by Guest Contributor Dumi Lewis, originally published at Uptown Notes

Dear Old Morehouse,
I’ve been trying to avoid writing this for some time now. As an alumnus of the institution, it’s hard for me to see you in such condition. Many of my fellow alumni complained of your disrepair and your besmirched image when they heard about [...]

By Guest Contributor Tami, originally published at What Tami Said

With the premiere of Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” everyone is talking about black women’s tresses–about our quest for “good hair.” What exactly is “good hair,” anyway? I suspect that, until now, many white Americans have not heard hair described in quite these terms. But blacks [...]

By Guest Contributor Tami, originally posted at What Tami Said

Fat, black woman. Big, black chick. Those descriptors are lazy comedy shorthand in a racist, sexist and sizist society. Want to bring on the cheap laughs? Then trot out an over-sized, brown-skinned lady. Even better, despite her fatness and blackness, give her a more than healthy [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Alongside the tragic mulatto myth, the idea that being mixed is somehow “futuristic” or modern, and the idea that mixed people will be better, faster, and stronger (also called the “hybrid vigor” myth), one of the enduring features about discussions of mixed race individuals is that “hotness” always surfaces.
Allure serves up a [...]

by Guest Contributor Ryan Barrett, originally published at Cheap Thrills

Now that this week’s Oprah schedule is up onher site, I guess I can divulge which taping I attended (and if this isn’t supreme coincidence I don’t know what is): Chris Rock’s dish on his new documentary, “Good Hair”. In fact, we audience members attended [...]

By Guest Contributor Momo Chang, originally published at the Hyphen Magazine Blog

Recently learned that the city of Oakland is trying to make it a lot harder for people to open nail salons and laundromats, via an emergency ordinance. What is that, you ask? The gist of it is that if you want to operate a [...]

By Guest Contributor Crissy, originally published at b-listed
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a>
When I went to India for the first time, I saw how beautiful everyone’s skin was. Being a person of color, regardless of what was on TV or in magazines I was raised to believe that color is beautiful. But what I [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Stalking Tyra is normally Carmen’s beat, but since she’s got her hands full with the new baby, looks like I’ll have to take this one.
Finally, after much fanfare, Tyra Banks opened her show sans weave. Afrobella was disappointed:

In retrospect, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. I shouldn’t have [...]

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
Continued from “Bela or Bust Part 2 - On Class” . . .
“We always want what we can’t have,” so the saying goes, a saying that is most fitting to describe the intersection of race and the significance of beauty in Brazil. Though many Americans think of a raven haired, dark-eyed, sun-kissed, [...]

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
Continued from “Bela or Bust: Part 1: On Gender” . . .
Author’s note: My apologies for the delay between part one and part two! I have recently moved back to the United States and in between re-adjusting and job hunting, I had not had the chance or the mental clarity to sit [...]

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse 
Continued from “Bela or Bust (Introduction)” . . .
Author’s note:
I recognize that to say that the preoccupation with being beautiful for women in Brazil boils down to three separate entities is oversimplifying. Gender, class, and race obviously intersect constantly and are difficult to consider beyond their Venn diagram-like existence. Yet [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Whose Pussy Is This?
Now I have to ask this question
Cuz you mothafuckas keep disrespectin’ my shit
In every line that your lame asses spit
I’m forced to hear about my pussy
That is always on sale
A hot retail item
wrapped in plastic
for $12.99
And this shit is drastic
Bcuz everyone thinks they too have ownership of something that belongs [...]

by Guest Contributor Tami, originally published at What Tami Said

Some folks (including me, sometimes) quibble over whether the blog Jezebel qualifies as “feminist.” Having lurked around the joint for awhile, I would say it definitely has a third-wave feminist ethos. That means the site’s bloggers regularly lay a smack down on media that exploits women. [...]

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
“So, are the girls hot?”
This is the most common question I receive from American men when I explain that I have been living in Brazil. These men come from all walks of life, are of various racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds, and of varying levels of education, exposure to other countries, [...]

by Guest Contributor Alicia, originally published at Muslimah Media Watch
It had to happen sooner or later. With Barbie and now Hannah Montana merchandise dominating the tween to early teenage market in Malaysia, products for young Muslim women in hijab are starting to appear, particularly on the bookshelves. And they look very pink.
The increasing pinkness of [...]