Negro - The N Word - Jonathan Emil McCoy

Take heed and be blessed.

Turning the Titanic Around- Black Hair Care

Since teaching at a school with such a high concentration of black students, I'll be doing some research over the holidays to find websites and videos to share information about black hair, hair care, natural vs. relaxed, and the industry for my kids, especially the girls to check out.

We have a lot of store front Asian owned hair supply stores in Waco as most small and large cities do as long as there is a decent population of blacks to fork over their hard earned money to. And yes as the videos below display the community in which these stores serve are often poor, depressed and economically disadvantaged.

I know when I was a hair care junkie, whenever I went into, and still if I did today, the beauty supply shops, there was a low interest from the staff in giving me products to help my hair, but instead a high interest in them selling me whatever. I will say that when I lived in Houston, my favorite hair supply store which was in the Hobby area on 8326 Broadway St., was owned by an African gentleman. ANAN Beauty Supply. He was wonderful and extremely helpful and honest about making suggestions for my haircare needs. He had lots of supplies and hair, so I'm thinking he had no problem getting product from the distributors. The videos below are from a few I searched and found this morning on youtube. Thank you Karen Halliburton, for sharing your website as well. Very informative.



And so BOBSA was formed.











The struggle in London as well.



Nappy Roots Documentary




Some of my girls are so "fogged" in their self perception, it's nothing for them to walk up and down the hallways with their hair alllll over their head. They are getting better about not walking around with a comb stuck in their hair. I will tell them in a second that that's "Ghetto". I tell them, "You are a princess" and ask them to kindly remove the comb from their hair. If I can just get them to become "aware" that they can be seen and that they are not isolated. So in one way they are image conscious, and in another way, they aren't.

It's weird because one of the boys was commenting in a very direct manner to one of the girls in class about how her hair was breaking off and that she was becoming bald headed. He told her to "do something" with her hair. The sad part about it was, he was telling the truth. The sadder part about it was, she was trying to do something about it. She is one of mine who has the comb in her hair daily, yet her hair is all over her head. I saw how helpless you looked trying to defend herself, rebutting to him that she was gonna get a perm. My heart sank.

The kids look at my locks and some admire them, but have no clue or idea of how they can get to the place I am in. Jen and I discussed investing in one young lady who's a good braider and getting her trained in SLs and have her help the revolution begin here in Waco. I really believe if they knew what to do, they would do it. I know these girls are tired of damaging their hair at their young tender ages already, but do not know how to get out of this trap. Until then, they will just do what they see in the videos, in the magazines, and among each other, all the while for those who can't take care if it, will continue ruining their hair. My question to the online natural hair community is how do we become an agent for change? Do we just complain about what we see, or do we do something about it?

Runaway Love- Ludacris featuring Mary J. Blige

I heard this song in Walmart two nights ago and thought to myself, "interesting lyrics". My aunt mentioned it to me tonight and we pulled it up on youtube to check out the video. Many blessings to Ludacris and Mary J. Blige for putting this anthem project out. Here's an outlet for young girls to now speak out and speak up. Permission to tell the truth. Let the cleansing begin.

Daddy's Little Girl

Today was a really long day. But the evening proved to be more of a drainer than anything. I attended a scholarship banquet the local AA Chamber hosted and afterwards, a friend gave me a ride to my car. Well, it was late, more like near 11:30pm already because we sat outside at the Cultural Arts Fest chatting about life, family and relationships.

Well when she drove around to my car we both witnessed what looked like at first, a couple making out. The man had his back to us and all we saw were hands locked around his neck and whomever he was hugging seemed to enjoy the affection. The hands and arms looked pretty small but since it was dark, we initially assumed perhaps it was a baby. The man started rocking from side to side while holding on to her. She appeared to be sitting in his lap, legs straddled, but later I found out she was standing in front of him. Her hands would drop down and he kissed her, seemingly in a passionate way. My friend and I both sat in the car because in that instant we both got a queasy feeling like the guy wasn't with a woman and it wasn't a baby (infant) either. I told my friend, "Boy, I hope that's a really petite woman he's all hugged up with."

