Does Pretty Hurt? Event Wrap-Up featuring Michele Williams

Falling Black in Love week at Florida A&M University has been a week of awe-inspiring motivational speakers, hot button issues and a call on our community to address the realities we face everyday through open discussions.

(Read: Full week of events ihearthatgirl.com)

Described by Eric Troy Wright Jr., organizer of this fundraiser and two time graduate of FAMU as,

“A movement committed to paying both respect and homage to the incredible feats, accomplishments, and achievements of the African American community from around the world. In a time when the image of Black men, women, and youth have been both distorted and misrepresented, It is vital that people of color be affirmed in who they are.”
(Help Support the Movement http://www.gofundme.com/78g6b8)

Arian Simone hosted the Does Pretty Hurt event as apart of her FEARLESS Discussions movement featuring an all-star panel of FAMU alumni, make-Up artist Siteria Gregory, former Miss FAMU and beauty consultant Aisha Everett and one former professor, psychology expert, and editor of FEARLESS Jenay Sermon. But what really set off this panel off was the surprise feature guest of the night, who took the place of Tika Sumpter, Ms. Michelle Williams.

    The panel discussion, which included plenty of audience, feed back featured topics like, colorism, cosmetic surgery, size, self-worth, and what we define as beauty. The overall message and name of the discussion coming from the lyrics of Beyonće’s popular song “Pretty Hurts,”

“Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst, we try to fix something but you can't fix what you can't see it's the soul that needs the surgery”

(Read 12 opinions on Body Transformation on TypicalVixen.Com)

Students as well as panelist shared their views, and the general consensus became, that we all define our beauty, and what matters most is what your inner beauty reflects.

Araian Simone does a great job of facilitating discussion rather than debate, encouraging diversity and unity and reminding us all that as black men and women we must stand together.

The feature guest 3 time Grammy award winning artist Michelle Williams was surprised that colorism was still an prevalent issue, as young women shared their stories of racial bias on campus from black men, bringing up terms such as #TeamLightSkin vs. #TeamDarkskin to her attention for the first time.

Michelle also chimed in on another hot topic natural hair, which was led by an all-natural panel, speaking about wearing lace fronts during her time on Broadway, which she says the lace wigs were originally made, the importance of proper removal, and how she lost a job opportunity because of her trying out a natural look recalling,

“I came in with my natural hair, my curls were laid and it was really cute, I was really feeling myself, and the guy was like, ‘We were expecting the girl from Destiny’s Child’ and I was just so mad like seriously?”

                                            

(Read: Actress and singer Countess Vaughn reveals how wearing a lace front wig caused her to develop a severe scalp infection)

This also sparked an interesting discussions about the reasons black women perm their hair and how it relates to the love of your African roots. Some calling the natural hair movement a trend, others happy it has become more acceptable, despite criticism of natural styles being considered unprofessional, most recently by the U.S. Army, as demonstrated at the Pretty Hurts photo shoot by Ferissa Connel, who also spoke about her experience during the discussion.

                

“I think it’s sad that I might miss out on certain opportunities because of my hair, we have to stand up for ourselves in order for these new implementations to stop.”

Overall I do believe the mission Arian opened with was obtained stating,

“You will leave this discussion knowing that you were designed on purpose and for a purpose, having a greater appreciation for your unique self and understanding of your self worth, and with more confidence in who you are and how you look right now.”

Arian ended with an inspirational message of how she rose to became a celebrity publicist after at a time when she was broke, homeless, and snuck into the 2004 BET Awards, after losing her job just one month after moving to LA.

 “I learned how to dance in the rain. You never let your situation or circumstances dictate your feelings, even when all this stuff was going on in my life…It doesn’t matter what’s going on, you decide your emotions, and you can choose to be happy everyday.” As she smiles and leaves us with her iconic laugh.

(Read more about Arian Simon, and the FEARLESS Movement at ArianSimone.Com)

instagram.com/Hayrayxxi

Music Review: Dream Come True by D.Webb

Nowadays I have been very disappointed in the music deamed popular by, whoever decides these types of things for my generation. It seems like women get more and more disrespected and unloved, take for example Lil Wayne feat. Chris Brown’s “These Hoes ain’t Loyal” which I have thumbs downed multiple times on Pandora, which has lyrics like,

 “Why give a bitch your heart when she'd rather have a purse” from the formally lyrical Lil Wayne or Chris Brown, who may or may not be in jail right now, honestly I could care less who “raps”,

"Just got rich. Took a broke nigga bitch. I can make a broke bitch rich,but I don't fuck with broke bitches."

