If ever there was a company that didn't need to hire a Black model it's Sanrio. I know I'm stuck on this, but I am SUPER excited about this Hello Kitty Kouture (MAC). And then I was looking at the ads, and I was even more juiced that the new image of Hello Kitty is Black. And not just a black cat, a Black woman! (and she lightweight looks like me, vanity at its finest). I don't know how this is a step forward for Black people, and I'm sure it had more to do with MAC Cosmetics than Sanrio, but this makes me proud to rock the Kitty.
I logged into Myspace right now and was notified of an "AMBER Alert" in my area (end of post). I clicked on it only to find the worst possible description ever: the young four year old girl and her kidnapper have the skin color "Hispanic."
Okay, this is just off. A "Hispanic" skin tone does not exist. Anyone can be Hispanic, and you might not even know it.
Well, since Latinos/Hispanics have every possible skin tone under the sun, maybe they should start replacing the skin tone description of "Hispanic" with "George Lopez." Just as offensive, but it would get more to the point, I would say.
In all seriousness though, I hope this girl is found:
ATTENTION: There is an AMBER Alert in your area. Please CLICK HERE to find out more information.
Missing From: Thousand Palms, CA Missing Date: 2/23/2009 12:00 AM
Contact: Riverside County Sheriff's Department 760-836-3218
Circumstances: On February 23, 2009, at 0930 hours, Monica Ruby Morales was abducted from Thousand Palms, Riverside County, California.
Missing Child Name: Monica Ruby Morales Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Skin Color: Hispanic Age: 4YO Gender: Female Description: Short hair, wearing a yellow shirt with white print on the front, blue pants, yellow sandals
Suspect Name: Unknown Unknown Hair Color: Brown Skin Color: Hispanic Age: 30YO Height: 5FT5 Weight: 150LBS Gender: Female Description: Wearing a white shirt and jeans
Vehicle Information Model: Van Color: Green Vehicle: Full sized
Editor's Note: My goal is to gather the creative works dedicated to Oscar Grant from artists, musicians, writers, photographers and others. Any form of creative expression will be accepted. It could be a video of a dance work, audio, song, comic strip, photography, art project, links to website pieces, etc. Selected portfolio work will be featured in several Bay Area publications including Race, Poverty & the Environment, Street Spirit, Media-alliance.org, and InColor.net(print and online). If you have any questions or would like to contribute to this project please contact christinejoy@urbanhabitat.org. All submissions should be sent to artwork@urbanhabitat.org by March 21, 2009.
People are angry. Early morning on New Year’s Day, 22-year-old Oscar Grant III was shot and killed in Oakland, California by a Bay Area Rapid Transit agency police officer. Grant was unarmed. The young black man’s arms shackled behind his back. His face—pressed down against the cement. Onlookers video-phoned the horrific spectacle as his life was taken from him.
Thousands have been appalled by the Oscar Grant shooting and have taken a new stand to fight injustice. Many have chosen to creatively express their stance through art. Songs have been written and dedicated to Oscar Grant. Poems, paintings and posters have been created. Graffiti artists have painted murals.
These visionaries protest against the injustice of police brutality, discrimination, prejudice, racism, and white privilege.
Throughout history, from gospel singing in the Civil Rights Movement to today's t-shirts and posters donning portraits of Che Guevara and President Barack Obama, art plays a very important role in social movements. Art has been used for framing, to attract resources, to communicate information about themselves, to foster useful emotion, and as a symbol (for communication a coherent identity, marking membership, and cementing commitment to the movement), explains Jacqueline Adams in her article “Art in Social Movements: Shantytown Women’s Protest in Pinochet’s Chile.”
The struggle continues. Don’t stop creating.
Oscar Grant's Glimpse of the New Year By Rashida Mack "I am an African American 22 yr old man, Trembling, I am told to hit the ground, pushed down, I am lying on a [Oakland] platform, As commanded, Face down, I hear a shot, Then feel pain I am shot, Fading black.
Your Happy New Year to me, Now called a mistake? Glock 9mm, Taser gun, Glock 9mm, On my stomach, Face down, Unarmed, Taser or Glock, Whichever, Neither." Read more...
Dear Tatiana (Letter to Oscar Grant's Daughter) By Ruckus, produced by Kid Konnect
Artist Unknown. Photo by Frederic Larson, San Francisco Chronicle
ONE (Ode to Oscar Grant) By Shiko "...the one man in uniform holds out his one gun and shoots the son the father and the friend then ....SILENCE.... Black silence born from years of white oppression effective white brain wash that taught a black man to be a .......NIGGER...... taught him that he is worth nothing taught him that even after emancipation he was still three fifths of a man effective brain wash that caused the black men to be submissive leaving thoughts of change to his "white washed" brethren but now I hear protest black voices raised in unison .....HOPE....." Read More...
Novel dedicates "Mad World" to Oscar Grant By SOHH Soul Rebel
Jack Foley: FOR OSCAR GRANT III "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking Five score years ago, Out of the mocking bird’s throat, the musical shuttle, A great American signed the Emancipation Proclamation Out of the ninth-month midnight, But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free" Read More...
