Tag Archives: black women

Twitter Thread on Black Women Comedians

About two weeks ago, I created a Twitter thread about Black women comedians. I will continue to add the Twitter handles of comedians to keep the thread fresh.  In the meantime, I am posting the text of the thread here.  Hopefully, someone will use this list as a resource when looking for black women comedians.  I did the homework for you, so all you have to do is check out the clips online and hire them.

Amber Ruffin, Dulce Sloan, Robin Thede and Yamaneika Saunders. Do you know who they are?!  You should.

Black women comedians finally got a chance to get voices heard on late night tv.
Amber Ruffin does regular recurring segments on @LateNightSeth. She talks about race, gender and pop culture.
Dulce Sloan is a new correspondent to @TheDailyShow. She has been stand up comedy for years.
Yamaneika Saunders (@Yameneika) is a stand-up comedian. I am not sure if she has been on @FallonTonight before this week.
Robin Thede is the host of her show on BET. She was formerly the head writer of the Nightly Show.
So when the hashtag #blackwomen started trending on Wednesday morning, some of the late night shows scrambled to have black women represented. It is a damn shame that it took a special election in Alabama for black women comedians to get some attention.
I am going to all the comedians that I know in the thread who should get some shine. Follow them.
I will continue to add the Twitter handles of black women comedians into the new year and beyond. #comedians

Hurricane Harvey: How You Can Help

 

 

“Houston, we have a problem.”  – It’s a quote that is overused, but it is relevant with Hurricane Harvey hitting Houston right now.  Houston is the 4th largest city in the country, and the city is under water. This is worse than Matthew, Katrina or Superstorm Sandy.

Black women are helping black women during this crisis. Dr. Roni Dean-Burren is collecting the information of Black women who need help due to the hurricane.

Please encourage Black women to go to this link http://bit.ly/SupportBWHou and put their cash app info in!

I will make all cash app links public on tomorrow…..they will begin receiving money tomorrow. I have faith in that!

#SupportBlackWomenHOU

 

 

Sandberg, Mayer, Steinberg: Sistas Are Doing It For Themselves

Sistas n Arms

Sistas,

Is that greeting too off-putting because I don’t know each and every Black woman in America?!

We may not all be related. We are definitely not a monolith, but we share enough experiences that it is safe to say we are a sisterhood.

Even as strangers, we let each other know if there is lipstick on our teeth or if our purse is not zipped up.

So lately, there has been conversation about women, their careers and lives. Sheryl Sandberg is telling us to “lean in”; Marissa Mayer is saying we can’t work home and Anne Marie Slaughter says we can’t have it all. However, we don’t seem to have a “bitch in this fight”. [ I only say bitch because it is female for dog. I am not calling anyone a bitch or a dog.] What I am saying is that we Black women are NOT represented in this discussion. Neither are other women of color.

Anne Marie Slaughter, Marissa Mayer, and Sheryl Sandberg don’t speak for us. They also don’t speak for their sisters who are white and struggling to keep their jobs, their homes and feed their children.

Aspirational lifestyle articles that talk about Slaughter, Mayer,and Sanberg start off with the assumption that everyone reading them is making bank. They reek of privilege and do nothing to move the conversation about the difficulty of women’s evolving roles as business owners, mothers, wives and community leaders.

How can women without money and resources become authors like Sandberg? How can they become tech start-up entrepreneurs?
How can they homeschooled their kids? How can they run for political office?

We want those stories. Sistas have those stories. Let the conversation start from women with less than six-figure incomes. Everyone can learn from them.

Womens E-News Event About Black Maternal Health With Tonya Lewis Lee

womensenews

Last night I attended a screening at the offices of Women’s eNews. It was for a screening of the documentary, “Crisis In The Cribs” which is about African American infant mortality. Tonya Lewis Lee is the producer of the film and she is also the spokesperson for the U.S. Office of Minority Health’s A Healthy Baby Begins with You campaign.

I was struck by how devastating the rate of infant mortality is for African American women. It crosses socioeconomic status, so it affects all African American women. Infant Mortality for the African-American community is a pressing, but it’s often an overlooked public health issue. The rate of death for African American babies before their first birthday is twice the rate of white babies and greatly outpaces the national average.

Attending the screening, there were bloggers, Kimberly Seals Allers from Mocha Manual, Nikki from Mommy Factor and Lucinda from Corporate Mom Dropouts. I also spotted actress Tamara Tunie whose friend works with a nonprofit that helps homeless mothers.

What can you do? Spread the word. Get a copy of the documentary and have a screening. Be healthy. Even if you don’t plan to have kids, set the example.

Update:
ProPublica has written several articles about Black Maternal Health and infant mortality in 2017.
Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth
Black Women Disproportionately Suffer Complications of Pregnancy and Childbirth. Let’s Talk About It

Hints of Color on Network TV

While Shonda Rhimes, creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” gets most of the attention as being one of the few African American women working behind the scenes on network TV today, she is not the only one.

Nichelle Tramble is an author (The Dying Ground, The Last King) as well as writer for a new hospital drama on NBC, Mercy. I am big fan of this show personally and I recommend checking the latest episode on Hulu.

Mara Brock Akil, the creative force behind “Girlfriends” and “The Game” is now working on ABC’s “Cougar Town”.

Angela Nissel is the bestselling author of The Broke Diaries and her memoir Mixed. She also was co-producer and writer on “Scrubs” and consulting producer on “Til Death”.

Update: My friend told me about Millicent Shelton who directed episodes “Everybody Hates Chris”, “Cougartown and “Parks and Recreation”.