Easter went to the birds. Fox's animated adventure "Rio" led the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning $26.8 million according to studio estimates. That's a slim 32 percent drop for the G-rated film, which was produced for $90 million by Blue Sky Studios, of "Ice Age" fame. The tropical toon held up so well in part because most kids were out of school on Friday, giving the film a larger-than-normal start to the weekend. In just two weeks, "Rio," which features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway as the world's last two blue macaws, has collected an impressive $81.3 million.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
TheRoot.com: Education Should Be A Right, Not a Crime
by Helena Andrews, TheRoot.com
Start typing "mother arrested" into Google, and the Internet wastes no time filling in the rest: "for lying about her address." Not "for selling her daughters on Craigslist," "for feeding her sons drywall" or "for locking her kids in the basement like Boo Radley," but for trying to educate them beyond the borders of their block. In the United States of America, educating your children by any means necessary is a punishable offense.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Miami Dolphin Brandon Marshall Stabbed by His Wife
From CNN
(CNN) — The wife of Miami Dolphins star receiver Brandon Marshall has been charged with stabbing him in the abdomen with a kitchen knife during a domestic violence incident, according to a report from the Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s office.
Michi Nogami-Marshall, 26, was charged Friday evening with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, which allegedly occurred in their Southwest Ranches, Florida, home, according to the sheriff’s report.
Brandon Marshall’s injuries are nonlife-threatening, said spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright of the sheriff’s office.
Kelley Williams-Bolar Reaches Out to Support Tonya McDowell (Video)
From Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Your Black World Coalition
This week, I spoke with Kelley Williams-Bolar, the mother who was arrested in Ohio for sending her child to the wrong school. The fight is not over for Kelley (who I am going to speak with again on Monday). The state is still working to prosecute her father, an aging man who had a stroke. She says that in spite of her father’s health condition, local prosecutors are still trying to harm their family on their malicious charge.
Kelley also specifically mentioned to me that she would like to help Tonya McDowell, the homeless mom in Connecticut who was arrested recently for sending her five year old to a kindergarten outside her alleged home city. She chose the school in Norwalk Connecticut because it has a good reading program, while the schools in Bridgeport (where the state alleges that her child belongs) are among the worst in the state.
We are going to Connecticut to rally for Tonya sometime in early May, preferably before her court date. I’ll keep you posted. If you’d like to show support for Tonya’s case, please sign our petition by clicking here. You can watch the video below to hear the words coming out of my very own mouth.
Sincerely, Dr. Boyce Watkins
Black Family Wealth Has Virtually Disappeared
by Dr. Boyce Watkins – YourBlackWorld.com
The first decade of the new millennium brought a lot of things that the world didn't expect: the ability to order a pizza on your home computer, cell phones that allow you to talk to your friends face-to-face, and our nation's first black president.
One other unexpected event of the last decade is the disappearance of a century's worth of progress in reducing the wealth gap between black and white Americans. AsRex Nutting at Market Watch so accurately notes, wealth levels of the black family in America have declined dramatically during the past decade, and they show no evidence of getting better any time soon.
According to Nutting, "In a country where access to capital is everything, most blacks have nothing."
First, Nutting mentions that African Americans have the highest unemployment rates in the country, which stand at an average of 16.5%, compared to 9% for whites. What is most daunting is that soaring black joblessness, combined with higher foreclosure rates, bankruptcies, and declining home values have seriously cut into the wealth of the black family in America. in other words, we are the first to lose our jobs, have the least wealth to protect our families when times are tough, and a greater reliance on declining home equity as a source of economic security. This economy has provided the perfect storm of black economic destruction.
According to Nutting, the median net worth for black households dropped from $9,300 in 2007 to $2,200 in 2009, much lower than the median wealth of $98,000 for white households. He also mentions that incomes dropped in black homes by 7.2% between 2007 and 2009, much greater than the 4.2% decline for white families.
