Three-time Newbery Honor author Jacqualine Woodson explores race and sexuality through the eyes of a compelling narrator Melanin Sun has a lot to say. But sometimes it's hard to speak his mind, so he fills up notebooks with his thoughts instead. He writes about his mom a lot--they're about as close as they can be, because they have no other family. So when she suddenly tells him she's gay, his world is turned upside down. And if that weren't hard enough for him to accept, her girlfriend is white. Melanin Sun is angry and scared. How can his mom do this to him--is this the end of their closeness? What will his friends think? And can he let her girlfriend be part of their family?
When William Henry Hunt married Ida Alexander Gibbs in the spring of 1904, their wedding was a dazzling Washington social event that joined an Oberlin-educated diplomat's daughter and a Wall Street veteran who could trace his lineage to Jamestown. Their union took place in a world of refinement and privilege, but both William and Ida had mixed-race backgrounds, and their country therefore placed severe restrictions on their lives because at that time, "one drop of colored blood" classified anyone as a Negro. This "stain" of melanin pushed the couple's achievements to the margins of American society. Nonetheless, as William followed a career in the foreign service, Ida (whose grandfather was probably Richard Malcolm Johnson, a vice president of the United States) moved in intellectual and political circles that included the likes of Frederick Douglass, J. Pierpont Morgan, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Mary Church Terrell. Born into slavery, William had an adventurous youth, including a brief career as a jockey and an interlude at Williams College; ultimately he succeeded Ida's father as consul. The diplomat's "expatriate" life provided him with a distinguished career and a stage on which to showcase his talents throughout the world, as well as an escape from racial stigmas back home. Free of the diplomatic hindrances her husband faced, Ida advocated openly against race and gender inequities, and was a major participant in W. E. B. Du Bois's post-World-War I Pan-African Congresses which took her to stimulating European capitals that were largely free of racial oppression. In this, William and Ida's unique dual biography, Adele Logan Alexander gracefully traces an extraordinary partnership with a historian's skills and insights. She also presents a nuanced account of the complex impact of race in the early twentieth-century world.
Color Me Melanin: An Affirmation Coloring Book for Fabulous Women of Color Coloring isn't just for the kids anymore! Hop on one of the hottest trends of today with this fabulously made two-for-one coloring and affirmation book. This unique and powerful coloring book includes 22 super cute & fun illustrations. Color Me Melanin: An Affirmation Coloring Book relieves stress after along day in the office or when you just want to unleash your artistic side. This book is great for all, but it is an ideal gift for your beautifully melanated mother, sister, cousin, best friend, and so on! With beautifully curated designs and positive affirmations, Color Me Melanin is sure to relax your mind and heighten your positive vibes. Immerse yourself in the joyous journey of self-love with images that look like your closest loved ones. In this adult coloring book, you should expect: ● 22 uniquely and neatly drawn images accompanied by positive affirmations ● Modern designs, representative of everyday life for women of color ● A perfect gift for Mother's Day, anniversaries, or birthdays ● A positive coloring book meant to boost self-esteem and self-love ● Inspiration and motivation to continue being the best version of you Become the most confident and happy version of yourself as you repeat the powerful affirmations throughout the book, including, "I am unapologetically me," & and "I am worthy of everything good in life." It can be challenging to find coloring books representing women of color, especially black women. No matter how old you get, your inner child will sometimes speak to you regarding insecurities. Take back your power from that insecure inner child. Color Me Melanin has images that represent the modern, everyday woman of color. This coloring book is of the times as it also has images conscious of life during the pandemic with its tastefully drawn images of women of color sporting their protective yet fashionable masks. This unique coloring book is totally different from any other adult coloring book as it allows those who feel different because of how they look to be able to experience positive representation and inclusion. The images in the coloring book are beyond powerful as they include images of fierce women of color just waiting to be brought to life with your artistic ability. Color Me Melanin sends a message to women of all ages, sizes, complexions, and backgrounds that they are beautiful regardless of their background. Discover your worth and relax your mind with Color Me Melanin: An Affirmation Coloring Book.
Taking the concept of beauty seriously, this encyclopedia examines how humanity has sought and continues to seek what is "beautiful" in a variety of cultural contexts, giving readers an understanding of how to look at beauty both intellectually and critically. Is beauty ever more than "skin deep"? Arguably yes, considering that the concept of beauty—and the pursuit of it—has shaped cultures worldwide, across every time period, and has even served to change the course of history. Studying beauty practices yields insight into social status, wealth, political ideology, religious doctrine, and gender expectations, including gender nonconformity. A truly interdisciplinary text, Beauty around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia presents an insightful perspective on beauty that draws from philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and feminist studies, giving readers a unique view of world beauty practices. This volume offers information about beauty practices from the past to the present in alphabetical entries that address terms and topics such as "beards," "dreadlocks," "Geisha," "moko tattoos," and "progressive muscularity." Readers will better comprehend how beauty shapes many social interactions in profound ways worldwide, and that the unspoken social agreements that shape ideals of attractiveness and desirability within any given culture can matter very much. The encyclopedia's entries challenge readers to consider the questions "What is beauty?" and "Why does it matter?" A comprehensive bibliography is a valuable resource for further research.
Who would have thought preparations for a March 2014 Sacred Libation Ceremony honoring one-hundred forty-eight African American women lynched in America would result in the observation melanin is worth more than gold? Dr. Frances Cress Welsing first told us the chemical melanin is produced through a process known as melanogenesis upon introduction of the chemical tyrosine to the enzyme tyrosinase. Melanin is found in such diverse places as bird feathers, animal fur, reptile scales, microorganisms, cephalopod ink, mushrooms and even fossils. Additionally, melanin is found in the hair, skin and eyes of people. Melanin is subjected to intense scientific scrutiny. Nevertheless, the highly educated people studying it had no idea melanin is worth more than gold. In June 2014 a post to the Keyamsha the Awakening blog openly declared melanin was worth $353 a gram and $300 a gram more than gold. Shortly afterwards, hoaxers began bombarding the blog with comments claiming "melanin thieves" were harvesting melanin from Black people. The hoax was easily falsified. The hoaxers made certain to never mention the company selling melanin extracted from the ink of sepia officinalis, the common cuttlefish. During the intervening years the melanin thieves hoaxers persisted in their efforts. In March 2017, the melanin thieves hoaxers launched a "Melanin Twitter bomb" involving the dollar value of melanin after publicity of black women and girls missing in Washington, D.C. was released. Their actions exposed a frailty in their psyche. They also reveal it is possible to wipe out false information involving melanin and take the melanin challenged inferiority complex (aka racism/white supremacy) along for the ride. It then became clear the time had come to enter the fray and dispel the myths about melanin. This book completely obliterates the false narrative of melanin. Perceiving facts from a melanin-centered perspective bestows upon us an expanded awareness of the world and our place in it. It helps provide the average person a means to immerse themselves in melaninology and emerge a "melaninologist." Essentially, we get to know ourselves. To date no other path for the public to independently verify, or falsify, outlandish claims regarding melanin being worth more than gold on their own without any "guru" to guide them have been made available. At this writing, melanin is worth over $395 a gram more than gold. In ancient Kemet (misnomered Egypt) such words were known as hekau or words of power with the ability to heal. For nearly one-hundred years, since August 13, 1920, melanin put the "B" in R.B.G. and the "Black" in Red, Black and Green as the flag of Africans, at home and abroad.. Those are hekau, also. Our Blood, Our Melanin and Africa unites us. More hekau. The Afro, official currency of the United States of Africa, also known as the African Union, is worth $2.22. We are swathed in hekau to such an extent Mchakato Wa Uponyaji (Swahili for the process of healing) has begun. All of which indicates we are living in a new era: the era when all the generations of man can be called blessed on a planet that works for everyone. This era demands we convene the Ubuntu Convention. That plebiscite sets the stage for drafting the Ubuntu Declaration. In emulating the success of the August 1920 Universal Negro Improvement Association convention, we deliberately create the world where we intend to live. The revival of the U.N.I.A. with 12 million dues-paying card-carrying members positions the organization to have a treasury flush with over $400 million liquid. All of which represents a quantum shift in awareness, perception and power underway as you read this. Through our own actions we bring about the total, complete, and absolute Redemption of Africa for all time.
The twentieth anniversary edition of a transformative blueprint for ancestral healing—featuring new material and gateways, from the renowned herbalist, natural health expert, and healer of women’s bodies and souls “This book was one of the first that helped me start practices as a young woman that focused on my body and spirit as one.”—Jada Pinkett Smith Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, holistic healing plant-based medicine, KMT temple teachings, and The Rites of Passage guidance, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the relationships we attract, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.
The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.
"Discrimination based on skin color, also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color." -- Wikipedia, viewed December 13, 2017.
Black women comedians are more visible than ever, performing around the world in physical venues like comedy clubs and festivals, along with appearing in films, streaming specials, and online videos. Across these mediums, humor—and particularly sass—functions as a tool for Black women to articulate and redress cultural, social, and political marginalization. J Finley theorizes sass as a new critical lens to better understand the power of Black women's humor and humanity and explores how sass functions as a powerful resource in Black women's expressive repertoire. Challenging mainstream assumptions about "sassiness" as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced, Finley deploys sass to create a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, gesture, and intent to produce meaning—often humorous—in speaking back to authority. Grounded in an ethnographic approach to Black women's experiences, Finley conducted extensive interviews as well as participant-observation as a critic, audience member, and comic herself to collect and honor the stories that Black women comics tell about themselves. Interdisciplinary and conceptually rigorous, Finley's work shows us how we can and should read Black women's expressions of sass in humor as attempts at social transformation that involve a fundamental critique of power and authority, and a gesture at collective liberation.
There are so many races and ethnic groups, so many variations and differences. Often we wonder why this has happened. Climatic conditions, environment and geographic distribution of UV radiation have long been blamed for differences in skin colour and racial natures of humans around the world. However, Evolution played a major role in making these differences among humans. There are some hidden truths in the evolution that could explain about how different racial natures came into humans, which had more effect than other reasons such as climate, environmental and geographic conditions. This book lays its effort to unravel these mysteries in the simplest way possible and forwards a rather new theory related to human evolution, which we could completely depend upon to know about variations in skin color, the differences in facial structure and the cognitive development of people around the world. The human evolution was a linear progression from tree climbers to big brained modern humans but recently scientists found out that our evolutionary past was a great deal more complex, In East Africa at least three or as many as six species of human-like apes were around during the period from 2.5 to 1.8 million years ago, more diversity than predicted earlier. Now our family tree may have to be completely redrawn.
