Who said nappy was bad?

In the wake of the infamous Imus statement about the "nappy headed hos," new reasons for black women to become discontent with themselves and their body images were awakened. I'm a black woman, and my first question was, what exactly are they mad about? The fact that he called them nappy, or that this total stranger, who knew absolutely no more about their character than they knew about his before his statement, was calling them "hos?"

For the sake of humor, people - white and black alike - sometime use name-calling as their first device to color a story funnier than it would otherwise be. Now I'm not saying it's always appropriate, or always nice, but it does happen.

The most ironic part to me is that Imus is probably going to leave the whole ordeal bigger and better than ever. That is the American way isn't it? To be able to make the most out of and possibly even profit from a negative situation. Sure he may have lost his job, but believe me, we have not heard the last of him. Let's not let Imus have the victory all to himself.

I didn't leave that experience thinking that either of these wonderful, beautiful, and talented young women were in fact a whore. Imus didn't personally know any of them. But the truth is, the world does consider our hair to be nappy.
So what?
There is a royal and majestic aura in our naps and locks. So why not embrace it?

Hi. My name is Vee and I'm nappy and I'm proud!


But let me tell you, I found a sister who is not only educating others on appreciating the naturalness of black hair, but is also capitalizing on the beauty of her nappiness. She is Ms. Mireille Liong-A-Kong, author, speaker, host of GoingNatural.com, and founder of The Miss Nappturality Beauty Competition.

Going Natural

The website http://going-natural.com/, created by Liong, celebrates the journey of women going back to their nappy roots. She is also the author of the book, Going Natural - How to fall in Love with Nappy Hair.

Mireille's Bio

Mireille grew up in Suriname and studied in the Netherlands. She left the city of Amsterdam for Brooklyn, New York in 2002. Holding a Master's Degree in Computer Science, she worked as an Implementation Manager in the Department of Prof. Services at an Internet Company before the big boom. An active player in corporate America, she too subscribed to the idea that she had to look the part in order to fit in and belong. And that meant straightening her hair. However, bad experiences with hair straightening chemicals motivated her to gather all the information she could on African Hair. What she learned not only freed her from herself, but liberated her forever. She then decided to teach others.

In 2003, Liong rewrote history by successfully debuting with the first Dutch book about African hair care. The first edition was sold out within two months. Today the website http://kroeshaar.com/, which was launched along with the book, is the most popular site on the topic of African hair in Dutch speaking countries like Holland and Suriname.

In 2004, Mireille self-published her second book, Going Natural - How to fall in Love with Nappy Hair and launched the site, going-natural.com. When she realized natural women didn't have a magazine of their own, she decided to turn the website into an Interactive I-magazine.

Personal word from Vee to Mireille:

Now that's what I'm talking about.

You go girl!

I'm lovin' it.

Peace, Love, & Light everyone,

Vee

A Day in My Life - A Little Baby Humor

Thursday, September 06, 2007
Spoken Word Piece by Vee


I love him
I love him
I love him all the time,
but I like him when he's...

...asleep!

He's beautiful
He's beautiful
He's oh so beautiful to me all the time,
but he's absolutely gorgeous when he's...

...asleep!

yeah, I'm talking bout my baby,
my baby boy,
my little prince,
my inspiration,
my muse,
and the biggest pain in the a$$ I've ever seen in my life!

He's the smartest, sweetest, wittiest, funniest little dude I've ever met.
Got reasoning and deduction skills a lot of grown folks don't even possess.
And did I mention he's the biggest pain in the a$$ I've ever seen in my life?

I do believe it is my privilege to say what I want to say about him,
as long as I do what I'm supposed to do for him. To love, to nourish, and to nurture him.

You see, I love him more than words can explain.
I live for him, and I'd die for him.
I'd punch a monster in his eye for him.

I mean, he's my baby!
my heart,
my amazing and splendid gift from God.
And oh yeah, in case I didn't mention, the biggest pain in the a$$ I've ever seen in my life?

You see, only a person who really loves someone can get away with saying something as crude as this and still have people understand how big the love is.

But make no mistake about it.
I'm the only one who can say it.
"See, I's the one that birthed that baby!"

I was the one who was up all night,
sleep deprived, crazy, and looking a fright.
I was the one there with the runny noses,
the scrapes and bruises, the fevers,
the painful tooth buds,
and the nurses with the needles.

H#!!, I breast fed him so long he was walking 'round talkin' bout,
"I want some momma nuke!"
couldn't say momma milk in the beginning,
so momma nuke just kinda stuck.

See, during the hours while he's awake,

I'm constantly talking and explaining,
correcting and persuading,

pleading and begging,
bargaining and threatening.

yelling and fussing,
spanking and sometimes even cussing...

....then embarrassed when I take him to his doctor's appointment,
we're sitting out in the lobby,
he picks up a half dragon, half donkey character from the movie Shrek
and says, "What the h#!! is this?!"

Uhh, my bad!
And no, I didn't spank him for that.
I quickly, but politely answered him, "That's a dronkey baby,"
so as to not give him the chance to ask that question again.

But on a more positive note,

I'm also singing and dancing
playing and laughing

story-telling and teaching
imagining and make-believing,

ABCing and 123ing,
I'm telling you, it can be quite overwhelming.


But when he slows down long enough to fall asleep,
and I can really see this little person whom I've co-created,
...actually see the work I've done,

I can see his beauty,
I can see his blessings,
I can see his purity and innocence,
And I can see his love, all magnified to the brillionth, billionth power.

And I think about all the sh*! we've been through on just that day alone.
Nothing seems as big or as bad as it did earlier.
I find my patience gets a little longer everyday.
I find that I'm not as quickly irritated as I was the day before.
And most importantly, I find myself realizing that I'm getting a little better at this motherhood thing every day that Jordan schools me.

And I look at him,
mouth slightly ajar,
light snore echoing in the background.
I see his chest rise and fall in perfect synchronicity.
I look at his belly button in awe of how it all began.
I marvel at this picture of pure perfection.
I see all that beauty and I realize...

Yeah, I love him all the time,
and like him when he's asleep,
but what I really and truly adore most is the moment he first opens his eyes in the morning.

And I say,
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you for my baby!


But ooooh sh*!,
here we go again!

--Vee Jefferson