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FAMU Scholarship Opportunity

From: AAN Carolinas Communications Team
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 1:54 PM
Subject: SCHOLARSHIP/EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY - Florida A&M Scholarships for African-American Female Students

Florida A&M SCHOLARSHIP for African-American Female Students

Florida A & M University is providing an outstanding opportunity for African-American women entering college in the fall of 2009. It is designed to address their absence in the field of computer technology. Dr. Jason Black is the Principal Investigator of a recently awarded $552,000 NSF Grant entitled African-American Women in Computer Science.. The grant provides scholarships from $4000 to $10,000 per year for female African-American students. We need your help to get the word out about this great opportunity to build back up the enrollment of women in the CIS Department. Please share this information with high school or community college students, parents, guidance counselors, or anyone who may be interested in this outstanding opportunity.

The full text of the scholarship can be found at <http://www.cis.famu.edu/~aawcs/>.

Way to go, Jamie

Jamie Foxx unleashes NSFW rant on Miley Cyrus
Apr 14, 2009, 11:35 AM by Pop Watch

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/04/jamie-foxx-mi-1.html

A clip has been posted on YouTube allegedly containing audio of Jamie Foxx unleashing a profanity-laced rant on 16-year-old Miley Cyrus on his Sirius Radio show The Foxxhole last weekend. Foxx, 41, and others in the studio are seemingly heard criticizing Cyrus' physical appearance and making other negative comments directed at her, including "make a sex tape and grow up" and a suggestion that she go out and catch a sexually transmitted disease. Foxx is currently doing press to promote his upcoming movie The Soloist, which opens April 24.

Comments from Entertainment Weekly:

boyd Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 09:34 AM EST
everyone of these a**holes should lose their jobs and get sued just like Don Imus and Kramer. Everything they said was punitive, belittling, arbitrary, and racist to boot. Yeah she's ugly, but anyone that uses skin color in a racial context is a racist. So in being fair they should all publicly apologize, lose their jobs and get sued in both civil court and the court of public opinion. My next question is where is the REV> Al Sharpton on this race issue?? Flame away.

(my question: when has Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton stood up for women and girls??)

storm Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 09:32 AM EST
I find it is truly upsetting that a grown man would say that he wanted a 16 year old girl to make a sex tape. This makes me wonder if this speaks about the mans personal life. If you think that it is okay to speak like that to a child then you need help. If I said that to a child I would be in jail for assault.. It is not comedy it is disgusting and rude. Just another example that people get a little bit of space and then run off at the mouth =. Its sick and sad

Wendy Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 09:20 AM EST
I'm not a Miley fan or a Jamie fan, but I am disappointed in what is considered "humor"; doing drugs, STD's, sexual orientation and profanity. This really isn't about Miley or Jamie, its about our society, the lack of respect for each other, and double standards. I will watch to see if Jamie receives the Imus treatment.




I'm not going to embed the clip here because it is seriously foul. There's nothing funny about it. What I especially found abhorrent was the female sidekick (I have no idea what you'd call her position) co-signing everything Jamie said.

I won't discuss why women have to support the foolishness that men do. I won't even make this a racial issue, as the commenters at Entertainment Weekly did. I seriously want someone to explain to me why grown men get a pass for devaluing women and girls, no matter what race of any party. Its especially distasteful... well its just especially distasteful. There's nothing remotely enlightening, progressive or positive about Jamie Foxx (I'm not gonna front like I don't bump 'Blame It' in my car, although I will probably take it out of my iPod now).

I keep saying this, but its still relevant - lets stop backing bullsh*t with our financial support. I don't expect black people to bat an eyelash. We wouldn't defend our own 'nappy headed h*es' so I definitely don't see us doing anything about this either. When will we learn to do better, expect better, demand better and be better?

American Violet

I will definitely see this movie! We were just discussing the control of the black woman's image. Now let's see how this movie fairs, since it does not contain pistol-packing grandmas or sinister, man-hating professional women. American Violet premieres on April 17.



Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet on a waitress salary and government subsidies.

On an early November morning while Dee works a shift at the local diner, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award® nominee Michael OKeefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with military precision. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the womens county prison. Indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer.

Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges thus, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.

Despite the urgings of her mother (Academy Award® nominee Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom and the custody of her children at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. AMERICAN VIOLET also stars Emmy Award® winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit.

