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The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationwide survey — including over 800 interviews — from which a "complex portrait" of black women in the United States has been drawn. More »
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The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. -Audre Lorde More »
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Tomorrow, Karen Freeman-Wilson will become the first black woman to serve as mayor of a city in Indiana. That city is Gary, the Detroit of Indiana, fully realized caricature of urban decay, the rusted over ribcage of America's manufacturing sector. Good luck, brave lady. More »
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There are so many things wrong with the trailer — and the concept — for the movie Think Like A Man, it's hard to know where to start. Should we start with the fact that woman-beating convicted felon Chris Brown has been cast in a romantic comedy? Should we start with the fact that Steve Harvey, a comedian and not a therapist or counselor, who as been married three times, is dispensing love advice to black women? Or perhaps we should start with the fact that this flick was written by David Newman and Keith Merryman, two white guys also responsible for Friends With Benefits? It's all so mind-boggling. The worst part is how the men in the movie are terribly flawed, but it's the women who "need" to change. The women are seeking advice. The voice-over man actually says the words, "Guys will be guys." Girl, that's just how it is! More »
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One of the least fun parts of being a lady is the constant barrage of media that insists that there are products to be purchased that might help you overcome your crushing lack of Pretty. A new survey reveals that while some women are internalizing this message, one group is rejecting en masse it and declaring themselves awesome: black women. Come on, the rest of you jerks! Get higher self-esteem! More »
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"My hair is called an Afro," says Isis Brantley in the video above. The Dallas hairdresser hasn't cut her hair since she was 12 years old. She says it was that hair that led her to be chased down by a TSA guard and subjected to an extra patdown. The TSA claims she left before the full inspection was completed. More »
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Things being as they are, Beyonce's gestating fetus isn't just her own — it's already a site of intense debate about marriage, motherhood, and black women. More »
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If you're a black woman in America and you want to get married, statistics indicate that you're likely to have a hard time of it. Almost seventy percent of American black women are unmarried. Over half of black women's marriages to black men end in divorce. More »
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Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel famously said she would rather get paid $700 a week for playing a maid than $7 for being one, after civil rights groups criticized the portrayal of black characters in Gone With The Wind. Seventy years later, The Help and Viola Davis are enmeshed in a similar controversy. More »
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A South Carolina-based midwife has launched her own campaign against the "normalization against the baby mama," aimed at the black community. More »
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When a waitress at the W hotel accused him of fondling her breast after getting permission to stick his credit card in her blouse, Albert Haynesworth, a player for the Washington Redskins player, had to make a bad situation worse. He's been indicted on one charge of sexual abuse, and the indictment contains the following: More »
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Meet J.C. Davies! She's a blogger, former investment banker, and the author of a book about inter-racial dating. In it, she addresses questions including, "Are Jewish men really cheap?" and "Are all Indian men well versed in the Kama Sutra?" More »
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On September 9, the opening day of New York Fashion Week, a group of young Black women staged a silent demonstration. More »
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• According to a study out of the UK, women spend three years of their lives cooking, which is more than double the amount of time men spend in front of the stove. But there is good news:

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By now, everyone in the country with access to a television, the internet or a book store has gotten the memo that black women marry at a dismally low rate compared to women of other races. More »
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When it comes to reality shows featuring black women (and some men), VH1 is "trading trampiness for fabulousness," with shows devoted to the lives of "seemingly well-adjusted rich and famous black Americans," according to the AP. Let's examine, shall we? More »
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In a conference call yesterday, reproductive rights leaders pointed out the anti-choice targeting of black women for what it is: a right-wing effort to "drive a wedge into the African-American community and into other communities of color." More »
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1. White men are only consolation prizes. 2. Reference Something New. 3. Mention all her friends are doing it. 4. Ignore all other ethnicities/races. 5. Reinforce the only alternative is to die alone. [Washington Post] More »
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"[I]f you had bad hair, what did that say about you?" On Sunday, the Washington Post delved into the thorny ideas of hair politics, holding an open mic for African-American women to talk about their feelings on the subject. More »
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"Marriage eludes high-achieving black women: Many remain single and childless, according to new research." Fuck. And to make sure they rub the salt in the wound, there's a big ass picture of Barack and Michelle. More »
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A study on physical and sexual abuse among black women yielded many disturbing findings, but perhaps the most disturbing is the correlation between childhood sexual abuse and earlier periods. More »
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• One English woman grew out her underarm hair to see how people would react. Let's just say they made her feel like the pits (sorry). • More »
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Michelle Obama: What's not to love? She's smart, accomplished, funny, a great mother and a snazzy dresser. But as Newsweek's Allison Samuels points out, compared to other black women in the media, there's something different about Michelle Obama. For instance: Why don't we see Michelle snappin' her neck and waggin' her finger when she's "keepin' it real"? Why don't we see Michelle shake her booty and drop it like it's hot when she dances? Why haven't we heard any sassy one-liners or seen any displays of an easily-provoked temper? More »
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A former Abercrombie & Fitch saleswoman has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the company, claiming that she was fired because she was black and had blonde highlights. Burchette claims a white supervisor demanded that she remove her highlights and, when she asked if she could instead go all-blonde the supervisor told her, "It is not natural." A&F, of course, has a longstanding commitment to the "natural" aesthetic, as evidenced by its 60-something CEO who dyes his own hair blond and remains committed to dressing the part of a frat boy vacationing in Cape Cod. [NY Post & Salon] More »
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Good and bad breast cancer news. The bad: a recent survey of black and white women who have had surgery to remove early-stage breast cancer found that black women were less likely than white women to receive the crucial follow-up radiation treatment. The survey joins a long line of studies that show that U.S. blacks get inferior care for cancer and other illnesses than whites. The good news: A new way to spot breast cancer called molecular breast imaging can spot the disease more effectively and with fewer false alarms for women with dense breasts. In fact, the new method may be more effective than a mammogram and less expensive than a MRI. [Reuters & MSNBC] More »
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Nothing quite says "It's August" like sifting through the pounds and pounds of perfume-scented and white-washed pages from the September issues of the major women's magazines. Sure, Italian Vogue came out with an "All Black" issue in July, but even that success probably won't motivate the editors of American women's magazines into showing a little diversity, especially if the September issues are any indication. After the jump, check out our roundup of the models of color in the ads and fashion spreads of the September ladymags, where, not surprisingly, Asian models are scarce, black models sell cleaning products, and Caucasians rule. More »
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We all have varying experiences when traveling abroad, depending on our background, nationality, and even our race. That is why the website U Go Gurl has created the travel essay book, Go Girl. The book is made up of collected travel essays from prominent African American female writers (Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks) and other well-traveled black women relating their experiences of traveling while black and female. The essays range from positive experiences in Egypt, and Ghana to the more complex and revealing experience of traveling in Russia, the British Virgin Islands, and Mexico. While the book deals with themes of identity, nationality, pride, and racism experienced outside of the States; the book ultimately is aimed at encouraging black women to travel and find the resources to do so, even when most mainstream travel guides don't offer up advice addressing black women. [Racialicious] More »
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In a worth-your-while article from Sunday's Washington Post, a friend tells writer Sophia A. Nelson: "I think one of the most interesting things about Michelle Obama is that what she and her husband are doing is pretty revolutionary these days — and I don't mean running for president. For a black man and woman in the U.S. to be happily married, with children, and working as partners to build a life — let alone a life of service to others — all while rearing their children together is downright revolutionary." [Washington Post] More »
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Essence magazine has announced plans to re-launch Essence.com and make it a daily destination for African-American women 18 to 49 years old. Two media units of Time Warner are teaming up with the 38-year-old magazine: Warner Brothers Television Group (Extra) and Telepictures Productions (The Tyra Banks Show). The number of African-American internet users is expected to grow to 25 million in 2011, up from 19.6 million in 2006, and advertisers are taking note: according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, African-Americans will spend $1.1 trillion in 2011, up from $799 billion in 2006. While it's great that the industry recognizes that black people (gasp!) use computers, can one website hope to capture this "under-served" market? More »