Well, sadly enough, it wasn't. He stood up and in front of him as what looked like a cute little 8 yr-old with a pretty pink and white dress on standing there embracing him. My friend and I both had a look of dread on our faces. I said, "That's inappropriate. My dad never held me like that. OK, that was nasty!" The man didn't flinch nor move in a way that would reveal to us he thought he was "caught" by our curious eyes. He just grabbed the girl by her hand, with her in complete submission and took off walking across the street further away from the venue they were attending which was a wedding reception.

I told my friend that as soon as I got into my car I was going to head across the street to see where he was going with her. I waited about 2 minutes after she drove off and then proceeded across the street to the Marriot Courtyard's parking lot. I drove all the way to the back and thought they perhaps went into the hotel because I didn't see them at first. Just when I made the last curve, to my wonderment, there they were both far off in the back of the lot, back in the same close cuddling position. Now you tell me, why would a father carry his daughter off around midnight to go and "cuddle"? Ugh!

I drove by trying to figure out if I was going to call the police or just head back to the parking lot where I saw a car that a lady and a small child were getting into before I headed on the scout. Well, I drove back to the original parking area and asked the lady if she knew the guy and the little girl. She said that he was her brother-in-law and the little girl his daugther. I immediately told her that what my friend and I saw was inappropriate and that I have a Daddy and she probably has one too, and that's not how Daddys are supposed to be with their daughters. She started sighing and pacing back and forth as if what I was telling her was nothing unusual. I started to get a little nervous and then suspicious.

She decided to follow me in her car and we cased the lot and when I pulled around to where the guy and his daughter were, the little girl jumped up and then he got up, staggering like he was drunk, clinging tight to her hand. I drove my car past the guy and it was then I noticed he only had on a tuxedo vest, with no shirt on and he was trying to put the vest back on as I drove by. OK, by now I'm getting pretty sick in the pit of my stomach. The lady pulled up to both of them, but I was too far ahead to hear the conversation. It was quiet. He didn't speak loud and neither did the girl. They chatted for about a minute or two.

I motioned for her to pull up next to me and the lady did. She started in with some song and dance about how there was a commotion at the reception (sounded like she was making an excuse for him) and bla bla bla. I'm thinking to myself, what does that have to do with this drunk guy in the parking lot a half a mile away from the reception near midnight with his daughter have to do with some "commotion"? I just said, "Did you see him pulling his vest back over his shoulders?" She just looked at me shrugging her shoulders. I then told her, "Well, I'm just telling you what I saw. You have seen for yourself. Now you know." I then just drove off. I saw him with his daughter, still hand in hand walking across the street back to the reception hall as if nothing was going on and I wanted to throw up. How could this have gotten this far without no one's observation? Or was the lady revealing to me that what I saw was what they already have been knowing and they don't know what to do?

This reminded me of when I saw Woman Thou Art Loosed when the daughter tried to tell the mother about the problem and she was simply ignored or told she was lying. At this point, I don't think this little girl thinks she's done anything inappropriate with her father. My question is, are women still lying to themselves when they see petiphile men/husbands/fathers taking advantage of unsuspecting innocent children by not confronting these sickos? Lord, Lord, Lord! Please pray that what I saw was just my imagination, and if it wasn't that justice be served swiftly. The saddest part about what I saw was how comfortable the little girl seemed with this man, as if it was an everyday occurance. He was just as comfortable. The video below is from a Slam Poet friend of mines sharing a true story in his presentation about the matter. It's kind of deep, but I had to share. It's called Daddy's Little Girl.

This heart wrenching poem is shared by Ft.Worth Slam Poet and host, Michael Guinn at Beatnix Coffeehouse, Waco, Texas. http://mikeguinn.com/ http://www.beatnixcoffee.com ****I spoke to my girlfriend who was with me that night and she said she was going to call a friend of hers who works for the sex crimes unit here in Waco to see what can be done. The good thing about following up with this is that there was only two Wedding receptions going on Saturday night. If we are able to contact the Visitor's Bureau who books the rooms at the Convention Center, the crime unit can start there with contacting the folks in the planning of the reception. It appeared that the guy and his daughter were in the wedding, since I saw groomsmen earlier that night with the same burgandy vests on, with tux shirts underneath of course!!! Thanks for everyone's prayers in this situation.****