Give Thanks

My Dad died a few days ago. He was 94 and had been ill for a long time, so it was not entirely unexpected.

It took awhile, but the grief has started to hit. As today is Thanksgiving, I want to talk about how much he meant to me, and how much I am grateful to him for being my Dad. 

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Black Success: We Need Solutions that Work

Trayvon's funeral

Listen below for my audio, "We Need Solutions That Work".  

I am tired of having my heart broken. 

I am tired of hearing about our Black men, boys, women and girls being killed by the authorities.  I'm sure you are, too. This stuff is happening on both sides of the Atlantic.

I watched the films I talked about in my recent blog on Deaths in Police Custody and I despaired.  

Listen here for more. Then check out Success Strategies for Black People.

Click here for more Black Success audios.

Please share this with your networks, and please comment below. 

 

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

African Hair before Bondage

"African Hair before Bondage" was a recent presentation from London Black History Walks as part of the Queen Nzingha Lecture Series.

The initial publicity was fascinating.  To quote, "Ever since African civilizations bloomed, hairstyles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth, and rank within the community". Click here to read more. 

The presentation covered some of this material.  Hairstyles were such a key part of African people's identities that one of the first things the slavers did was to shave the heads of the enslaved, as a way of robbing them of those identities. 

"African Hair before Bondage" focused more on African hair during and post-bondage.  I would have liked to have heard more of the pre-bondage material.

For more amazing images of African traditional hairstyles, plus Black history and more, see:  African Images. 

Click here for more about how to celebrate beautiful, healthy Black hair and skin.

See also:  Hands Off My Child's Hair. 

White Mother: Hands Off My Black Child's Hair

When the late Dh. Vijayatara did her research some years ago on the experience of Black people in predominantly white Buddhist Sanghas (spiritual communities), one of the issues that kept coming up was the need white people express to touch our hair.  Many white people seem to have an unhealthy fascination with our hair, and they also seem to feel they have every right to touch it – often without our permission.

(My experience was somewhat different from this - I often had Black people wanting to touch my hair.  But that's a whole other story.) 

Today, I really wanted to share this very positive post by a white mother asking other white  people not to touch her Black daughter's hair, and explaining why it's disrespectful to do so. As she says, it can affect the child's self-esteem.  

I understand the relationship between white mothers and their Black children, and/or the children's hair, can be difficult. I find it refreshing and inspiring to read this white parent's words about the need to respect her child's personal space. 

White parents and other white people are more likely to pay attention to this message coming from one of their own.  I only wish they would listen when we say similar things.  

Click here to read more about how to enjoy beautiful, healthy hair and skin.    

I welcome your comments below.

How to Break Old Habits

Listen below to this short audio on How to Break Old Habits.

You may also want to listen to my recent audio on Achieving Your Goals.  

Click here for more Black Success audios. 

If you want to have more money, more success in your business, better relationships, better health - if you want to achieve your goals - you need to cultivate better, more positive mental and emotional habits.  

In order to break old habits and form new ones, one thing we need is to be congruent with the new behaviour and attitude.  I talk about this in Success Strategies for Black People.  We need to change the way we see ourselves. 

Using affirmations is a very powerful way to bring about positive change, but sometimes we need more.  

In my 3-Part Success Formula, which you can download in my free ebook Achieving Success, I talk about the need for healing.  The need to eliminate the negativity.  We need to dig it up, uproot it. 

Click here to order Success Strategies for Black People.  

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio