if anyone knows any helpful info please hit me up by email ;-)
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| Meanwhile Rosario Dawson dates Danny Boyle (Oscar winning Director of Olympic Opening Ceremony) courtesy Daily Mail |
Post begins...
The
truth is that a lot of black folk are engaged in unproductive and
downright useless discussions and past times. The fact that some
rapper somewhere said something doesn’t mean it deserves any
attention or critical analysis as is quite often devoted to the
rubbish that proceeds from the mouth of a good bunch of people
identifying themselves as in this 'job' role.
I am all about social commentary and calling
people in the public sphere out when it is necessary, but I was
disappointed when Allison Samuels decided to make a big story over
some twitter personality somewhere in some corner of the web and her
comments about Gabby Douglas's hair. Well I guess she has to write
something as a journalist, but I still wonder why some nonentity
talking BS somewhere should capture headlines.
We do not need to dignify every rubbish with a
response and with an article!
So someone somewhere said Gabby's hair needed to
be adjusted to their aesthetic taste...well NEWS FLASH, idiots abound
on twitter. There is no reason to turn foolish uttering into
legitimate/valid argument by giving them any focus. What next, giving
voice to folk who say black women should not be allowed out of their
houses?
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| Congratulations Gabby |
I can imagine there must be a thousand folks now
lining up to make their own foolish comments about black women's
features etc, knowing that it might well be the thing to give them
their fifteen minutes of fame.
What black women must learn
One of the greatest challenges of our modern era
is to know how to manage information and we sure are swamped with it!
Billions of data coming at you each day, vying for your attention,
and most of it is unproductive or can lead you up unproductive alleys
and diverted from applying yourself for your own betterment.
A lot of it is brain clutter.
A lot of it is brain clutter.
Some scientist have conceptualized certain
information areas in our brain as vessels that fill up with
information over the course of the day and these areas then empty out
when you sleep. This is why you do your best thinking and learning in
the mornings and morning hours are best devoted to intellectually
tasking projects while routine tasks can be done on autopilot later in the day. Notice that at some point in the day,
you cannot think as well, or you just cannot think creatively over
problems/issues (this is more likely as you get older)
.
.
Do you sometimes notice that it is in the morning
that 'ideas' occur to you especially about things that have been bugging
you previously and you could not think of an answer to. Simply clicking
on and reading all sorts of stuff (useless), takes up short term and
medium term memory space (afterall you can remember what Kanye West
said, or the latest utterance of Nene, so data is being stored
whether you know it is and whether you believe you are doing
something mindless or not), which then will need to be offloaded
overnight before the space is available again for something
productive!
Some of us feel that because it costs us nothing
financially to 'click' on a webpage and read 10 minutes of something
or other (a link from facebook for instance) then there is nothing
lost. The truth is that more is lost than you could ever imagine. If
in doubt add up the time you have so far lost this year from mindless
surfing and you will see that you have lost the time it would have
taken to write 2 books, the time you needed to learn how to run your
own website, how to paint, learn how to trade shares even set up and
manage your own business.
There are things that don’t require your
attention and emotional investment. A black woman who is focussed on
making a success of life will have to devise her own template and
filter for sorting information and a brutal criteria for eliminating
information that is just of no immediate value or use to her even if
the information is somewhat useful!
Instead of giving even 10 seconds to the latest
screed said by someone somewhere, why don’t you start working on
your Nobel prize invention. Too many of us are distracted by
foolishness to ever pursue and live our dreams. Get on with being
productive in life, stop responding to and listening to everything
and anything.
How do you manage information?
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You're absolutely right, Halima. I heard about the "Gabby's hair is awful" meme from Michael Eric Dyson, when he subbed for Ed Schultz, on MSNBC. My husband immediately asked why in the world was Dyson talking about some silly comments by unknown folks on twitter. Who cares about what they have to say about Gabby's hair? I agree with him.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that silly people say silly things -- especially when they can do so without identifying themselves. Let's celebrate Gabby's acommplishment (first Black woman to win gold individually in gymnastics at the Olympics) and ignore the haters. Enjoy this moment.
Lucky you that you're in England and can see some of the Olympic events up close. I wish I could see the track and field competitions in person. I'd be hoarse from screaming!
This is one of the best articles you have ever written! BW need to learn to 'tune out' useless people, media, etc. I rolled my eyes when I saw the same article referenced on Yahoo a couple of days ago. People like the twitter commenter need to be put on 'nignore'
ReplyDeleteSometimes BW need to learn to shut up, or quietly turn AWAY from useless and/or harmful things. Every day I try to get better at doing this. In the next few weeks I'm moving, and I decided not to even get basic cable at my new apartment. TV is a huge time waster.
