seen in Karmel Square, a meeting point for Somali immigrants in Minneapolis to socialize and purchase goods from their native land. It is also a prime location for the sale of skin-bleaching products.  Adawe uses her visits as an opportunity to scout and report merchants who still sell the controversial products.

As a county public health educator and a graduate student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Adawe purchased 27 samples of creams in 2011 and had them tested by pollution control agency specialists. Their finding revealed that there were 33,000 parts of mercury per million in the samples given. The Food and Drug Administration only allows one part per million.

Adawe’s actions caused the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to raid and investigate establishments selling lightening creams. The Minnesota Department of Health then issued warnings about the dangers of skin-bleaching creams.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that eats away at the skin, damages membranes and causes death by poisoning. “Just touching a washcloth or a mother’s cheek that has been rubbed with the products could be harmful to a baby, the FDA notes, interfering with brain and nervous system development.”

Adawe is now a manager for the Children’s Cabinet of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and host of a weekly radio show dubbed “Beauty-Wellness Talk.” It launched in November 2017.  More than being on a crusade to stop the illegal sale of skin-bleaching creams, Adawe feels it’s important to discuss the issues that prompt women to alter their skin in the first place.

Though it is difficult, Adawe is now allowing women to speak out about the underlying issues such as colorism, self-esteem, social media and how the ideas of self-hate are a seed often implanted by one’s surroundings.

Salma Ali, 19, a Somali-American college student reveals,  “Growing up, if somebody in my family was mad at me, they’d call me koor madow, which means, ‘Hey darker-skinned,’” “And it was an insult.” Ali goes on to say, “I’ve had my aunts come up to me telling me, ‘Salma you’re not ugly, it’s just that your skin is just a little dirty. You need to clean it up. I got some products from China. I’mma hook you up.’ I’m like, ‘How is my skin dirty? I’m taking care of myself.’ But because of the fact that I have darker skin, I’m seen as ugly. And that’s just part of the way we’ve all been socialized.”

“My dream is that every woman stops using skin-lightening creams and trying to change their color,” Adawe proclaims. “And that they are happy for who they are.”

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FARIDA DAWKINS , Staff Writer

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Farida Dawkins is a blogger, video content creator and staff writer at Face2Face Africa. She enjoys writing about relatable and controversial lifestyle issues that pertain to women in Africa and the African diaspora.

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Must Read

BLEACH AND DIE O!-Ivory Coast BANNED SKIN- BLEACHING PRODUCTS SINCE 2015

December 16, 2018

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/skin-bleaching-ivory-coast

BY ABENA AGYEMAN-FISHER, at 10:35 am, May 08, 2015, LIFESTYLE

Skin Bleachers Banned in Ivory Coast

Even though the health risks associated with skin-bleaching creams has long been documented in places, such as India — where the industry is described as “thriving” — many “fairness cream” patrons continue to purchase these products with the hopes of attaining lighter complexions. This week in Cote D’Ivoire, though, the health ministry officially banned the products, saying they are “now forbidden,” reports the BBC.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, Ivory Coast pharmaceutical authority member Christian Doudouko explained that the health ministry came to the decision to ban skin lighteners due to their adverse health effects, “The number of people with side effects [in Cote D’Ivoire] caused by these medicines is really high,” he said.

Consequently, the ministry released a statement, saying, “Cosmetic lightening and hygiene creams…that de-pigment the skin…are now forbidden.”

Justine Kluk, a British dermatologist, further explained to the BBC the side effects associated with skin lighteners.

“[Skin bleaching creams] cause acne, thinning of the skin, glaucoma, or cataracts if applied near the eyes.

“Or if applied liberally to the whole body, [they can] cause high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, weight gain, mood disturbance due to absorption of large amounts of steroids.”

Still, many expect the ban to do little to stop those who wish to permanently change their God-given hues.

For example, even though South Africa has the world’s “toughest laws” against skin lighteners — with an added ban against most-active skin bleaching ingredient hydroquinone — more than a third of South African women still purchase them.

While many health officials worldwide are quick to rattle off the severe health risks associated with bleaching, many officials fail to acknowledge society’s treatment of its darker skinned citizens.