How…uplifting.

But alas, an artist who is “plotting for the real wave of soul to pass over”,  The Dreams Come True mixtape by D.Webb was a refreshing reminder that all hip hop music isn’t terrible, though I still prefer my Strawberry Letter 23 radio, I may consider giving a few more new artist a chance.

The introduction is definitely attention grabbing, while I do think that its super poetic which slightly annoys me, It’s better than opening with a scene from a movie or something, well no actually I think I would have liked that better. I think the Intro should have been the outro, and the intro should have been a movie scene, yep.

The beats and vocals are very melodious and easy to relax to in certain songs, especially in the song Far from them, which I really like. The background singing, which says “the day in the life of a fool”, matches the lyrics my favorite one being “talking about cars bring the happy out you niggas.”

My favorite song has to be between Crusin, which is also the name of one of my favorite Smokey Robinson songs, and Simple Things. I feel like Cruisin could be the hit single, because you can listen to it while riding through your city, and it has the easiest lyrics to comprehend without thinking too hard.

Simple Things made me feel some type of way about men and how they think, actually just reaffirmed what I already knew. I like this song because he was being honest about messing up with a girl without being rude or acting like he didn’t care, because men are definitely do an amazing job of that. I feel like if a girl was listening to this it would  make her realize some truths about her boyfriend or whatever,  at least momentarily and that makes me happy.

My favorite lyrics in that song are “Now I can’t trip when you over on to the next walking with another nigga” and “I’m getting mad at you like you shouldn’t be mad at me but I should be mad at myself” as well as “What a shame, can’t change your last name, and all her friend think I’m bitter, I’m just another nigga. Shaking my dang head.

Overall I think this was a very good mix tape, I will defiantly listen to it again, and recommend it to other people. I can tell that time and passion was put into the words, and I appreciate that it doesn’t conform to the normal clichés of popular rap music, without trying to be to artsy like Nas…who annoys me. Lol.

You can listen to the full mix tape here--->http://www.datpiff.com/pop-mixtape-player.php?id=m4a08661&tid=1

Race Relations in America

The relationship between different races is a delicate topic many people have a hard time discussing. But maybe even harder than the discussion, is trying understand the issues of another race from their perspective. It is a proven fact that people identify with and recognize people of their own race more than those of a different race when it comes to political and even day-to-day problems. Some people believe that this is negative and will only hinder growth, but some see no problem at all.

Jane Elliot, offers her self as an anti-racism and diversity trainer, and has brought her workshops to many classrooms and offices around the nation. Her experiments separate groups into categories based on eye color, using the blue eyed and brown eyed to show how racism divides and belittles minorities. Comparable to the popular required reading book The Wave these activities attempt to bring to the forefront some of the realities non-white Americans face in America. Elliot has a serious of workshops, here is a snippet from the one entitled "Angry Eye."

Camille Smith, 19, is an example of someone who once considered themselves color blind. Born in Ontario, Canada and raised in the predominately black city of Detroit, Michigan she says racism didn’t exist because there weren’t many white people around, in fact only one in her entire school Mumford High.

“Now that I moved into the inner city to Florida, the racism is more prominent. Where I came from it was more of a secret or people really did not care, but now I can defiantly tell that some people are prejudice.”

"I believe that Jane Elliot's experiment id a great way to bring to light a lot of problems people aren't even aware of. It's important that we try to enforce not only equality but understanding"

I believe that it is so needed for more people in the minority and the majority to realize that yes, we are all different, and identifying with your culture is something that should be fun and give you pride, not something that makes people any less of a human being because they don’t belong to it.

In America a lot of times we place ourselves on a high pedestal like we have a crown on our head because we speak English. I recently read something in a book called Good Advice from the Good Book that said,

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt”

If someone were to pick you up and plop you in a foreign country, no one is going to care that you’re an American. You won’t speak their language or know their customs so most likely they’ll just think your weird. 

Now while the cases may vary this is a good way to put yourself in the shoes of someone else and realize that we are all human. So why make it harder on someone just because they have different way then you.

