Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Madam Prezident Discusses the Lack of Women in Hip Hop

Dr. Boyce Watkins on AOL Black Voices: Hip Hop Women

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why there are no women in hip hop. I've asked this question of some of my friends in the game, but none of them seem to have a good answer. So, I figured that I would do the same thing I did with my mother when I was a child: Keep asking the question until the answer starts to make sense.
There is a plethora of talented artists in hip hop, but most of them are men. We know that women possess the talent to be successful, and we simply have to give them the opportunity. Well, this is the topic that I am going to discuss today with Madam Prezident, aka Shanelle Walker. She is an amazing spoken word and hip hop artist and represents one of the most talented artists in the world today.

 

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Friday, December 17, 2010

Woman Receives Historic Settlement from Tobacco Company

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

Marie Evans grew up in a housing project in Boston. In those projects, the children in the neighborhood were given free samples of Newport cigarettes, which Marie first received at the age of 9. By the time she was 13, she was a regular smoker, and in 2002, she died of lung cancer.
Marie's family decided to confront the maker of Newport cigarettes for their negligent behavior and won a stunning $152 million lawsuit against the company. The judgement consisted of $81 million in damages and another $71 million that had been awarded earlier this week. It took quite a few years to get there, but justice has been served. This is the largest judgement in history against anyone in the tobacco industry.
"It was her wish to sort of bring this suit, and I've honored that wish. It's been my mission to see this to completion. I'm sure she feels vindicated. I'm sure she feels thankful for the 14 members of the jury that they ruled that they committed these offenses," said William Evan's, Marie's son.

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Friday, December 10, 2010

World Famous Gynecologist Once Operated on Slaves with No Anesthesia

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

University of Illinois Professor Deborah McGregor has helped to shed an important piece of history to the American public. Dr. McGregor has noted that Dr. James Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, developed many of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anesthesia.
Professor McGregor, the author of 'From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology," said "There is no doubt that he carried out experiments on women, and that he was only able to do so because they were slaves."


Part of the controversy regarding Sims centers around a statue placed near Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street in New York City. The statue is located next to the New York Academy of Medicine, in a neighborhood that is majority Black and Puerto-Rican. EastHarlemPreservation.org put a poll on it's website that asks: "Should the NYC Parks Department remove the statue of Dr. Marion Sims from its East Harlem location considering his experiments on female and infant slaves?"

 

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

How Do You Find Clothing for the Plus Size Woman? Just Ask Monif C. Clarke

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

I was on the phone the other day with a friend of mine who is far more well-known than I'll ever be. We talk about nearly everything under the sun and I find that our friendship bears a great deal of intellectual fruit. One of the interesting things about my friend is that she has a famous body, known specifically for having the kinds of curves that only a black woman can possess. I asked her if all the attention ever bothered her, and she said "No. What bothers me is that I can't find any clothes that fit!"

This conversation re-opened my eyes to the struggles that women of color have when it comes to finding clothes that work with the beautiful look God gave them. I then decided to do a Dr. Boyce AOL Black Voices Profile on Monif C. Clarke, one of the brilliant minds behind Monif C. Plus Sizes, a company that specializes in selling contemporary plus size clothing. Here is what she had to say:

 

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Leading Ladies in Hip Hop Should Be Supporting One Another, Not Fighting

nicki minaj lil kim

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

There was a time when my daughter and I could never see eye-to-eye.  We fought regularly, and even had times where we didn’t speak.  Through the struggle, it was the most prominent part of our joint DNA that made us the most contentious. Everyone could see how much we were alike: we think the same, look the same, have the same mannerisms, and even have the same taste buds.  Most significantly, we are both strong-willed, principled and don’t take B.S. from anybody.  The things that made us most similar were part of what drove us to bump heads.

When I think about the time I lost fighting with the little girl I love so much, I realized how we would have been great allies if we hadn’t fooled ourselves into becoming enemies.  This also makes me think about the on-going hip hop beef between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj, two women who are so much alike that they want to kick each other’s asses.

 

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Black Politics: Juan Williams Insults the Poor….Again

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

Fox News commentator Juan Williams made news again this week by stating that extending unemployment benefits for America's jobless would weaken their value systems. In Williams' words:
"Because employers, potential employers, will look and see that gee, they've been out forever, it doesn't make sense. And I think that's partly playing in to this cycle. And at some point then it becomes a matter of you lose your work ethic, your values are impacted, you know, getting up, showing up, dressing well, all that good stuff. So I don't know that that's smart."
I would say that Williams' comments are shocking, but they are certainly to be expected from the man who publicly sold himself to the most racist television network in the history of our country. I'm not sure why Williams felt the need to jump in on this issue in such an insensitive way, but it appears that he's working hard to earn the two million that Fox is paying him.

 

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Friday, December 3, 2010

Black Love Gone Bad: Antoine Walker Sued for Taking another Man’s Finacee

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

Former NBA star Antoine Walker is being sued for $5 million dollars by a man who claims that Walker stole his fiancee. Kevin Jenkins says that he caught Walker and his fiancee in an "intimate moment," and confronted Walker about it. He said that Walker laughed in his face to deliberately cause him emotional distress.
Jenkins then says that he became so emotionally distressed that he thought about killing himself.
To date, I haven't heard of anyone being sued for cheating with another person's fiancee. However, I do know that in some states, you can be sued for cheating with someone else's spouse. These "alienation of affection" lawsuits are legal in several states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.

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Black Unemployment Doesn’t Seem to Go Down

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

Today's release of November unemployment data is not good news for President Obama. Unemployment rose nationally to 9.8 percent, after holding steady at 9.6 percent for the previous three months. The jobless rate jumped for nearly every racial/gender demographic. White women still have the lowest unemployment rate of both genders, when comparing African Americans and whites. Black males have the highest.

Black unemployment rose again from 15.7 percent to 16 percent. This number is slightly lower than the high of 16.3 percent experienced back in August. When scaled with the white unemployment rate of 8.9 percent, the black unemployment rate is 79.8 percent higher than that of white Americans.

 

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