Support My New Site - BODY IMAGE CENTRAL

Hi lovely people,


This will be my last post on this blog, and here's why. Your girl has another brand new site called Body Image Central, which will be the premier site for empowering people of color to love their bodies. It'll be the place where you'll here:

• The latest body image issues from around the world
• People share how they overcame their body image concerns
• Businesses give advice on entrepreneurship and how they promote positive body imagery through products/ services
• And loads more

I'd like to thank you all for your support of this blog, and as I close this chapter, I ask for your continued support to help make Body Image Central a success!


Many blessings,
AFROSTORY

The Power of B MO

Hi Blogging Family!

Wow. I know, I know. It's been a while. I've been soooo busy with my Youtube Channel, school, and my personal life, that I have neglected my blog. I'm putting myself on a blogging schedule, and to do that, I'm dedicating my blog to the POWER OF B MO. That's right. Two to three times a week, I'm going to post short blogs that inspire, inform, empower, and uplift my blog fam. To get us started, I want you all (if haven't already) to watch my B MO Introductory Video. It'll explain to you all what I mean when I say "B MO." Feel free to leave your comments. As always, stay blessed :)

Spicing Up Yo Life Never Hurt Nobody

Hi Ladies,


I don't know about you all, but my decision to enter "Natural Hairdom" made me want to become more health conscious.

Living a healthier lifestyle can be truly rewarding; however, at times you can feel like a fish out of water if you're surrounded by people who could care less about putting down the fried chicken, hamhocks, and chitterlings in hopes of finding healthier alternatives.

This morning I found a great article describing the many health benefits of everyday spices. Ladies, if you do not have these eight spices in your pantry GO OUT AND GET THEM!




This Woman's Day article really points out some great benefits, and I'm sure y'all can sift through your own family lore to unlock other reasons to use some of these spices in your cooking. I know from my own family I've heard out-of-this-world stories when it comes to spices.




For example, my grandfather a few years back had a stroke, which made him temporarily paralyzed in parts of his face and body. In the hospital he had asked one of my aunts to go get him....can you guess? A stick of NUTMEG! After sucking on that nutmeg, the paralysis drastically lessened.




Today my eighty-four year old grandfather is fully recovered, talking a mile a minute and making his way all over the place. I don't know about y'all, but after seeing that 180 transformation in him, I became obsessed with those Back-in-the-Day folk remedies.

I'll never look at nutmeg the same again...

Click on the link to read this awesome article: Surprising Healing Benefits of Spices

Untold Story # 1 - Aiyana Jones

Hi blogging fam,

So I've been out of town pretty much all this month, but I'm back home for a few days and wanted to start a blogging series on Untold Stories. So often I talk about telling your own story either on this blog or my YouTube channel; however, some of us never have that chance. I want to remember those little girls and women who never had the opportunity to share their story, or whose life's story is conveniently overlooked by mainstream media.

That's right.

I'm talking about those missing black girls, those murdered black girls...

Those forgotten black girls.

 

There is a major bias in our media coverage. The so-called newsworthy problems of the rich and famous are always televised.

• Who broke up with who.
• Whose house is the most luxurious/expensive.
• Who has the best/worst body.

Need I say more?

Beyond the rich and famous, media coverage is also biased based on race/ethnicity. Take missing women for example. Who is often portrayed as the "Damsel in Distress?" Lets give y'all some stats for a certain region in our country. Arizona seems to be the hotspot:

A case manager for the Nat'l Center for Missing Adults in Phoenix, AZ reports:

MISSING FEMALE CASES (Daily Press Release)

47,828 Total Missing Adults

______________________

29,533 White or Latino

13,859 Black

1,199 Asian

685 American Indian

The same case manager asserts that even though Black/Latino/Asian/Native American women go missing, young white females are disproportionately viewed as victims in the national media than any other group.

I guess I'm not saying anything new here. However, I want to know "WHY?" Why are missing minority women more commonly found on Have You Seen Me? mail-in cards or milk cartons and missing white females more likely to be found on the national news?