Look Beyond Skin Color



When you look at this picture, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you admire Beyonce's hair? Are you thinking, "damn Idris is fiyonnneee!" I'm at a mental point now where my first reaction was to roll my eyes. Because what I saw was Hollywood playing on black women's emotional reaction to the premise of this film.

I'm tired, y'all.

I'm tired of seeing things that others don't see. It'd be a very long discussion or blog post for me to explain to another sista how I arrived at that split-second conclusion. It'd be another futile effort to reason with a sista not to support films that portray you in a negative light. It'd be a waste of energy to rationalize why Hollywood should not receive our recession-starved or economically-stimulated dollars for playing on our insecurities (losing the Good Black Man to the evil, crazy White Girl Hoe; and no matter how things look, stand by your man, girl! *snaps for the kid*).

So what's an overly-opinionated, good-intentioned, passionate black women and girls supporter supposed to do when she gets tired?

Its like, the majority of us sistas don't, won't, refuse to 'get it'. That the 'small things' are bigger than they seem, that our image is everything. That the more we allow the image of the 'strong', righteous, will-kick-a-white-girl's-ass-for-touching-my-man image to circulate, the less we are seen as warm, loveable, REAL women. The easier it is for others in majority society to dismiss us. The easier it is for Tyler Perry to continue with his drivel (ok TP doesn't really relate to this post, I just finished reading a series of posts over at What About Our Daughters that set me off...) Its just like Steve Harvey says, people treat you a certain way because you allow it. Why do we keep allowing, supporting these negative images of us?

(And I'm not happy that two of my fellow FAMU alumni are behind this film...)

There's an argument that if we don't like the images that are circulated about us, we should circulate our own images. For most of us that's extremely difficult. Hollywood isn't accepting that... for now... but we can MAKE them accept what we want by boycotting films with negative portrayals of black women. We can hit them where it hurts. After all, its not about black or white but about green. So lets stop paying to look bad.

First Lady Obama: Giving a message that needs hearing

Michelle Obama teaches London girls that brains are beautiful

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-trice-06-apr06,0,426678.column

Dawn Turner Trice
April 6, 2009

During her visit to London for the G-20 summit last week, Michelle Obama drew comparisons in the mainstream media to Jacqueline Kennedy and France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: Their style. Their elegance. Their beauty.

But when Obama addressed the girls at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language School in London—after they had just performed on stage for the first lady—Obama's demeanor, for me, was more reminiscent of Princess Diana: their personality. Their comfort with regard to giving hugs.

"For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American first lady," an emotional Obama reportedly told the assembly hall of nearly 200 giddy girls, 11 to 17 years old. "I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of. I was raised on the South Side of Chicago—that's the real part of Chicago."

Like Obama, the late princess of Wales exuded a warmth that was atypical of England's royalty and, truth be told, some of our own first ladies. (Perhaps it's the ease with which Obama engages in the touchy-feely that got her into a bit of trouble with some for touching the queen.)

After Obama told the girls to embrace education, she embraced as many of them as she could to the point that it made her Secret Service guys jittery.

What the girls, most of them from the inner city, saw in the first lady was a woman who was smart and put together, but not so prim and perfect that she seemed just-peeled from a glossy magazine. She was smudge-able and touchable and even three-dimensional.

Something else made Obama accessible at this school where nearly 90 percent of the girls are an ethnic minority. Obama probably looks more like them than most of Europe's female dignitaries who traipse across their school stage and television screens.

That means loads to young women wearing Muslim headscarves; or sporting olive or brown skin tones; or just facing the sometimes harsh realization that beauty remains all-too narrowly defined.

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago during the same time as Obama. The way many of us defined beauty in our homes often was at odds with the images we saw in the mainstream media. If you had a broader nose or thicker lips or coarser hair or browner skin, you stood outside the standard frame.

I admit that the definition for beauty has broadened a bit over the years. My 14-year-old daughter and her friends accept a much wider view. They also expect women to be more self-possessed, meaning they not only support Obama's right to bare her arms, but almost see it as her birthright.

And yet our forward steps are tempered by the past. During last year's presidential campaign some black women said that while they meant no disrespect to their light-skinned sisters, they were thrilled that Michelle Obama was brown and had facial features that they believed made her unmistakably black. They hoped that her high profile would help push the beauty boundaries even further.