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The National Urban League has released its State Of Black America report, and as you may expect, there's good news and bad news. Bad news first: Black women hold more jobs nationwide than black men, but, even though they're often referred to as the "backbone of the black family," black women earn less: $566 a week compared to $629 for black men, on average. More subprime loans were given to black women than white men, so black women have suffered disproportionately in the mortgage crisis. This is especially devastating since black women are more likely than white or Hispanic women to be running a household and raising children on their own. Also: Black women have above-average rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease. On TV, white men dominate news programs while black women are "gyrating, undulating" images in rap videos. (Black females are also much less likely than white women to receive media attention when they have gone missing.) More »
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February is just two days away, and the 1st day of the 2nd month is not only the start of Black History Month but New York Fashion Week. (Think they'll have more models of color on the runways? Unlikely!) Anyway, we can think of no better way to simultaneously celebrate the blessed events and introduce a new feature than by combining the two in the form of what we're calling "Past Fashion". The idea behind the feature is to present a monthly gallery of everything from your most over-the-top dance recital outfits to your most adorable, official grade-school photographs. But before you start sending in Polaroids of that time in the 8th grade when you wore white pancake makeup, heed our call for our inaugural "issue" of Past Fashion, for which we'll focus on the best (and worst!) of black (female) hairstyles..."political" and otherwise. More »
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On Monday, CNN posted a story on its site examining the "dilemma" for black female voters this year: Do you vote for the black guy or the chick? Almost immediately, CNN received angry reactions to the story. We also mentioned that a new poll shows that more Americans are ready for a black president than a female one; and the struggle between suffragists and the civil rights leaders — essentially a blacks vs. women battle — is one that is centuries old. But why get feedback solely from CNN readers when there are two black women working at Jezebel? Presidential politics, disillusionment and no real answers, in an IM conversation between Anna and myself, after the jump. (I'm pink.) More »
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All this week, NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams has been running a series called "African- American Women: Where They Stand." So far, on blogs and in e-mail blasts, the series has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, according to Advertising Age's Carol Watson. "Some were enthusiastic about uncovering the struggles and issues that are often the topics of conversation by black women already and others have been skeptical about NBC motives and divisiveness," writes Ms. Watson. "The journalists covering the stories are incredibly talented black women that I am sure had to fight hard to get even these 2-minute segments running for five consecutive days. But the debate on the value and context of the information still creates a storm among black consumers." I saw one segment of the series, about women and business. According to the reporting, (which focuses on a 39-year-old single mother and Stanford grad who has her own PR/marketing business) the number of businesses owned by black women (in a five year period) is up 75%, yay! But the number of businesses owned by black men is only up 29%, sigh. More »
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When Najoh Tita Reid was 5 years old, according to Advertising Age, one of her white friends wouldn't let her white doll play with Ms. Reid's black doll, because the black doll was "ugly." (Where did we hear that before?) Ms. Reid is now the multicultural marketing director for the world's — and country's — biggest advertiser, Proctor & Gamble Co. She plans on launching a multibrand campaign called "My Black Is Beautiful." P&G research has found that 71% of black women feel they're portrayed worse than other women in media and advertising. Yet they spend, on average, three times more than the general market on beauty products. More »
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We haven't purchased Ebony magazine in years. But we picked up the September issue, because, look! Tyra, Iman, Kimora Lee Simmons and Alek Wek! Also, the cover line: "Black Is Back." We were dying to find out where "black" went, and with whom! Unfortunately, the story inside is rather depressing. Tyra, Iman, Kimora and Alek are extremely successful. All have parlayed their name as models into other businesses: Tyra produces two TV shows; Iman has a global cosmetics operation; Kimora runs Baby Phat and has a TV show; Alek has a handbag line and a children's educational program. But what about the next generation of Tyras, Imans, Kimoras and Aleks? Tyra has ended her 16-year modeling career, and some fashion insiders say the industry is backing away from black models. "I think runways have a blackout right now, White seems to be right, the image of what beauty is," says Veronica Jones, owner of Grand View, a Nyack, NY women's apparel store. More »
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"Yep — it's true. There is a desirable shade of ass." [FabSugar] More »
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