Judge Joe Brown 5 day Prison Sentence!

Judge Joe Brown, 66, was arrested yesterday March 25, in Memphis after being held in contempt of court. Brown who was representing a client in a child support hearing challenged Magistrate Harold Horne who instructed the former TV courtroom star to stop talking five times to no avail. Brown continued to “go off the handle” stating that all they could get out of him was 10$, and that he would have the courtroom shutdown. The Judge sentenced Brown to 5 days in prison, one day for every count of contempt. But Brown was released shortly after with no bond and made a statement saying,

"I'm a little hot under the collar, but In 40 years, I've never seen such a circus as they've got down there.”

 The media as well as twitter went bananas over the story, with jokes like “Who sent Judge Joe Brown to jail? Was it Judge Judy or Judge Wapner?” but what caused even more frenzy, was the grim mug shot of Brown scowling at the camera. Which in my opinion just added to the bad publicity.

Judge Joe Brown’s television show was on air for 15 years, but was cancelled last year, and he is now running for District Attorney of Shelby County, where he was arrested in.

But this isn’t the first time Judge Joe Brown has been in the news for a rant. Last year in August the popular urban media site “World Star Hip Hop” released a video of Brown clearly drunk, on what he had no problem sharing was “a double shot of Bombay Sapphire.” In which he made the statement that “pretty girls are insecure, and easier to work with” in front of two women who he took pictures with and also told them that they were insecure, as well as saying that his wife age 50 was “somewhat insecure”, but proceeded to tell the girls that he needed a grand daughter or daughter in law like them because they were “young tender things.” Along with a few other unflattering scenes.

Watch Full Video Here worldstarhiphop.com

  It’s understandable to be a little drunk in public, but when you’re a public figure, especially if your running for District Attorney, you have to uphold your reputation and these incidents will not go unnoticed when his campaign picks up.

From the looks of things, it seems that Judge Joe Brown is on a bit of a power trip. His 15-year TV stint is over with, and now he needs to realize that he is back in the real world, and he cant just do and say whatever. His statement about pretty girls being insecure and easier to get to is a disturbing to me, from the man who’s opening said “protecting womanhood and promoting manhood”, where then does this easiness come into play and what are you doing to protect this? I’m not sure if I endorse this type of candidate to make decisions with my counties criminals, and something tells me this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Judge Joe Brown. What do you think?

Here's a Parody of the drunken scene by comedian Mike Epps.

The Smile that Spread World Wide

Music is a huge part of every culture and society, and something that has been around for ages all the way back to the times that cave men probably banged rocks together in the original “Rock Band”. And though music can be a sweet escape of melody and sound, lately it hasn’t seemed to have much of a message. With Miley Cyrus tarnishing all our childhood memories, and songs that repeat the same idiotic hook over and over...and over again, it's easy to forget the power that music can have when done right. But everyone has seemed to fall in love with Pharrell’s song “Happy" with it’s upbeat tempo and wonderful lyrics about being happy and letting nothing get you down. The song has done well on the charts and gotten great reviews as well as having everyone dancing in their seats during Pharrells performance with Jamie Foxx, at the Oscars. The song was composed for Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, also appeared on Pharrell’s album “Girl”

The music video, which is “the first 24 hour music video” and can be found at 24hoursofhappy.com has 24 Videos at 4 minutes a piece for every hour of the day featuring reenactments of the song, featuring Pharell of course, along with some celebrity appearances including the famed yellow Despicable Me minions.
But one news story written by a blogger named Shan Wang, which draws attention to the song for more political reasons in what she calls the Surprising Protest Song of Our Generation.

"The movement started slowly — first it was the soundtrack to a video of people dancing joyfully in Paris. But then the song began cropping up in videos from countries in political turmoil. One came from the Philippines, a country still picking up the pieces from Typhoon Haiyan. Soon, one followed from Tunis, still reeling from the aftershocks of the Arab Spring. And then another from Moscow. While not a "protest" song in its traditional sense, Pharrell's "Happy" has taken on a politically charged meaning as an anthem of international resilience.”

She goes on to talk about the impact the song has head on in bringing the recent issues with the Ukraine to light by saying...