In many ways, Obama indeed is redefining beauty—and not at all exclusively for women of color. Beauty is physically fit, but not a size 2. It's a mixture of warmth and intelligence and self-confidence; it's a combination of strength and elegance and attitude.

It's the old truism, "pretty is as pretty does." And that's a message we all can nurture and embrace, especially for our girls.

Book Review: Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man


A friend of mine received this book and as she's married, she felt that she didn't need to read it. So I pounced and borrowed it from her. I wanted to read this before the controversy broke over a similarly titled book that was previously published. My curiousity stemmed from the fact that, hey, I'm not a man. Practically everything I know about men comes from the advice of other women. The few facts I've gathered about men come from observing my older brother, dad and one serious boyfriend. I feel somewhat limited in my experience and depth of understanding. So Steve Harvey may be an expert at telling jokes, yet I find him qualified to tell you what a man thinks --because he is a man. Plus, whenever I've heard one of his Strawberry Letter segments I'm cracking up, almost in tears with laughter, and also agreeing with his logic and (harsh) advice.

Harvey confirmed this approach in his introduction. "... I started imparting wisdom [on his radio show] about men - wisdom gathered from working more than half a century on one concept: how to be a man. I also spent countless hours talking to my friends, all of whom are men."

Alot of the backlash that I've heard about this book stems from Harvey being a comedian. 'Since when is he a relationship expert?' people, including myself, have said. But think about this for a moment. Your husband, dad or brother is not a mechanic. But as soon as something goes wrong with your car, you entrust him to solve whatever the problem is. Not because he's a mechanic, but he knows enough about taking care of things to ensure that you'll receive the results you want. That was my mindset on opening this book: Harvey may not be a relationship expert, but he knows enough about how men think to steer me in the right direction. Because, clearly, the advice I've received in almost 30 years has not put me on the right path...

One reviewer on Amazon totally missed the point of the book:

If women start reading and taking his advice it will set the women's movement back 50 years. Steve Harvey is only perpetuating socially acceptable sexism. The title alone should give us all pause. His advice on taking your husbands last name? We should do it because men protect us and want to introduce us as Mrs. Harvey. If we don't want to take our husbands last name we shoud marry our fathers. His advice on keeping a clean home? No matter how far women come it will still be expected of them. His advice on whether or not men like women who cook? Its alright if we don't know how to cook as long as we "cook" in the bedroom. His advice on whether we should call our man at work? Only if we're telling him that he'll have a nice surprise when he gets home, not for anything else "petty." Women, respect yourself enough to say no to this! Return the book to your local bookseller and demand your money back. This is not the 50's, we do not have to take this, and we for sure as not do not have to pay for this! Since when do comedians know anything about relationships? Of course, if you would like someone to treat you like a caveman would treat his property, then, absolutely, this book is for you!
I honestly don't see anything wrong with the points the Amazon reviewer highlighted. Yes he writes those things, exactly as she (I'm assuming the writer is a woman) relayed them. What man wouldn't take pride introducing his wife as "Mrs. Husband"? Who doesn't expect a woman to keep her home clean? And what man do you honestly know would be happy with a woman who doesn't cook and doesn't fulfill him sexually?

His whole point is that men think totally different than women. That women should understand this difference and strategically act in a manner to receive more of what they want in relationships. Men (for the most part) aren't thinking about feminism, the women's movement, or equal rights and treatment for women. They aren't thinking about level playing fields, doing more housework or playing a larger role in parenting. They are thinking about what they want. Harvey writes that the three main things that concern men: who he is, what he does and how much he makes. So if a man is preoccupied with those things, and hasn't reached a place in life where he's comfortable with those things, how many minutes of his day is he devoting to feminine equality? Right...

There are two pieces of advice that I've received in real life, that I found in this book: that until a man has his own life together, he will not be serious about a woman, no matter who you are. And that the vast majority of what a man does relates to his ability to attract women - the way he dresses, where he lives, his plan to reach higher levels of financial achievement. Funny thing is, I don't know how many other women have heard these things also.

My take on the book: I really liked it and enjoyed it. I couldn't put it down. That's probably because of the lack of unbiased male opinion in my life. It was very refreshing to read the words of a man who had nothing to gain from telling me his opinion, who wouldn't sugar-coat his advice to spare my feelings and garner my favor. Plus, it was funny. It really felt like I had gone to my favorite uncle's house for him to school me on men.