Nutting's article reminds us that the United States has a long way to go when it comes to wealth distribution. Over 80% of the nation's wealth is controlled by just 20% of its citizens, and the richest 1% of Americans controls one-third of the nation's wealth. Roughly 40% of Americans have no wealth at all. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the group of Americans with zero or negative wealth, which is a problem that most of our elected officials are inclined to ignore, and something that our nation's citizens don't spend much time getting upset about.
Nutting is correct to mention that most Americans have their wealth tied up in their home values. So, when home prices dropped so dramatically during the economic downturn, this led to the wealth of many black families disappearing as quickly as it had arrived. Most of the economic disparities in the United States don't exist because whites are more responsible with their money or possess economic intelligence that black people don't have. The primary reason for the gap is that for hundreds of years, African Americans added to our nation's net worth, but were not being properly compensated for it (similar to how the NCAA operates). Being left out of the growth of America's economic engine has kept African Americans at the bottom of the ladder of institutional opportunity: Our school systems are not well-funded, we can't find jobs because we don't own the businesses that take applications, and we continue to be utilized as for-profit commodities by the prison industrial complex.
According to Nutting's research regarding the Survey of Consumer Finances, black families were three times wealthier (in real terms) in 1983 than they were in 2009. As white families saw their net worth grow from $124,000 in 2001 to $143,600 in 2007, blacks actually saw their net worth drop from $12,500 to $9,300. By 2009, white families saw their wealth levels drop to $94,600, but African Americans's levels dropped even more to $2,200. So, between 2001 and 2009, African American families went from having a disgraceful one-tenth of the wealth of white families to an even more horrific ratio of one-fiftieth.
I am not sure how to process the Obama Administration's blind, deaf and dumb response to the persistent wealth and opportunity gaps in America that pertain to race. While the president continues to be popular among African Americans, I would encourage members of his administration to remember that leading with courage is an important part of making African American history (not just holding a fancy title that adds almost nothing more than symbolic value for the black community at large). Courage means sometimes doing things that are not popular and working to make America better.
Given that I haven't heard the president or his team use the words "black man," "black woman," or "black families" in public over the last two years, I am concerned as to whether or not our first black president has been or is willing to do much to fight on issues that matter to black people who didn't go to Harvard University. For example, it's interesting that President Obama would speak up for Henry Louis Gates in a meaningless and ambiguous scuffle with a police officer, but wouldn't say a word about Kelley Williams-Bolar, a black woman who was sent to jail for trying to get her kids into a good school. The latter case was far more significant in the fight against inequality, but Kelley's housing projects were apparently not close enough to Harvard Yard.
There is the added complication that perhaps, because of being a black man, President Obama could "get in trouble" with white voters for advocating on issues that matter to African Americans. This argument has been used by supporters of Hillary Clinton, who might be far less sheepish or self-conscious about advocating for women and minorities. I'm not sure if the Clinton supporters are correct, but the last two years have made many African American families wonder if it even matters who sits in the White House.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Keke Palmer to Produce Her First Film
Your Black World reports
How fast they grow up. Keke Palmer has teamed up with Nick Cannon to produce her first film. The film is called “Ragz,” a musical.
"I am so excited to announce my next big project it’s a movie called 'Ragz,' the script is fun and full of great music,"said Palmer.
Recy Taylor: Woman Gets Apology for unprosecuted Rape in 1944
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Recy Taylor, a 91-year old woman in Alabama, has received an official apology from the state of Alabama for a rape that occurred nearly 70 years ago. Ms. Taylor was raped on her way home from church by seven white men. The men were never prosecuted for their crime and allowed to live the rest of their lives without punishment.
Gov. Robert Bentley said that he plans to sign the resolution, which was passed by the state legislature. Ms. Taylor was also grateful.
Prosecuted MomTonya McDowell Explains Why She Enrolled Her Son into School
Tanya McDowell says she enrolled her son at Brookside because she wants the best for him.
Photo credit: Moina Noor
Tonya McDowell thought by enrolling her son at a Norwalk elementary school, he would have a better life than she did. "The school was better than the one in Bridgeport," says McDowell. "I want the best for my child. There's nothing I wouldn't do for him. I think a lot of parents in my situation would have done the same."