Could it be...

• Lack of minority representation in the newsroom?
• Lack of public demand for stories on missing minority women?
• The media is racist toward non-whites?

I think its a combination of these things. Y'all can tell me what you think. Whatever the reason, deaths of little girls like 7 year old Aiyana Jones (who was shot and killed in her sleep by Detroit police) never get JonBenet Ramsey type coverage.

Because of the media silence, people are ill-informed just to how common and devastating these "accidental" deaths are within our community. Whether we want to see it or not, our people are being killed off at alarming rates (AIDS, Homicide, War, Heart Disease/Diabetes etc). If the Nat'l media will not tell these stories, we "The Ordinary People" must become the media. 

To read up on Aiyana Jones' death, click on the links below:

Detroit police vow honesty in child death probe

 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2010/05/19/detroit-police-shooting-aiyana-investigation-100519.htm

 

Aiyana Jones, 7-Year-Old Shot And Killed By Detroit Police, Was Sleeping According To Family

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/aiyana-jones-7-year-old-s_n_578246.html?ref=fb&src=sp

 

As always ladies keep telling your stories, cause God knows no one else will.

 

Peace... 

Choices. Choices. Choices

Hi Ladies,

So I'm back from Colorado and I have some breathing time. I've uploaded my AWP conference video for you guys to view. You can check it out here:

Also I've posted my pedagogy paper on my website for my blog/vlog fam to view. http://www.theafrostory.com/2010.html

Do you guys ever get that feeling that things are happening WAY TOO FAST??? Well, I have that feeling (I dunno, maybe it's just anxiety :) I've been offered another fellowship (just for the summer). It requires that I move ASAP and put a lot of things I've been holding off until the summer, even further off. Whew.

This fellowship isn't A LOT compared to the one that's actually paying for my doctoral program. I'm weighing the pros and cons. For those of you that don't know already, I'm a writer and a soon-to-be anthropology doctoral student. The summer was supposed to be my WRITING TIME: surfing the net for publishing houses, developing my query letters, shopping out short stories, scouting for possible agents to represent my novel(s) etc. I definitely want to be on the right foot for my doctoral program, but I don't think I can hold off moving my writing career to the next level either. YIKES. Choices. Choices.

Well as always fam, keep telling your story. Funny, I think I need to start listening to my own advice.

Until next time.

Much love and many blessings :)

3 Weeks Until my 3 Year Natural Hairversary

Hello Ladies,

In a few weeks I will have been natural for three years. Even though I've been natural before, I was a teenager and did not really understand or fully appreciate the stuff growing out of my head. Like soooo many of y'all, I've been fried, dyed, and laid to the side (not really dyed but I didn't want to ruin the saying :) It took me to become an adult to try the natural hair journey again. I have no regrets and love every moment of it.

Below is a video about my hair growth up until this point. If you want to learn more about my natural hair growth subscribe to my youtube channel for future healthy hair growth videos.

Stay blessed :)

AFRO Life: A New Video Series

Hi ladies,

I'm going to be uploading some youtube videos that will collectively be titled AFRO Life in the near future.

The first vids will be a two part series on some things that have been happening in my life and why it seems I've taken a hiatus from the internet world. In that series, I'll touch on everything from recent news about me to inspiring my younger viewers to dream big and how hard work in the classroom will help them achieve that dream.

Another installment in this series will be on relationships.
Some topics will include:

• Should Black Women date men less financially successful than them?
• Can you be the "strong, independent woman" within a relationship/marriage?
• Dating/Marrying someone of a different spiritual/philosophical/religious path than you 

I also have a two part series coming up that will discuss my kinship theory behind why we call each other sister and brother.

Lastly, I'll be uploading a video that'll introduce you to the Yamster, my father. I visit him and film him cooking Jamaican yams. I really had a blast taping him yall.

Again, sorry I've been out of the loop on making Youtube vids and blog posts, but I'll be back more consistently really soon.

Stay blessed y'all and thanks for following the blog!