I liked that Harvey gave women a timeline on vetting men, and a blueprint of behavior, attitude and practical actions that women could engage in to let men know that they were keepers (as opposed to "sport fish", those fish you reel in and throw back because you don't really want them, you just want to fish). I also like the fact that he gave examples from his own life in ways men play games and put themselves first. He admits that he did things wrong, that he isn't perfect, and as a reader I appreciated that.

Now what I didn't like was the implication that all men cheat. My father and grandfather were cheaters. It would honestly break my heart if my older brother was a cheater (I wouldn't put it past my younger one though). I just can't believe that there are men in the world who aren't above breaking their marriage vows. I also wasn't satisfied by Harvey's explanation, or lack thereof: that basically, until a man realizes what he has, he will do something stupid to mess it up. The one consolation was that he advised women to stick to their guns if they couldn't handle cheating and not to go back if they'd previously said they wouldn't tolerate it. Because then, the man knew up front what the terms of the contract were and he willingly broke the contract.

When I reflected on this book I realized that there was nothing here that was new. I'd heard everything (well, except the vetting questions he suggests) and wasn't shocked by him 'keeping it real'. But I have a sinking suspicion that many women didn't ask the questions that I asked to find out the things that he explains in this book. I have personal examples where my friends didn't vet men properly, and those examples include my own dating faux pas. But I'm glad he wrote the book, glad it gained such publicity and hope that women get alot out of what he has to say.

Honestly, I want a man to treat me like my grandfather treated the women in his life. I want to be loved, protected, cherished, to be treated like a lady. I don't want to feel 'independent'. Maybe I'm alone in this regard, but I don't want to have to do this all on my own. And if I'm trying to win at the relationship game, why not take hints from my conquest's playbook? If that means being treated like a caveman's property (a caveman will go upside your head for messing with his property!) and going back to the 1950s, then I might be down for that...

African American Women's Health Scholarship

Scholarship to Build Leadership in the Field of African American Women’s Health

The Master of Arts in Women’s Health (MAWH) program at Suffolk University (Boston) is pleased to offer a competitive, annual, full tuition scholarship to a student committed to working in the field of Black women’s health. Funded by the Suffolk University College of Arts and Sciences, this scholarship is designed to develop leadership in an area that will contribute to the health and well-being of African American women and girls.

By virtually every marker of health and health care status, African American women suffer unjustly. African American women are less likely than white women to have health insurance and are more likely to be dependent upon the political vagaries of Medicaid policies. African American women confront particularly high rates of cervical cancer, diabetes, hypertension, breast cancer, HIV/AIDS infection, and maternal mortality. For these patterns to change:

Government policies need to redress longstanding racial disparities in health care access.

Medical institutions need to develop programs that improve patient care for Black women.

Health care providers need to cultivate communication skills that show respect for the strengths and diversity of Black women and that acknowledge financial limitations that may interfere with health maintenance.

Community leaders need to work towards building environments that are safe and healthy for Black women and their families.

Educators need to address how African American women can make the healthy choices that facilitate healthy minds and bodies.

African American women need training in self-care and self-advocacy. The MAWH Scholarship to Build Leadership in the Field of African American Women’s Health aims to train gifted and dedicated students to work effectively in all of these arenas.

To apply for the Scholarship please submit by no later than April 15:

(1)The standard application materials required for the MAWH; to view,
click here.

(2) A substantive essay addressing:

(a) What are the core health issues facing Black women?

(b) How did you come to develop an interest in Black women’s health?

(c) What do you hope to learn in the MAWH program that will help you develop as a leader in the field of Black women’s health?

(d) What does being a leader in the field of Black women’s health mean to you?

(e) Describe your ideal job in this field!

Questions? Please see http://www.suffolk.edu/college/13527.html or contact mawh@suffolk.edu
--
Amy Agigian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sociology Department
Director, Center for Women's Health and Human Rights
Director, Master of Arts in Women's Health
Suffolk University
8 Ashburton Place, Beacon Hill
Boston, MA 02108
Tel: 617-573-8487
Fax: 617-994-4278
aagigian@suffolk.edu
www.suffolk.edu/cwhhr