“It's crowning moment as an international protest anthem came late last month when two Polish filmmakers used it as a soundtrack to a viral video of violent clashes between Ukrainian citizens and government forces intercut with protestors in Kiev dancing. It is haunting to see protesters in Kiev dancing among barricades and answering frankly what would make them happy. "To be happy I need the Ukraine to be free," one woman answered.

It’s important that we applaud music that has a message, and the people who take the time to point it out to us. 

You can read more about Shan Wang, and the impact of the Happy song at policymic.com

  

NASA predicts It's all over soon for the USA

Ever since the beginning of time sources have been predicting the end of time. From The Myans prediction of 2012 doom, the Y2K scare when technology was supposed to go haywire, and then there was that one time in 2011 when 89-year-old Preacher Harold Camping predicted that the world will end May 21 at 6pm to be exact.

While Hollywood has made a market for dooms day films countless times and in various ways many people can actually get wrapped up in some of these theories that have little to no truth in them, even going as far as quitting their jobs to prepare.

But this time the news of our demise, specifically the demise of the western culture, comes from a more credible source, actual scientist at NASA. The report, which was composed by Safa Motesharrei, an applied mathematician for National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center who teamed up with a group of natural and social scientist.

They put together their brain power, and if you ask me simply took a look at the world around them and concluded that over consumption of our natural resources and the large divide of the social classes will soon lead to a Roman Empire type collapse of western culture and it may be coming sooner than we think.

While I’m a firm believer that no one knows the time nor the hour that the world will come to an end, I conclude that this report may have some substance since it’s simply reinforcing the general overview that many other scientist have been screaming at us for years.

What it sounded like to me is We are using too much, too fast. and the people who really need it can’t have it, because the upper echelon is hoarding it. It being the 5 factors these scientist say will lead to our societal collapse; population, climate, water, agriculture and energy.

“Economic growth is the biggest destroyer of the ecology. Those people who think you can have a growing economy and a healthy environment are wrong. If we don't reduce our numbers, nature will do it for us …everything is worse and we’re still doing the same things. Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”- Neil Dawe a Canadian Wildlife Service biologist.

Opinions from the comments I reviewed at www.policymic.com vary, but many people seem to believe, "America is too big and powerful to fail." and are skeptical about this prediction. I hope their right,Because I don’t think I can afford the ticket for the special boat that takes us all to Africa, like how the movie 2012 ended. But I suppose they gave us a ride here on the “special boat” to America so they deserve the chance.

I’m not sure how it’s all going to erupt, but for some reason I think we may need to start caring a little bit more about what’s going on with our environment and our government before its too late.

Gay teacher fired after trying to get married.

Michael Griffin had been teaching at Holy Ghost Prep School for 12 years teaching French and Italian. Students loved him, said he led trips to France and was a great teacher. But when he announced that he would be getting his marriage license with his long time partner, the school President Father James McCloskey said he would be fired for it.

Griffin said that administration knew that he was Gay, but when he emailed McCloskey he let him know that since it would now be public, he would be terminated, and says he was shocked by this revelation.

"He said… 'if you go through with that I have no other choice but to fire you,'" Griffin said of the ultimatum issued by Holy Ghost McCloskey. "I was in shock, I had no forewarning.

Sam-Sex discrimination is an issue that has also come up in Arizona as the Mayor recently vetoed a law that would have allowed companies to discriminate against gays and other who did not “fall in line with their religious beliefs” Here is what the school had to say.

"Unfortunately, this decision contradicts the terms of his teaching contract at our school, which requires all faculty and staff to follow the teachings of the Church as a condition of their employment," McCloskey said in the statement. "In discussion with Mr. Griffin, he acknowledged that he was aware of this provision, yet he said that he intended to go ahead with the ceremony.

Regretfully, we informed Mr. Griffin that we have no choice but to terminate his contract effective immediately."

 In my opinion focusing on peoples differences and trying to make them feel bad or unwanted doesn’t reflect the values of any religion. If these people spent more time teaching about God’s love and less about what the bible says not to do, as if they have a sin-less slate so many issues would be eliminated. But on the other hand I can understand why the Catholic school took action since they are an all boys catholic school, and many parents could have been outraged if this information was reveled. But if Griffin really is such a great teacher, he will not have trouble finding a job at another school. He has not decided whether to meet with a lawyer about this termination yet.