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).
If you are a black American, chances are you've seen and read JET magazine during your lifetime. For the life of me, I can't remember not having JET or EBONY in my household. Both magazines have done an excellent job in capturing and recording news and history of black people from around the globe.
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.
Josephine Baker sashayed onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Famous for barely-there dresses and no-holds-barred dance routines, her exotic beauty generated nicknames "Black Venus," "Black Pearl" and "Creole Goddess." Admirers bestowed a plethora of gifts, including diamonds and cars, and she received approximately 1,500 marriage proposals. She maintained energetic performances and a celebrity status for 50 years until her death in 1975. Unfortunately, racism prevented her talents from being wholly accepted in the United States until 1973.
Humble beginnings
She was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 3, 1906 to washerwoman Carrie McDonald and vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson. Eddie abandoned them shortly afterward, and Carrie married a kind but perpetually unemployed man named Arthur Martin. Their family eventually grew to include a son and two more daughters.
Josephine grew up cleaning houses and babysitting for wealthy white families who reminded her "be sure not to kiss the baby." She got a job waitressing at The Old Chauffeur's Club when she was 13 years old. While waiting tables she met and had a brief marriage to Willie Wells. While it was unusual for a woman during her era, Josephine never depended on a man for financial support. Therefore, she never hesitated to leave when a relationship soured. She was married and divorced three more times, to American Willie Baker in 1921 (whose last name she chose to keep), Frenchman Jean Lion in 1937 (from whom she attained French citizenship) and French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon in 1947 (who helped to raise her 12 adopted children).
Josephine toured the United States with The Jones Family Band and The Dixie Steppers in 1919, performing various comical skits. When the troupes split, she tried to advance as a chorus girl for The Dixie Steppers in Sissle and Blake's production Shuffle Along. She was rejected because she was "too skinny and too dark." Undeterred, she learned the chorus line's routines while working as a dresser. Thus, Josephine was the obvious replacement when a dancer left. Onstage she rolled her eyes and purposely acted clumsy. The audience loved her comedic touch, and Josephine was a box office draw for the rest of the show's run.
Parisian sensation
She enjoyed moderate success at The Plantation Club in New York after Shuffle Along. However, when Josephine traveled to Paris for a new venture, La Revue Nègre, it proved to be a turning point in her career. Amongst a compilation of acts, Josephine and dance partner Joe Alex captivated the audience with the Danse Sauvage. Everything about the routine was new and exotic, and Josephine, boldly dressed in nothing but a feather skirt, worked the audience into frenzy with her uninhibited movements. She was an overnight sensation.
Josephine's immense popularity afforded her a comfortable salary, which she spent mostly on clothes, jewelry and pets. She loved animals, and at one time she owned a leopard (Chiquita), a chimpanzee (Ethel), a pig (Albert), a snake (Kiki), a goat, a parrot, parakeets, fish, three cats and seven dogs.
Her career thrived in the integrated Paris society; when La Revue Nègre closed, Josephine starred in La Folie du Jour at the Follies-Bergère Theater. Her jaw-dropping performance, including a costume of 16 bananas strung into a skirt, cemented her celebrity status. Josephine rivaled Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford as the most photographed woman in the world, and by 1927 she earned more than any entertainer in Europe. She starred in two movies in the early 1930s, Zou-Zou and Princess Tam-Tam, and moved her family from St. Louis to Les Milandes, her estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, France.
A 1936 return to the United States to star in the Ziegfield Follies proved disastrous, despite the fact that she was a major celebrity in Europe. American audiences rejected the idea of a black woman with so much sophistication and power, newspaper reviews were equally cruel (The New York Times called her a "Negro wench"), and Josephine returned to Europe heartbroken.
Righting wrongs
Josephine served France during World War II in several ways. She performed for the troops, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance (undercover work included smuggling secret messages written on her music sheets) and a sub-lieutenant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. She was later awarded the Medal of the Resistance with Rosette and named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for hard work and dedication.
Josephine visited the United States during the 50s and 60s with renewed vigor to fight racism. When New York's popular Stork Club refused her service, she engaged a head-on media battle with pro-segregation columnist Walter Winchell. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) named May 20 Josephine Baker Day in honor of her efforts.