McDowell, 33, is charged with first-degree larceny for allegedly stealing more than $15,000 — the average amount it takes to educate a child per year in Norwalk. McDowell allegedly used her babysitter's address at Roodner Court, a Norwalk Housing Authority complex, to enroll her son at Brookside Elementary School. McDowell, who is originally from Bridgeport but has no fixed residence, is an unemployed single mother. She currently stays with a friend in Bridgeport but has also stayed at the Open Door Shelter in South Norwalk.
When the Norwalk police arrested Tanya McDowell last Thursday, she had no idea why. "I kept asking, 'What did I do?' " she says in an interview outside the offices of Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, or NEON, overlooking the big chessboard in Ryan Park. It wasn't until she arrived at the police station that she learned of the charges. McDowell posted $25,000 bond with the help of her godfather and has her next court date April 27.
McDowell's 5-year-old son, Andrew Justin, or A.J., started kindergarten at Brookside in September and left in mid-January. "I received a call on my voicemail telling me that I had to remove A.J. from the school. No paperwork or anything, just a voicemail." McDowell says that she didn't contest the message and withdrew A.J. from Brookside. "He loved that school, his teacher and his friends," she says of A.J.'s four months at Brookside. "He never got into any trouble."
Technorati Tags: tonya mcdowell
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Lashanda Armstrong: If you Kill Your own kids, do you have the right to be buried with them?
Your Black World Reports
Most of us know about the case of LaShanda Armstrong, the mother who killed three of her children by driving them into the Hudson River. Controversy erupted when the childrens’ father announced that LaShanda would not be buried along with her children. This leads us to openly question whether a parent who kills their kids has the right to be buried with them.
NAACP Report on Gulf Coast: Healing Is Nowhere Near Being Complete
“My Name is 6508799”
State of the Gulf, One Year After the Oil Drilling Disaster
This numbered moniker is how a participant at the Destin, Florida Town Hall meeting with Gulf Coast Claims Facility Administrator Kenneth Feinberg introduced herself.
For many residents residing in communities along the Gulf of Mexico, they feel as if their lives have been reduced to a number in the Gulf Coast Claims Facility database which holds so much power over life, livelihood, health and overall wellbeing.
One year after the Gulf Oil Drilling Disaster of April 20, 2010, thousands of Gulf residents not only have not been “made whole” from the disaster, but many have faced elevated levels of toxins in their bloodstreams, community conflicts, destruction of families, culture erosion, loss of property, including homes, cars, boats, etc., and, for many, an end to their way of life for the foreseeable future. Only a fraction of Gulf residents truly believe that the systems that have been set up to serve them have made demonstrable strides towards “making it right”, as has become the mantra representing the aim of recovery and restoration processes.
Based on dozens of interviews with affected communities and the organizations that represent them, a review of consensus documents and other reports from technical experts as well as organizations representing thousands of gulf residents, and examination of response systems set up to address the Gulf Oil Drilling Disaster, this report tells the illustrative stories and shares the analysis of the pervasive unmet needs and gaps in the response system one year after the Deepwater Horizon Macondo Well explosion took 11 lives and dealt a crippling blow to the ecosystem, including the communities, of the Gulf of Mexico.
A Young Poet Wants to Stop the Abuse: Back-Hand
Do we live in a society that is a bit too ready to accept domestic violence? Are there women being abused who are afraid to speak out?
Would You Pay $50,000 to Meet Oprah Winfrey?
It turns out that Oprah Winfrey is partnering with CharityBuzz to auction off her quality time. The expected running price is going to be $50,000. Would you pay that much to meet with Oprah if you had the money?
The money is being raised for human rights and Oprah is auctioning off four tickets to her show in Chicago and the chance to meet her backstage. Perhaps since it’s for charity, it all makes sense.
Technorati Tags: black celebrity gossip,oprah winfrey
Gay College Students Launch Assault on Chick-fil-A for Being a Christian Company
From Yahoo News
What does a chicken sandwich have to do with Jesus? Gay students on a few college campuses apparently believe Chick-fil-A, the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States, is serving up a lot more than waffle fries with their sandwiches.
