If you haven’t heard about this fiasco yet, then let me catch you up.

Before vetting anything or performing the most cursory of investigations, the USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, recently decided to can federal appointee Shirley Sherrod for making allegedly racist remarks at an NAACP banquet.  The NAACP went in on her, then White House officials went in after them.  Who was behind the video’s outing?  Why, Fox News and conservative bloggers.

Smell a rat?  Me, too.

So, it turns out that the rat (also known as Andrew Breitbart) posted an edited video and touted it as current evidence of the Obama administration’s “reverse” racism.  On the full video, Sherrod actually was relating an anecdote that implored the audience to see beyond black and white, to help poor people.  In the middle of a volley of “you’re a racist” charges between Ben Jealous and the Tea Party, Sherrod becomes a convenient casualty of their race word-war.  Let the apologies and backpedaling begin here, here, and here.

I will freely admit that I fell for the okey-doke when I first heard about the “racist black USDA agent” on Monday, and my jaw dropped.  Racism on any side, in any form, is stupid, counterproductive, and wrong.   I now understand why there are conspiracy theories for everything.  Every media outlet that ran this story ran their mouths without even watching the entire video first. If CNN’s Roland Martin and Fox News’ Greta Bill O’Reilly are spouting the same thing, then it must be fact, right?

There are a couple of flat-out wrongs here:

1) Breitbart needs to be sued for defamation (or whichever legal form of get-back is appropriate) for misrepresenting excerpts of Sherrod’s speech as the whole enchilada.  Fox News…will go on being Fox News, or someone in their own house with journalistic integrity can call them out for accusing Sherrod of racism on Monday and then brown-nosing her to spite Obama’s face on Tuesday.

2) The Obama administration, the NAACP and their officials need to slow their rolls when dealing with the GOP, Tea Party members and/or people they deem “opposition” who are decrying reverse/black racism.  And not because it’s an invalid claim, but because every person deserves at least an investigation before they undergo a castigation.   They jumped the gun in the middle of a knife fight and caught one in the ass.

Shirley Sherrod should be commended for her refreshing honesty in the face of a debate where each side likes to claim victim without admitting any wrongdoing.  I, for one, feel horrible for believing the hype and hope they give this woman a fat check, her job back, or whichever means the most to her.

When I was growing up, I was constantly told how ugly I was. My mother was stunning and always had men running behind her, but I never thought that I would look like her and never wanted to, surprisingly. I would look in the mirror at my dark skin and big forehead and wonder why people judged me. I always felt like I was a nice person, but nothing seemed to matter more than my outward appearance. My mother was light and I was dark and I often wondered if her complexion and the length of her hair made her more attractive to people.  In high school many girl’s got their self-esteem battered because the ‘pretty’ girls would berate them for some physical attribute that they considered a flaw. It always disturbed me and still does to this day. Black women sometimes spend far too much time putting each other down, and comparing themselves to one another instead of building each other up. We are all born with different features and bone structures, but we’re programmed to think that there is only one type of beauty. I find beauty in everyone, because everyone is beautiful in their own right. It’s not an insult and not a statement that’s meant to demean, it’s simply a fact. Some of us have assets that others don’t, but so what? We can still embrace our sista’s and say,” you’re beautiful sis.”

Recently, I posted some images on the blog that received some interesting feedback. Since the site is centered around the beauty of natural women; I thought that viewers would embrace the model’s unique beauty, but things didn’t happen that way.

We live in a society where we are judged by our physical appearance, and anything other than the norm is unacceptable. Even in the world of natural beauty, many people still lean towards the traditional–it’s ok to have locks if they are well kept, but if not you’re immediately judged, it’s ok to have a bald head–only if you have the face for it. It’s almost like we’re saying that our beauty has to meet someone else’s standards, but isn’t that the very reason we choose to go natural in the first place?

As an artist and photographer, I like to focus on all types of beauties. We already live in a world where many people deal with ageism, racism and sexism so let’s not perpetuate these negatives in the black community, and particularly in the natural community. I think that differences should be celebrated and that we should be more open and accepting to all those who don’t fall within societies standards of beauty. Who among us can really live up to society’s standards anyways? and why bother to try?

We are living in an age where women around the world are bleaching their skin to get lighter so that they can be more appealing to their men, where ads of blond haired fair skinned women are placed in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa, and where many feel that it’s necessary to alter themselves physically so that they can feel better about themselves. There is so much pressure to be beautiful and with that pressure comes pain and sacrifice. My mother used to always tell me that in order to be beautiful, I have to go through some pain; that was while my scalp was burning from the pressing comb in my head. Well now, I know better. I am beautiful every second of the day, with makeup and without, with my locks twisted and with them unkempt, with a bald head or a nappy head, because I said so and I know so. All of my sisters are beautiful as well, and we need to take that old standard and tear it down!

