1977...The Apple personal computer first goes on sale...STAR WARS premieres...Everyone gets SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER...the TV mini-series ROOTS mesmerizes the USA...and...
"Miss Universe Crown is Won by Black woman"
That was the headline in newspapers around the world on July 17, 1977. And indeed it was true, for Janelle Penny Commissiong of Trinidad and Tobago had become the first black winner in the 26-year history of the pageant.
On the night of Saturday, July 16, 1977, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the memories of Evelyn Miot (Miss Haiti 1962 and first black woman to make the semifinals); Anne-Marie Braafheid (Miss Curaçao and 1st runner-up in 1968); and Gerthie David (Miss Haiti and 1st runner-up in 1975) seemed to inspire Janelle.
During each phase of the competition, she moved closer and closer to doing what no woman of color had done before...to claim the title of the most beautiful woman in the Universe.
"I felt like a ray of sunshine was around me" is how Janelle described the feeling that night.
When Janelle was announced as the new Miss Universe, Trinidad and Tobago went wild. It was another Carnaval in the streets, and Trinidadian television aired repeats of the pageant for days. The 24 year-old Caribbean beauty, daughter of a Trinidadian father and a Venezuelan mother declared that she "believed her election would contribute to erasing racial barriers." Proud of her victory, she noted, "Beauty belongs to all people; it has no racial or geographic boundaries."
On the way to winning the title of Miss Universe, Janelle became only the second Miss Universe to win the Miss Photogenic Award as well.
Janelle Commissiong was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad to a Trinidadian father and Venezuelan mother. She migrated with her family to New York at the age of 13. After graduating high school Janelle attended the Fashion Institute of Technology before returning to Trinidad in 1976.
She traveled the World as a goodwill ambassador afterwards, and decided to take a cash prize instead of a contract with Paramount Pictures (one of her Miss Universe prizes).



Why doesn’t JET Magazine use male centerfold models?
One of the trademarks of JET is the Beauty of the Week which is a centerfold photo of a woman in a swimsuit, usually a bikini. The men I know usually flip to that page first and then read the news. A post I wrote back in November about one of the JET Beauty models led to a comment by one of the JET photographers, Jacquie Riley Thomas, who took offense to the word 'cheesy' that I used in my post.
Ms. Thomas thought I referred to the photography as cheesy; which is far from the truth. I do think that whole woman in a swimsuit concept is cheesy. I've often wondered, and I might as well write it here, why there aren't any men centerfold models in JET. I know Johnson Publishing Company produces a swimsuit calendar called JET Brothers so a male centerfold is an easy change.
When JET does decide to make that move, here's my short list of guys for the JET Brother of the Week centerfold. Let's see…in no particular order: Terrell Owens, Shemar Moore, Boris Kodjoe, Dustin Brown
, the UPS guy that delivers to my office, Harry Lennix and Michael Jai White.
I could go on and on about the sexual objectification of women but that's not really the point. Until men are used as JET centerfold models, no matter how nice the photography, I will continue to think the concept is cheesy.
Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 03:50 AM in Beauty, Commentary, Culture, Entertainment, Media | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
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