Gay students at some universities, along with a Georgia-based lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group, are petitioning their schools to drop Chick-fil-A as weekly food vendors -- because the restaurant chain openly promotes traditional marriage and other Christian values.
Terry McMillan Finally Releases The Sequel to ‘Waiting to Exhale’
from Mlive.com
Port Huron native Terry McMillantweeted in the early hours today that a script for "Getting to Happy," the film adaptation of her newest novel, is complete and it should be on screen in 2012.
"Getting to Happy" is the sequel to "Waiting to Exhale," the groundbreaking 1992 novel about four African-American women balancing love and life.
The 1995 film starred Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon and was directed by future Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Its Babyface-produced soundtrack spawned a number of hits including Houston's "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)," Brandy's "Sittin' Up in My Room," and Mary J. Blige's "Not Gon' Cry." Detroiters CeCe Winans, who spoke about her contribution to the soundtrack to MLive last month, and Aretha Franklin also appear on the album.
Dr. Boyce and Deborrah Cooper Debate What It Means for a Woman to “Submit” To Her Man
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World
Given the importance of the critical theme of black relationships (which we’re hitting from various angles this week on YBW), I had to get another perspective on some of the things that folks are quoting from the bible as it pertains to how black relationships need to be structured. What does it mean for a black man to “lead” in his relationship? What does it mean for a woman to “submit?” One thing that many of us can agree on is the fact that black relationships have been falling apart for a very long time. The majority of our homes are being run by a single parent, and far too many children are growing up without their fathers in shouting distance. What some don’t acknowledge is that there is a direct correlation between the break down of the black family and the growth of the prison industrial complex. Locking up men for decades for the sale of drugs that were brought into our communities has devastated many of us, and urban decay in the 1980s led to job losses with few viable alternatives to illegal activity. A recent study in The Economist showed that a one percentage point increase in the incarceration rate leads to a 2.4 percent decline in the percentage of black women who eventually get married.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Your Black News: Soledad O’Brien and Gwen Ifill Inducted into Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Your Black World Reports
Earlier this week, respected journalists Soledad O’Brien and Gwen Ifill were inducted as honorary members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to say, ‘hey sorors!’” O’Brien said on Twitter. “To have a sisterhood that supports you is heartening...Before I would say that service is what you do, now I say it’s what we do.”
Woman Wins Lawsuit Against Police: Was Arrested for Asking for a Business Card
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Shei’Meka Newmann just won a major victory for herself and for everyone who has ever been victimized by the system. The 33-year old Oregon woman won an $82,000 judgment against the Portland police after she was arrested for simply asking for a police officer’s business card.
The incident occurred in February, 2009 when the woman noticed a questionable and seemingly brutal arrest of a fellow citizen. This led her to walk up to one of the officers, Aaron Dauchy, who’d grabbed a 29-year old black man off a train and handcuffed him on the ground. When Ms. Newmann asked why the officer was dealing with the man with so much force, he told her to mind her own business.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Homeless Mom Jailed for Sending Child to the Wrong School
Please click here to join our coalition to help Ms. McDowell
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
When Rev. Al Sharpton and I went to Ohio earlier this year to rally on behalf of Kelley Williams-Bolar, I thought I’d be done with cases like this for at least a little while. However, the Your Black World Coalition has been informed today that another mother in Connecticut has also been put in jail for enrolling her child in the wrong school district.
Tonya McDowell, a homeless woman from Bridgeport, CT, has been charged with grand larceny and conspiracy to commit first degree larceny after enrolling her son in Brookside Elementary, in Norwalk, CT. McDowell used the address of a friend, Ana Rebecca Marques, to get her 6-year old into the school. The district is accusing her of stealing $15,000 in services for her “deviant” behavior.
Ms. Marques was evicted from the Norwalk Housing Authority projects for her role in the incident after a complaint was filed against Ms. McDowell. This led to an investigation, where the mother filed an affidavit stating her son’s residence to be in the Roodner Court Public housing complex in Norwalk.