It’s time to set the standard for yourself!

Tamara Natalie Madden is a Jamaica-born Painter and Photographer. She has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions and her work can be found in private and public collections including Vanderbilt University, TN; and Alverno College, WI. She was a recent recipient of an individual grant from the Puffin Foundation for her project “Never Forgotten” which focuses on combatting poverty. Check out her extraordinary photography on the blog for the Pangea’s Garden Project. You will some of her painting there too but for a more extensive collection of her works go to her website at www.tamaranataliemadden.com

Ok, we just did a first as far as I can recall, count down the first 100 days of a standing president in office in the form of a formal press conference. The last time I saw count downs like this were for a space shuttle flight. Now Hats off to the President, from where I stand he has received a range of grades personally from an A+ to peace relations with the Muslim world and Health Care to a D- with respect to the economy and Pakistan.

With that said, I want to add how I am some what disturbed by the blind allegiance people give to anyone. In the African American community alone, we have a big problem with this and have labeled such folks as groupies, whether one follows Super head, Lil Wayne and yes, even President Obama. So with out further hesitation, my top reasons you know if you are an Obama Groupie.

* You accept without question all that the President proposes.

* You argue vehemently with anyone that disagrees with an approach or policy the President proffers even when one has not read the policy for themselves, and worse

* His picture hangs on the wall next to Jesus Christ in the front room of your house.

* You still have a campaign sign or bumper sticker on your car reading Obama Biden.

* It is sacrilegious for any one to criticize a suggested approach offered by the President and that those who do in your eyes, will suffer eternal damnation in hell.

* If someone’s disagrees with a particular policy, you are likely to question their blackness (just because I don’t agree with giving banks that are gonna fail billions don’t mean I am not as black as thou LOL).

* You feel as if the policies he proposes are written by the president himself, even on Swine flu, health care and economics, when in fact experts other than the president write these positions.

* You get mad and fuss at idiots like Sean Hanity, Rush Limbaugh and others when we already know that these lames don’t deserve our objective attention for they just plane ole hatters and sore losers (they wouldn’t be down with him if he got the GOP a zillion new members).

* You take the time to read the GQ, or Vanity Fair, or Essence magazines cover stories of the first family are in but wont read his budget plain of recovery act.

* Last but not least you will not find this post funny, won’t laugh, and get mad.

Now this is just a little fun to me, but on the real, as I say we must be critical of the office holder not the man, especially if we want him to succeed – it ain’t stop with your vote and remember that. Good Day

Raw Dawg Buffalo, aka Torrance Stephens, considers himself to be a “professional criminal w/o a criminal record.” A very prolific writer and blogger, you can find an extensive, if not incomplete, collections of his works, journals and blogtalk radio interviews at rawdawgb.blogspot.com

By Scottie Lowe
Photography courtesy of Afroerotik

For all too long Black sexuality has been defined by extremes. We have been defined as hypersexual, untamed savages who are ruled by our lust and far too many of us have embraced that misrepresentation without the presence of a healthier alternative example to model. Others of us have adopted a role of sexual conservatism in order to conform to a standard that tells us that the only sex that isn’t dirty . . . is boring. Somewhere between the freak and the frigid lies AfroerotiK sexuality.

Where do intelligent, middle class Black people turn to find sexual expression? What outlets do we have to be aroused without offensive, degrading, vulgar pornographic images? My work is providing such an outlet yet I’m continually and repeatedly told that my work is offensive. What’s offensive is a nation of Black people who can’t form healthy relationships because they don’t know how to be open and honest with their partners about their needs, desires, and fantasies. What’s offensive is that as an educated successful Black woman, I’m told that I’m a freak if I even make reference to sex, however academic the discussion. If my work glorified sex in exchange for money, cheating, or manipulation, that would be a perversion of sex. My work glorifies couples being intimate, communicating, sharing their secrets with one another and validating that adults, and young adults should be having sex based on intimacy first and foremost.

The African American community is diseased in our perceptions of sexuality. The middle class can’t even have a conversation about sex; we can’t even have a discussion about the subject of sex before someone is trying to censor it. The rest of us are out having unprotected, irresponsible sex like it’s recreation. There’s a vast difference between saying, “I’m a big booty ho looking to swallow seven loads of cum,” and “I long to feel the sensation of your tongue licking me until I explode in your mouth.” Until we as a people can discern the difference, until we as a people can stop relegating anything to do with sex as being dirty and unmentionable, we are doomed to be dysfunctional and sexually immature. We should be able to have discussions about sex in all forums, with relative boundaries in mind, and not be so quick to feign false indignation as if sex is dirty and unmentionable.

