I should have never turned on the TV this morning.

All the news channels were reporting on, had to do with the upcoming Tiger Woods press conference — you can read the highlights here. And now that it’s over, all the news channels are reporting on STILL has to do with the Tiger Woods press conference. Literally, right now CNN Headline News is replaying the whole statement in its entirety.

I am SO OVER THIS NON-STORY. And I really really want to know why, and when this became stop-the-press news.

I am a news junkie. I love knowing what’s happening, as it happens. But somewhere along the line, celebrity updates became part of the news. It is endlessly frustrating to me that Sarah Palin’s every pop-culture related Facebook rant, Heidi Montag’s every plastic surgery revelation and Tiger Woods’ descent into a downward spiral of sex and shame has become headline news that is more reported on than the two wars we’re currently in. I’m mad that stories about trivial things become the headlines, while stories like this go largely unreported.

Rant over. Off soapbox.

What do you think?

The current “Vanity Fair is racist!” brouhaha involving the shades-of-alabaster cover of their Young Hollywood has been covered quite well by a variety of other blogs and websites:

From Jezebel: “What does “Young Hollywood” look like? According to Vanity Fair, it’s pretty, thin, female and white.”

From USA Today: “Where are any women of color? Gabourey Sidibe, for example, who just got an Oscar nomination for Precious? Or Freida Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire?”

From Dr. Boyce Watkins at News One: “The recent Vanity Fair cover reminds us that the minds of Hollywood haven’t changed all that much. There is still an image of the hero and superstar, a person with virtues that are pure, honest and brave. That person is usually white.”

My take: what did we expect from Vanity Fair and Graydon Carter? (On a purely superficial note, I must admit an ongoing amusement/fascination with the name Graydon. Graydon could either be an elderly taxi driver from Tobago, or be Mr. Burns’ secret middle name. I digress).

My memory is young, so please correct me if I’m wrong…but isn’t Vanity Fair kind of known for being out of touch, and frequently exclusionist? Didn’t they just post that telling cover photo of Tiger Woods? Does this magazine not thrive on bouts of controversial, usually photography-inspired chatter? Isn’t this kind of thing to be expected?

Nothing about this Vanity Fair hubbub is surprising, or new to me. And I do believe, by being mad, we’re giving Graydon and company exactly what they want — controversy, which they hope will manifest itself as newsstand sales.

And sadly, I wasn’t surprised by the reaction I’ve been noticing around the web. When author Joanna Douglas covered the Vanity Fair topic on Yahoo blog Shine, she got more than 18,000 comments. Sprinkled among those were death threats. And many, MANY of those comments expressed outrage that anyone would question the lack of diversity of VF’s photo shoot. The typical commenter seemed to be angry that magazines like Ebony and Essence, and channels like BET can feature all-black celebrities with no protest, but Vanity Fair can’t. Many commenters also seemed to think the Fair of Vanity Fair meant they were a magazine meant for Caucasian readers. And people are on there saying things like “seriously, this diversity crap is getting really annoying!”

Almost all of the commenters never considered why a magazine like Ebony or Essence may have come to be — to highlight and feature beautiful, talented women of color. The kind of women who have so often been excluded from magazines…like Vanity Fair.

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Once upon a time, not that long ago – VH1 was my favorite channel. This was in the heyday of Best Week Ever — Saturday mornings I’d eagerly put VH1 on to see what embarrassing media events would be clowned by the rotating cast of comedians and semi-celebs. Now VH1 is more likely to be the channel responsible for creating semi-celebs, who then go on to create their own embarrassing media events. (ahem – Tila Tequila).

I miss the good old days. But whenever I had it up to here with VH1’s bottom of the barrel reality television antics, there was always the network’s angel – VH1 Soul. A channel I loved so much that I even cited it as the source of my inspiration on my About Me page.

Today I learned — via Music Nerdery — that VH1 Soul will soon cease to exist.

This hasn’t been officially reported yet and I’d love to hear from VH1 officials directly on this, if it is so. For now, I’m sincerely hoping it isn’t.
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It’s me again, Afrobella!

I love you. Hopefully you know this by now. Your music has been the soundtrack to my life and your voice has lifted me in my darkest hours. Having said that, I’d love to remind you of the offer I made in my last open letter to you. We need to make this shopping trip happen.

Aunty Aretha (do you mind if I call you aunty? Where I come from it’s a mark of respect and love. And I feel like I know you!) — please let me go shopping with you. I know you’re a beautiful woman but outfits like this right here… so not the biz.

I know, I know — snoods are in right now! I just blogged about wanting a snood this week! But the fur snood with the open coat, over your trademark sparkly dress with spaghetti straps holding on for dear life — put all together, it just doesn’t make sense.
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I’m gonna need you to quit playing games with my heart.

As a plus size fashionista, I’ve respected your hustle for a while now. For years you’ve produced a steady and reliable line of plus size essentials. Tees, jeans, on-trend blouses. I’ve been there as a purchaser when you respected my demographic and sold plus size garments in your stores. And when you made women’s plus exclusively online I will admit, I felt shunned — but I continued to buy. Because I knew, if I was looking for an affordable, comfortable and chic tee, Old Navy would always be there for me with the right item at the right price.

So consider me outraged that you’d try to slide in an item like this super chic belted wool-blend cape — and have the audacity to charge $129 for it.

Those are Gap prices. Venturing into Banana Republic territory.

Old Navy, what are you doing? That prices doesn’t even look right as the cape shares screen space with its outerwear peers — which currently max out at $82.

Old Navy, for years I have loved you as the kind of store I could spend $100 and at least get an entire outfit from. Maybe more, if I really rummaged through the clearance aisle. I see you trying to elevate your style game with this admittedly trendy-yet-classic cape, but really. This is wool-blend. Not even 100% wool. And for an item that’s only sold online that I can’t try on or touch…ich don’t think so.

Consider this some friendly advice from a frequent and fond consumer — stay in your lane and consider your consumer. It’s entirely possible to step up your designs and still remain as affordable as ever. I’m sincerely hoping you find a way. Until then, I’ll be biding my time until this cape comes down to under $50 on clearance. My day will come, if I just wait a while.

Bestest,
Afrobella

PS: my curvy homegirl Marie Denee feels the same way.

When I saw the photos of Sammy Sosa that have been circulating online, one dancehall classic came immediately to mind.

There’s a few more photos on Huffington Post that show the sharp difference in his pigmentation.

The story Mr. Sosa is sticking to is that a skin rejuvenation procedure has made his skin appear lighter, and besides that the lighting made him appear significantly fairer skinned than normal.

If that’s true, then it’s a shame that Mr. Sosa had a facial treatment that resulted in such marked discoloration. Any technician worth their salt will tell you, laser treatments can be very problematic for black skin, and deep chemical peels can damage black skin. So I’m curious as to what kind of treatment Mr. Sosa may have had, so I can make sure not to ever get it myself.
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