Ms. McDowell told police that she’d been living in Bridgeport in a homeless shelter when her son was enrolled in school. She also said she has a friend in Norwalk who allowed her to stay there at night and leave during the day. Effectively, she and her son were rotating between the homeless shelter and staying with friends in order to survive.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Mob Wives: Are They Trying to Testify for their Husbands?
by: Patrice Johnson, Your Black World
The Cast of the newest television series on VH1 ‘Mob Wives’
After watching the newest VH1 reality series, ‘Mob Wives’ I realized that the women on this show were the wives and daughters of the Staten Island mafia men that were arrested in January of this year. After I learned that these women were a part of these families that have been based on organized crime for decades I had to ask myself, ‘could this new reality show just be a way for these women to testify for their husbands?’
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Mother Drives Her Kids Into the Hudson River
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
LaShanda Armstrong, a 25-year old mother of four, drove herself and her children into the Hudson River this week. Armstrong was distraught after finding out that her boyfriend Jean Pierre, father of three of her children, was sleeping with another woman. Armstrong and three of her children drown, with the fourth child swimming to shore.
Right before killing her family, Armstrong wrote a Facebook message stating: “I’m sorry everyone forgive me please for what I’m gonna do… This is it!!!”
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Dr. Boyce Spotlight: Black Female Entrepreneurs Give You Virtual Assistance
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University - Scholarship in Action
Most of us think that a personal assistant is someone who lives and works right next to you. In the age of technology, it is no longer necessary to be in the same room or even the same country as the person who handles your daily affairs. With technology, cell phones, and other ways for us to remain connected, it's quite simple to work with someone every day of your life and never even see them. It is because of their brilliant use of technology and entrepreneurship skills that the ladies with JustGo Virtual Assistants are today's Dr. Boyce Watkins Spotlight on AOL Black Voices:
What is your name and what do you do?
Our name is JustGo and we are a company that provides new age administrative and personal assistant services to high profile speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Our assistants, although in another state, are able to complete and fulfill client requests and wishes through the use of internet, email, fax, phone, and/or chat. We may not be able to personally pour your daily cup of coffee, but we can definitely have it delivered to you. JustGo presents a comfortable and convenient opportunity to those professionally inclined individuals with impeccable administrative and computer skills to work from home while also gifting its clients with money saving services that reduce over-head expenses and relieves the pressures of routine responsibilities. This frees the client to focus on tasks that are more profit generating or gives them the opportunity to enjoy leisurely activities they otherwise may not have time for.
Basketball Wives: The show that makes Absolutely No Sense
Since most of the women on basketball wives are either unmarried or have never been married, why don't they just call the show "Basketball Baby Mamas?"
With all the cat-fighting, hemming and hawing, back and forth and he-say, she-say, this show’s popularity says a lot about our culture. Also, it’s an embarrassment to black women everywhere who are being convinced that letting a basketball player get you naked somehow makes you into a somebody.
Perhaps intelligent black women are just going out of style. But then again, maybe all the smart black women in the world who are NOT gold-digging hoochie mamas can get together and say something about this show. There’s more to life than blinging your way onto TV with absolutely no sense of true purpose.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Is there a Difference between Being Curvy and Being Fat?
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
Ashley Patrice Williams at AOL Black Voices recently wrote an article on the difference between being curvy and fat. I am not going to get into the business of telling beautiful black women how to carry their weight (there’s already too much scrutiny in media making women self-conscious about their bodies), but most of us can agree that no one carries a few extra pounds the way a black woman can.
Two things come to mind in the curvy vs. fat debate. First, there’s a difference between looking good and being healthy. So, as wonderful as “sistuhs” might look with a little bit of extra “junk in the trunk,” we must always be cognizant of the wide variety of illnesses that plague our community that result from eating so much salt, fat, sugar and all the other things that keep killing us. Big Momma’s Sweet Tea and fried chicken might taste better than candy, but Big Momma and her husband also died from cardiac arrest and diabetes.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Kelley Williams-Bolar, Al Sharpton to Appear on Dr. Phil
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Many of you might remember the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, the single black mother of two who was jailed for sending her children to a school that was outside their home district. Well, Dr. Phil McGraw has decided to do a show on Kelley's situation, set to air in the coming week.