I don’t even think we can get to a discussion of making love vs. having sex (or God forbid making love vs. fucking) if we can’t even mention sex without the morality police stepping up and deeming that sex can’t be discussed, mentioned, or debated.
Black Enterprise Magazine approached me, approached ME, about doing an article on my work as a Black female entrepreneur. I was excited as I was about to get the national exposure I have so long been seeking to combat that wretched Zane and her horribly offensive and degrading crap she calls erotica. Finally, I was going to get a national platform to talk about healthy Black sexuality. They told me that I would be getting a list of interview questions in an email and that I was to fill them out and send them back. I waited for that email, and waited, and waited. Finally, I contacted the young lady again and I told her that I hadn’t received the interview questions and that I was anxious to get them. She then told me that Black Enterprise readers weren’t interested in “my topic” and that they had a much more conservative readership. At which point I asked her if Black Enterprise readers had sex and she promptly hung up on me.

There is a knee jerk reaction in the Black middle class community that kicks in every time there is mention of sex. We can’t even have academic discussions of sex without someone deeming that “those sorts of conversations aren’t appropriate for this forum.” The more we compartmentalize our sex, the more we allow our sexuality to be defined as dirty. Sure, not every conversation is appropriate for every venue but not every one is inappropriate either. The very same people who are sooooo quick to try to silence me at the mere mention of the word erotic are the very same people masturbating to images of pornography that degrade, demean, and objectify us as a people because they refuse to allow any other avenue of sexual expression to be acceptable.

People ask me all the time why I started writing erotica. My response is and has always been, that I am a single, highly-educated, African-centered, Black woman who is not aroused by dogs, thugs, pimps, drug dealers, basketball players, or rappers and I’m not a ghetto hoochie, ghetto whore, nor am I a ghetto big booty freak. Where do I turn for sexual arousal? I started writing erotica because there was nothing that spoke to me. I started writing erotica because I don’t find interracial images of black men fucking white women to be arousing and I’m not represented by Black women with weaves, fake nails, and stripper shoes who have no clue what it is to be sensual, only sexual. I’m a 42 year old woman who hasn’t been in a relationship in so long that it boggles the mind and I’m tired of men approaching me and thinking that just because I have a big booty and they have a big SUV, that I’m going to have sex with them. That’s why I started writing erotica. I wanted to have something that spoke to men, that represented the types of relationships that I was looking for, that get me wet, that allowed me to masturbate to something that represented my view of Black life. I can’t be the only woman, the only Black person, who wants or needs to find a sexual outlet that isn’t sanitized and sterile but that isn’t degrading and cliche either.

There is always this “what you are doing is corrupting children” backlash that I get. I had sex when I was 16 years old. I was far from the first girl of my peers to have sex, in fact, losing one’s virginity at around that age was pretty average among my very middle class, suburban peers. That was LONG before BET made Black women out to be freaks, bitches, and ho’s. That was long before Zane’s books, portraying Black women as nymphomaniac adulterous gold digging, superficial whores, were passed around like a virus. That was LONG before children had access to the internet where every vile, disgusting, perverse sexual act is available to view for free with the click of a mouse. To assert that children, young teens, are going to be warped by my discussions of sexuality is laughable. I’m the only voice that is speaking out and saying that sex should be about love, intimacy, openness, communication, freedom, and responsibility. If anything, young teens need to be exposed to my brand of erotica in order to counter the negative images they see at every turn and to combat the oblivious parents who think that if they don’t talk about sex, that their children will somehow escape being exposed to it.

Of course, there’s always the, “Blacks aren’t the only one’s who are victims of the same behavior” argument. My concern is not other communities. My concern is the fact that 7 out of 10 Black children are being born out of wedlock. My concern is that a Black woman in her mid 30s is more likely to be struck by lightning than to get married. My concern is that African Americans are dying of AIDS at a disproportionate rate than any other race. So while other races, creeds, and whathaveyou may very well be steeped in sexual dysfunction, it is affecting US more detrimentally. There are scores of Black men who are impregnating white women to feed the sexual fetish of white couples to have their wives “bred black.” There are scores of Black men going into white couples bedrooms every night of the week to feed white couple’s racist Nigger Buck Mandingo fantasies. There are young Black women who have never had sex unless it involves some sort of exchange of money or services. Those things are the perils that will destroy our race if we continue to censor our conversations about sex and let some absurd religious/pious sanctimony dictate that sex can’t be discussed.

Scottie Lowe is the owner and founder of AfroerotiK.com. She creates erotica, for an about people of color, that shows us in a healthy, beautiful, sensual light that represent a broader view of Black life. You can follow her current writings on her blog at afroerotik.blogspot.com