Thanks you for this article. I'm going to use it as a reminder to keep wasting time and focus on the things I need to do to better myself!
I totally agree...if you really think about it...this is one of the dumbest debates to even come about...it has no value whatsoever...In regards to having information overload...I also agree...this is why I've been shutting down my computer at night and just sitting and thinking...I am exhausted after reading the news...There is a bunch of useless news on the internet...the news is supposed to inform us...but we are being filled with useless messages everyday...I've made so many attempts to fast from facebook for these very same reasons...I need FB for my business...but I've been deleting friends daily...just too much information coming across the screen too fast will definitely overwhelm your brain.
ReplyDeleteRight on time! I had the same reaction to the whole Gabby hair debacle. It seemed like the media blew everything out of proportion. I can't believe that Gabby herself even responded. She should be shielded from all this social media nonsense at this time and focused on giving her best performance.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say about filtering information is so true. I have also been reflecting on the amount of time I have wasted online. I really have to be stricter about time limits, although I have gotten better at avoiding negative sites. I'm a work in progress.
Does anyone have suggestions for better discipline regarding the internet?
All CHEERE'S FOR GABBY!!!!
ReplyDelete@
All that was very POOR on MR.DYSON side.BOOOO! Dyson!
Although it should have not been newsworthy, I was pleased to see that backlash against the backlash and people coming out to verbally spank those who attempted to detract from Gabby's greatness and history making feats. Nonetheless, you have an Excellent observation, insight and commentary Halima. But I expect no less from you anyway.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post Halima!
ReplyDeletecould not have said it better myself. I cannot believe that with the wonderful accomplishments this young girl has achieved, all the bc can focus on is her hair! unbelievable! And that term-brain clutter-that's exactly what it is. We could be so much further in life, and do so much more if we did not waste so much precious time talking about trival matters, and nonsense. You hit the nail on the head with this one...
@Aisha:
ReplyDeletePace yourself on how much time per day you spend on the internet. Perhaps no more than 2 hours per day. And stick to sites where you can learn something positive.
I really wish that Gabby had been protected from all the hair gossip and that she wasn't forced to respond to the silliness. Le Sigh.
@Patricia: Thanks for the excellent suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is how black discussions are almost NEVER original. Its the same thing over and over again, each time treated like a great revelations when discussed: BW's hair, BW's body, BW jealous WW with BM, BW singleness, the evil WM, and the virile,brave downtrodden negro male. Like a broken record. If BW fully ignored the black media, we'd be missing nothing. I think, subconsciously, the only reason BW keep checking and listening for these stories is that we think something relevant and new will enter the black thought collective. We're still waiting for "something".
ReplyDeleteI didn't know anything about this whole Gabby's hair thing until a WW at work told me she saw a former BW Olympian discussing the hair "issue". Since this former athlete and couple of idiots on twitter gave permission to non blacks to start yet another tired "discussion" about BW's hair, my WW coworkers we're suddenly extremely curious about my afro and told me that they liked it lol These idiots make it seem like ALL BW want to indulge in random therapy talk and I guess non blacks believe their connecting with us thru black "culture". Black "culture" = a series of status quo enforcing cliches and non productive conversation loops.
samadhi101 said:
ReplyDelete'The sad thing is how black discussions are almost NEVER original. Its the same thing over and over again, each time treated like a great revelations when discussed: BW's hair, BW's body, BW jealous WW with BM, BW singleness, the evil WM, and the virile,brave downtrodden negro male. Like a broken record. If BW fully ignored the black media, we'd be missing nothing. I think, subconsciously, the only reason BW keep checking and listening for these stories is that we think something relevant and new will enter the black thought collective. We're still waiting for "something".
'
Just many more things for me and other black women in the world to start nignoring!
America has the best salons for black women in the world (because the black salons in the UK are still HORRIBLE after so many decades of having black people in the country!YEESH!)but that's no reason to get catty about Gabby's hair that was done up for the purposes of gymnastics only. This is all just 'Round 2' of the whole 'UMass Women's Basketball Team/Don Imus/DL Hughley' bull but certain black people feel that because they're not Don Imus or anybody else who's white that they should still publicly pollute the air about BW's hair.
Enough already. It's all so '1930s' with the first type of pressing comb or whatever!