MyBrownBaby: A Little Blog Lovin'

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

And What An Awesome Year It Was: MyBrownBaby 2010 In Review!

I can hardly believe that 2010 is coming to an end; it seems like it was just yesterday that we were designing this, the beginning of our new decade. But here we are, standing on the edge of 2010, staring 2011 in the face. I thought it only appropriate, though, that before MyBrownBaby does The Dougie into the new year, we take a look back at the posts that made us think, laugh, cry, cheer and toss an occasional side-eye. Stacked up together, it seems that 2010 was a pretty thoughtful and amazing year. Here, a recap of the awesome. Click on the sentences to see the original posts. Enjoy!

MyBrownBaby kicked off 2010 with the post “Boy, Please,” which took to task both black radio for force-feeding all kinds of sexual innuendo on its listeners and Trey Songz for recording songs proclaiming he—and, by extension, every sexually-active teenager—is a bedroom god. Uh huh. Dead. Fish. Eyes.

February saw Nick and I reeling in the post, “Evil Black Men,” over the vicious stereotyping of black men at our daughter’s school, but applauding Mari’s teacher for showing her class where they went wrong and how they could be better.

And in that same month, our own young black man, Mazi, disproved all those silly stereotypes when he had his big signing day with Lafayette College, as chronicled in, “The Boy Is Going To College!”

My Dad turned 75 in March, and my brother, Troy, and I, along with the help of my awesome cousins, threw him a huge surprise birthday party—the first birthday party he’d had in his entire lifetime. Talk about moving!

And my homegirl/writing partner Mitzi Miller shared with MyBrownBaby “On Borrowed Time,” a post about her liver transplant and the need for federal legislation that would allow organ donations across state lines—a move that would save lives.

In April, Actress, advocate, super mom, and The Talk host Holly Robinson Peete stopped by MyBrownBaby to tell us some secrets about her parenting style and to promote her new book, My Brother Charlie, on which I served as an editorial consulant.

And later that month, Malaak Compton-Rock did the same while promoting her book , “If It Takes A Village, Build One.”

That same month, Sandra Bullock became a MyBrownBaby mom when she adopted an adorable African American baby boy, showing us in “Congrats, Sandra Bullock—AND Baby Louis,” exactly where her heart is...

Even as Arizona showed with its racist new law that some people will never get past race, culture and class differences and see each other simply as human. I reiterate: BOYCOTT ARIZONA.

And we had “One Fine Day” on which ever star seemed to align for our family—from great projects, to school acceptances to new neighbors. We are truly blessed.

In May, Mazi graduated—with honors!

And I discovered that Mari and her 5^th grade pals like… wait on it… boys. ARGH! Sweet baby Jesus, be a fence…

June saw us sticking up for a little black girl who got kicked out of her gifted class by her teacher, who claimed the child’s hair products were making her nauseous. We’re STILL scratching our heads over that one.

And author Thomas Chatterton Williams stopped by MyBrownBaby to drop an original story on us—a celebration of his incredible book, “Losing My Cool,” a memoir about hip hop’s effects on the education of black boys.

I celebrated the beauty of black women in Essence magazine, which ran my piece, "The Way We Move: Why I ♥ Being A Black Woman," one of my favorite freelance stories ever!

Oh, and yet another pet—Smash, the African Dwarf Frog—kicked the bucket. Before we could get his body into the dirt, Lila was asking for another one, prompting this post, “All Day Sucka.” All I have to say is thank God our dog Teddy is in MY care...

July was a BIG month for us: Nick saw the publication of “The Blueprint,” a memoir and advice book he wrote with gospel sensation and all-around good guy Kirk Franklin. “The Blueprint” went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

And we took our babies to Paris!!!!

I cried through half of August when Mazi graduated from high school and left for college, as chronicled in “My Son, Too.”

And renowned poet and ridiculously talented writer Bassey Ikpi joined MyBrownBaby as a contributing columnist, kicking off her series on motherhood with “Black Boys Shouldn’t Shoot,” an hysterical piece about her son and his love of water guns.

In September, Willow Smith had me and the girls running all around the house talking about, “Whip My Hair,” and reminding black parents everywhere that it’s okay to let our kids be exactly who they are…

And the events of September 11^th—and all of the craziness behind the threats of Qur’an burning—had me and Nick talking to our kids about tolerance and the beauty of different, in “Burning Qur’ans, Zealots, and a Lesson On Tolerance.”