Face2Face Africa Contributor Sanna Arman wrote to this very issue in her op-ed, “How We Crucify Victims of Oppression Without Crucifying the System“:

Dear Black men and women, I urge you to join the fight against skin bleaching by questioning why “light skin” is promoted in the lyrics of mainstream media, questioning why billboards are promoting the Eurocentric idea of the ultimate beauty, questioning why White privilege still exists.

Question why your local media stations would spend airtime showing you the “ultimate” idea of beauty on the runways, but those are rarely men or women who look like your sister or brother.

In Jamaica, where skin bleaching is reportedly wildly popular, the Ministry’s Director of Health Promotion and Protection Eva Lewis-Fuller further explained, “Bleaching has gotten far worse [in Jamaica] and widespread in recent years. [Bleachers] want to be accepted within their circle of society. They want to be attractive to the opposite sex. They want career opportunities. But we are saying there are side effects and risks. It can disfigure your face.”

And University of the West Indies Literary and Cultural Studies Professor Carolyn Cooper more pointedly added, “If we really want to control the spread of the skin-bleaching virus, we first have to admit that there’s an epidemic of color prejudice in our society.”

In other words, in many regions of the world, one’s complexion is linked to professional and personal opportunities.

In Africa, 77 percent of Nigerian women reportedly buy the most skin whiteners, according to the World Health Organization, followed by 59 percent of women in Togo and 27 percent of women in Senegal.

Who thinks it is time for the “Black is Beautiful” movement to be revived?

ABENA AGYEMAN-FISHER , Editor-in-chief, F2FA

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women’s Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.

BLACK POLYGAMY OOO!–OGUNDE HAD 17 WIVES OOOO!- NIGERIAN/YORUBA OOO!

December 12, 2018

The Fascinating True Story of a Man, His Seventeen Wives and the Beginning of Nollywood.

‘Funmi Oyatogun
Nov 21, 2017
“This is a fascinating story”, I thought — a man with seventeen wives and many children, who traveled around the country acting plays and creating films. Ogun State tourism is incomplete without the Hubert Ogunde Living History Museum and this could be one of Nigeria’s best museums yet.

Hubert Ogunde. Photo by Guardian NG
“What’s there to see in this museum?” I asked my contact over the phone, after exchanging pleasantries. I was hoping to hear some enticing reasons beyond the vague descriptions on the internet. “You’ll see when you get here,” he said. I tried another approach. “Please, how are you related to him? Are you a grandson?” In a whisper, he promised to tell me when I arrived at the museum. I was getting none of the details I was expecting but I was eager to visit with a small group of five TVP Adventures tourists. So, my expectations were at the barest minimum — perhaps there would be a few photos of his lifetime and a showcase of his barely preserved clothes and shoes. I was sure that we would learn one or two things about his life and work and maybe a few heavily curated stories about his seventeen wives. “This is a fascinating story”, I thought — a man with seventeen wives and many children, who traveled around the country acting plays and creating films.

The drive from Abeokuta to Ososa was smooth and straightforward. During the one-hour drive, we chatted about some of everything with our chatter interrupted only by the verbal directions from Google Maps. We found the museum easily — a bold signpost welcomes guests to a large bungalow nestled among trees in a well-maintained and spacious compound. As the curator welcomed us, we were quickly briefed about the rules of the museum — no photos inside and no touching of museum items. It is no surprise that Ogunde’s former home is tasteful and artistic without being flamboyant. Beside the building is an old bus and a lorry — actual tour buses used by the Ogunde travelling theater with mega phones used to advertise as they drove through towns. Beside the buses is the engine of an aircraft used to create heavy winds and rain in one of Ogunde’s movies. “He put a lot effort into his work because he loved theater”, the curator explains. But there is no need for the explanation because every inch of every wall of every room in that house exudes passion and exquisite taste.

TVP Adventures: Our tour group with the Hubert Ogunde’s Travelling Buses. Photo by Ibinabo Oyibo
Hubert Ogunde was a tall and built man, so the enormous statue in front of his house is no exaggeration. It shows him dressed up in the garb from one of his plays while beating a replica of the drum that no other person played in his lifetime. His cheek is punctured by a deep dimple and when he smiles, it deepens to reveal a gap in his front teeth. Ogunde was undeniably charming. When he was born in 1916 in the obscure Ososa town founded by his grandfather, there was no way of foreseeing his journey to becoming the grandfather of Nigerian drama. Despite only a total of seven years of formal primary education, he would eventually hone a command of English that exceeded university levels at that time. With Christian parents who revered traditional customs and demagogues, Ogunde grew up as an enthusiast of Nigerian folklore. Every profession in his life —first church organist then teacher then police officer, would become useful in creating the dramatist that he was. One day, a church in Lagos would sponsor the production of his first play and when he astonished the crowd of over 1000, his professional career in theater was born.