Shortly after AOL Black Voices brought Kelley's case to the nation, I found that there were quite a few citizens around the country who were concerned about her situation. Millions of people around the world rallied to Kelley's defense, and ColorofChange.org and Change.org did a wonderful job of gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions that were eventually delivered to the governor of Ohio.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Madam Prezident: Is “The Game” Making Lesbianism Into a Gimmick?
Madam Prezident apparently has issues with the TV show, “The Game.” Check it Out.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Afrika Owes: Ivy League Bound Student Busted for Dealing Drugs for her Boyfriend
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I spoke this weekend to a group of aspiring college students in a group called "Black Achievers." The group invited me to speak because I talk regularly about the value of education, as well as confronting the structural obstacles that make it difficult for our kids to find success. But one thing I brought to the table that the students and their parents might not have expected is the need for us to confront the destructive elements of hip-hop culture, which teach our good kids that "keeping it real" is something that should be done at all costs, even when it causes them to lose their lives.
The reason I brought this issue to the forefront of the discussion was because of young women like Afrika Owes. Afrika is a 17-year old who was once headed to an Ivy League school. But rather than going to anyone's university, she will be spending most of her adult life in prison. Afrika was recently arrested for being part of a drug ring run by her boyfriend in prison. "Head shots only," he would tell her from behind bars, as he detailed how he wanted people to be executed.
Some Trying to Say that the Oprah Winfrey Network is a Failure
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I’m not sure if this is the right time to pass judgment on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), since it just began. But Alexis Stodghill at AOL Black Voices, the New York Times and others are beginning to wonder if the magic is going to last. According to the Times:
OWN, her two-month-old channel, is attracting fewer viewers than the obscure channel it replaced, Discovery Health. At any given time this month, there have been about 135,000 people watching OWN, according to the Nielsen Company, and only about 45,000 of those people are women ages 25 to 54, the demographic that the channel is focusing on.
Those ratings levels, down about 10 percent from Discovery Health’s levels last year, are being carefully watched by people who would like to rebuild cable channels around other celebrities, and by investors who worry that OWN is a drag on Discovery’s stock.
Professor Laquita Blockson Studies the Black Female Entrepreneur
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I've known of the work of Dr. Laquita Blockson for over a decade. I consider Dr. Blockson to be one of the leading experts on Minority female entrepreneurship in the entire United States. Given that the black female has been found in numerous studies to have the lowest average net worth of any race/gender group, the work of women like Laquita Blockson has a level of importance that is beyond words. It is because of her commitment to helping her sisters experience the freedom of socially-responsible entrepreneurship, education and wealth building that Dr. Laquita Blockson is today's Dr. Boyce Watkins Spotlight on AOL Black Voices:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sex, Church and the Single Black Sister: Meet Sha Givens
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
One of the most intriguing things about the black community is the power of the black church. The church is one of our most powerful and impactful institutions. With the power of the black church comes the scandal that we all know about. Books are written about the things that happen in church that we don't want to talk about, in large part because the black church can be as much of a social institution as a spiritual one.
Sha' Givens has written a book about single black women in the church and the ways that they can achieve their goals without selling their souls. She is also a young black entrepreneur working to make a mark on the world in which she lives. It is for that reason that Sha' Givens is today's Dr. Boyce Watkins Spotlight on AOL Black Voices:
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Oprah Winfrey and Iyanla Vanzant: The Breakdown of their Economic Beef
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I watched with extreme curiosity as the great Iyanla Vanzant emerged again on the Oprah Winfrey show after being gone for a full 11 years. I wasn't entirely connected to the feud between Winfrey and Vanzant, primarily because we don't think much about people that we haven't seen in over a decade. Of course Oprah is on everyone's mind, and even those who don't follow her seem to know everything she has been up to.
As the guest came to the stage, even a man from Mars could tell that there was latent mega-beef between Oprah and Iyanla. Both women seemed to overcompensate when it came to doing all they could to prove that the past was the past and that everything was OK. But the tension was so thick that it seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room.
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