Nick went road-tripping to New York City with his super cool Dad, Walter, an accomplished jazz keyboardist. They saw Sonny Rollins in concert—and ended up bonding like never before.

And Wayne Brady, Mike Tyson and Bobby Brown made my life with this video!

Every Little Step with Mike Tyson & Wayne Brady from Mike Tyson

In October, my Mari went on her first sleep-away camping trip. While I was home rocking and scared and nervous for my girl, she was off having the time of her life, as chronicled in, “Mari’s Awesome, Supersplendiferous, Fantasticalicious Camp Pictures!”

And continuing our celebration of Black Girl Power, Willow Smith released a video of her song, “Whip My Hair” just days after Sesame Street aired its awesome, “I Love My Hair” segment—making that one week in October “The Best Week Ever For Black Girls.”

Mari, an uber talented writer even at the tender age of 11, became “The Newest Scholastic Kid Reporter” in November.

And after seeing incredibly disturbing statistics on the reading and math scores of black boys, Nick implored all of us parents to hand books to our children and implore them to enjoy the beauty of books. READ ON!

We ended 2010 with a bang! I n December, Mari saw her first story published on Scholastic’s Kid Reporter site on the same day that “Straight Talk, No Chaser,” the book I wrote with Steve Harvey, was released. Just this past Sunday, it debuted No. 1 on the New York Times Best Selling Hard Cover Advice list. Woot!

And wait until you see what MyBrownBaby has in store for 2011. More action! More adventure! More everything! BOOM POW!!! Until then, have yourself a fun, safe, awesome New Year—see you on the other side!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

What Does YOUR Ideal MyBrownBaby Look Like? Tell Me In This SUPER Quick Survey

That's right—a change is gonna come! MyBrownBaby is stepping into its second year, and I'm ready to pump up the volume on my blog's offerings. Tell me who you are, what you like about this site and what you want to see more of. Ten questions. In, like, two minutes. Totally anonymous. Go!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nominate MyBrownBaby For A Black Weblog Award (Or Four)

The 2010 BLACK WEBLOG AWARDS NOMINATIONS are going on right now. Be a dear and head over there to nominate MYBROWNBABY for Best Personal Blog, Best Writing in a Blog, Best Parenting Blog, and Blog of the Year.

Why nominate MyBrownBaby? Well, because mama works hard to advocate for and celebrate black moms and moms of beautiful brown babies in every single post that makes its way onto this site.

From calling out the injustice of thoughtless teachers (like in this piece about the little girl kicked out of her gifted class for having smelly natural hair) and demanding justice for victims of police brutality in predominately black and Latino communities (like in this post about the police raid that resulted in the death of Aiyana Jones) to waxing poetic on Salma Hayek's breastfeeding tatas and the simple joy of embarrassing the hell out of my daughters in the grocery store aisle, I try to use my love of the written word to inspire,teach, commiserate, inform and profess my profound love for beautiful brown babies and the joy of parenting them. I hope I’m fulfilling the mission.

If you think I am, show your support by clicking on the Black Weblog Awards 2010 Nominee button and make MyBrownBaby the most nominated website in the Best Personal Blog, Best Writing in a Blog, Best Parenting and Family Blog and Blog of the Year categories. You’ve got until midnight July 25^th to cast your vote (but you might as well go on and get it done now); each vote gets me thisclose to the August finals, which will have the most nominated blogs duking it out for the crown.

Please know: I ain’t too proud to beg. MyBrownBaby won two Black Weblog Awards last year; I’d like to get more of that art for my sidebar. Yup, I’m fancy like that.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Nominate MyBrownBaby For A Black Weblog Award (Or Four)

Last year, MyBrownBaby was extremely honored to win two prestigious Black Weblog Awards—Best Parenting and Family Blog and Best Blog Design—making this blog one of the web's best. And you know what? It felt so good, I'm trying to do it again in 2010.

The deets: Black Weblog Awards is the international internet showcase that gives recognition to the web's best Black bloggers. Since it's inception in 2005, the black Weblog Awards has recognized more than 180 blogs in 30 categories, with participants from more than 90 countries; winners have been featured on media outlets like MSNBC, the Huffington Post, BET and many others.

To qualify for the August finals, participating blogs must be the most-nominated in at least one of the 30 Black Weblog Awards categories; I would love MyBrownBaby to make it to the finals for Best Personal Blog, Best Writing in a Blog, Best Parenting and Family Blog and Blog of the Year.