While he was a brilliant entertainer, his plays and dances addressed societal and political realities that were sometimes uncomfortable for the government. He was arrested and fined a number of times and even banned for years at a stretch. Sometimes, he would escape to nearby Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) to escape the ban but never stopped performing with his troupe. A stint at a prestigious dance school in London enabled him incorporate folk-style dances in his plays. All of his influences are well documented in the museum and it is clear that whether it cost a mile or a million, Ogunde was never stingy with the quality of his productions. He was not wasteful though as he put every resource available to him to use, including his wives and children who were all integral parts of running the business. In fact, he saved much cost by filling much of his cast with family members.

At the museum, every single item has been painstakingly labelled and preserved for the public to learn from. Some of his personal clothes hang on the wall as they would have if he were alive while others are folded neatly in a wooden wardrobe. In his bedroom, there is a large bed — for a large man — and arm chairs surrounding the bed. Someone makes a joke about the need for Ogunde to have such a spacious bedroom and an unusually large bed, especially as the better part of one of the walls is adorned with a large family tree. Ogunde’s seventeen wives and their children are pictured on the tree. “I am his grandson,” our guide eventually confesses, as he points to his grandmother — Ogunde’s first wife. The spacious bedroom opens up into two other rooms — one, a prayer room with enough chairs for him and his wives and floor space for his children, and the other room — a meditation room that allows breeze from the airy compound. His expensive film equipment are carefully preserved in another room while there are at least three rooms containing props, costumes and detailing full scenes from some of his popular plays and films. There are countless albums and magazines with dates as far back as the ’60s. Old posters show that some of his plays cost 1 Pound and others cost 3 Naira; figures enough to evoke nostalgia. I am most fascinated by his dining room where awards adorn his show glasses and there are photos with interesting people such as a young Jide Kosoko and Adeyemi Afolayan whose sons have continued the advancement of Nigerian drama.

Hubert Ogunde with some of his wives.
Ogunde was a family man. It was important that all his wives could perform because the troupe needed them as much as he did. He would look for wives from nearby villages but never from Lagos where he lived for a long time. Throughout the museum, there is some indication as to who his favorites were — his documentary highlighted only a few women and some were exceptionally gifted actresses and dancers, making them most indispensable for the success of his troupe.

In the roll call of Nigerian museums, this one sits among the top. Even though Ogunde dies young, he lived a full and robust seventy four years and the museum is a spectacular reference to his legacy. It is indeed one of the historical treasures of Ogun State and will appeal to every Nigerian — whether or not they have a taste for art, theater or tourism. There is no doubt that Hubert Ogunde’s charm lives on through this museum and his family deserves the praise for that. I must say that could easily be one of Ogun State’s biggest potentials for tourism footfall.

Follow ‘Funmi’s discoveries, travel stories and guides on Instagram — @TVPAdventures. Send a DM to book one of our group tours or a custom itinerary. You can also book ‘Funmi for a writing or travel expo opportunity.

NigeriaOgun StateTourismTravelNollywood

‘Funmi Oyatogun
Writer. Explorer. Geographer. African. Woman. Experience Designer @ TVP Adventures

BLEACHING OOO!-BLACK PEOPLE OOO!-SAY NO TO SKIN BLEACHING!

November 15, 2018

http://bleachanddie.blogspot.com

BLEACH AND DIE OOO!- OMOTOLA WILL NOT DIE CAUSE SHE HAS STOPPED BLEACHING ATI RETURNED TO HER ORIGINAL BEAUTIFUL BLACKNESS OOO!- FROM 9JAHYPER.COM

November 15, 2018

Bleaching Lady Revert To Her Real Black Colour (Before And After Photos)
A lady who was formerly bleaching have come online to share her before and after photos, after she quit bleaching.
#@ shared the photos with the caption ” I love the way I am now. I don’t care about you what people say about me. Isn’t because I don’t have money, is because black is beautiful. and is my pride #Omotola black… change of colour is a sin”.