But I can't do it without MyBrownBaby's friends; I need your support to bring one—or four!—of these bad boys home. To help, just click on the "Black Weblog Awards 2010 Nominee button" and vote for MyBrownBaby in the above categories. You've got until midnight July 25th to cast your vote (but you might as well go on and get it done now—tee hee!).

Thanks!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

You Saved Me—A MyBrownBaby Giveaway

I was all of 23 and looked like I wasn’t even yet of legal drinking age and I was a black woman, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that when I’d show up to mayoral press conferences with my reporter’s notepad and my mini tape recorder and my questions, my fellow journalists—mostly male, mostly white, mostly a decade or two older—would make quick work of rendering me irrelevant. In their eyes, it seemed, I was a lightweight—an affirmative action baby taking up valuable real estate in both the New York City political press corps and in the pages of the Daily News, then the sixth-largest newspaper in the country. Clearly, I was not worthy of working such a prestigious beat. Or at least that’s the way they treated me—certainly the way it was taken.

It never seemed to occur to them that I was young and fresh and hardworking and good at my job. That I’d earned my keep. And while on most days I just shrugged it off and threw it down with my reporting and writing skills, there were those days when the ignorance and the sexism and the racism and the ridiculousness of it all would get the best of me.

Enter Nick—then a competitor and friend. I’ll never forget how he saved me and my sanity on one particular day when I let some side comments and blatant disrespect from a colleague bring me to tears. “You,” he said simply in a clandestine phone call to my desk where I sat, slumped and defeated, “are better than him. He’s lazy and dumb and you? You can write circles around him. Don’t let his jealousy and bitterness steal your joy. I believe in you.”

I believe in you.

I can’t tell you what those four words meant to me—how they lifted both of my shoulders and steeled my back and dried up the water in my eyes and raised the corners of my lips. It’s not that I needed validation—particularly from a man. But it was a much-needed reminder that I really was a helluva writer and reporter and deserved to be where I was at that stage in my career, and it felt good to walk into the den of lions confident that someone had my back. And when I made up my mind I was untouchable when it came to my writing skills? It was over for them.

I owe that to my man.

He saved me.

It is this that I think about as I help Essence bloggers Lamar and Ronnie Tyler, the creators of BlackandMarriedWithKids.com, celebrate the release of their latest film, You Saved Me, the follow up to their best-selling debut, Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage. You Saved Me features candid looks at the hardships, trials, and ultimate success stories of real couples, who give an unprecedented look not only at black marriages, but what it takes to make them work.

You Saved Me is on DVD beginning March 29, but you know your girl has the hook-up, right? Lamar and Ronnie gave MyBrownBaby two DVD’s to give away to two lucky MyBrownBaby readers. All you have to do is leave a comment saying what you love about your significant other (whether he/she is a spouse or simply someone extra special). Want to earn extra chances to win? Tweet: “@MyBrownBaby is celebrating love with a You Saved Me giveaway! http://shar.es/mg9Dt” up to three times for a total of four chances to win.

The contest ends Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Winners will be announced Friday, April 2, 2010.

Don’t want to wait around for your copy? Well, you can purchase the DVD at a discount up until the official release date, March 29, 2010, by clicking HERE.

And if you can’t bear to wait for the DVD, you can check out movie premiers in more than 25 cities this weekend. Click HERE for movie listings.

Enjoy!

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Wordful Wednesday: 2009—Remembering A Fine, Productive First Year With MyBrownBaby!

I was browsing through my iPhotos pictures last night, reminiscing about all the wonderful things my family and I got to experience during 2009, and I got all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about our amazing year. So I decided to do a recap of MyBrownBaby's awesome 2009 with links to some of my favorite pictures and personal stories. Click on the sentences to see the original posts. Enjoy!

January '09: I kicked off the year hanging with Mom Talk TV's Maria Bailey and a bunch of new bloggy friends on a Disney Wonder Cruise to the Bahamas. Big! Fun!

February '09: During my Essence magazine interview with her, the stunning actress Diahann Carroll demanded I put a little make-up on it—and I did.

March '09: The MyBrownBaby crew had a blast at the UniverSoul Circus

And Oprah featured Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, the book I penned for Steve Harvey, on her show, a few weeks after it debuted No. 1 on the New York Times best seller's list