It was also during this time that she began adopting children, forming a family she often referred to as "The Rainbow Tribe." Josephine wanted her to prove that "children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers." She often took the children with her cross-country, and when they were at Les Milandes tours were arranged so visitors could walk the grounds and see how natural and happy the children in "The Rainbow Tribe" were.
Josephine continued to travel to the United States, and during her visits she developed a close friendship with American artist Robert Brady. Now divorced from her fourth husband Jo Bouillon, she was looking for companionship on a more platonic level. Brady felt the same, and on a trip to Acapulco, Mexico in September 1973 they went to an empty church and exchanged marriage vows. Though no clergy was present, and they were never legally joined, it was an important personal bond that she and Brady maintained the rest of her life. Josephine told very few people about the pseudo marriage, fearing the press would ridicule it.
Sad farewells
Josephine agreed to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall that same year. Due to previous experience, she was nervous about how the audience and critics would receive her. This time, however, cultural and racial growth was evident. Josephine received a standing ovation before the concert even began. The enthusiastic welcome was so touching that she wept onstage.
On April 8, 1975 Josephine premiered at the Bobino Theater in Paris. Celebrities such as Princess Grace of Monaco and Sophia Loren were in attendance to see 68-year-old Josephine perform a medley of routines from her 50 year career. The reviews were among her best ever. Days later, however, Josephine slipped into a coma. She died from a cerebral hemorrhage at 5 a.m. on April 12.
More than 20,000 people crowded the streets of Paris to watch the funeral procession on its way to the Church of the Madeleine. The French government honored her with a 21-gun salute, making Josephine Baker the first American woman buried in France with military honors. Her gravesite is in the Cimetiére de Monaco, Monaco.
Josephine Baker has continued to intrigue and inspire people throughout the world. In 1991, HBO released The Josephine Baker Story. The movie won two Emmys, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries (Lynn Whitfield) and Outstanding Art Direction. The movie also picked up one of three Golden Globe nominations.
This is Sydney-Nicole Livingston, the Beauty of the Week for the Oct. 1, 2007 edition of JET magazine. I don't usually pay much attention to the JET centerfold because, well, I've always thought it a little cheesy. I did notice Ms. Livingston for a couple of reasons: first, there is a close resemblance between her and my niece's mother; secondly, she is a brown-skinned sister with short hair. How often to do you see that?
Take a look at the other JET beauties and she how many of them look like her. Not many. Then look at Ebony and Essence magazines also. More of the same. The messages most of those ads send, even in so-called black magazines, are not positive for black women when it comes to standards of beauty.
Remember that whack "Light-skinned Libra" party that caused such controversy for the promoter in Detroit? That mentality is still too common in the black community, especially among young people.
Congratulations and thanks to Ms. Livingston for representing the natural beauty of black women.
If I hear one more supposedly intelligent, educated Black person say that someone has “good” hair I think I’m going to scream. “Good” hair, of course, being hair that is straight.
In light of the Don Imus “nappy-headed ho’s” comment, to hear Black people not appreciate their own natural hair is all the more frustrating. Most of the time, the people I hear making such statements are parents so it’s very likely they’re passing that negativity and self-hatred on to their children.
My hair is nappy…coarse…kinky…and I am proud of it. Before I locked it, the strength of my hair allowed me to inflict seemingly limitless trauma to it from coloring it from jet black to honey blonde; straightening it with an old school straightening comb heated on the stove; perming it (lye and no-lye); jheri curling it; used the afro blow-out kit; braiding it; weaving it (sewn in and bonding glue); and cutting it so short you could see what was on my mind. My nappy, coarse, kinky hair has to be “good” to survive all that.
It’s 2007, how much longer will it take Black people to wake up and truly love themselves?
“No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
I distinctly remember hearing that James Brown song in the mornings on my way to school and in the afternoons on my way home. That was “back in the day” as the kids say now. I was too young to really understand its significance back then, but I do “get it”now.
Almost forty years later, do Black folk really believe that song or was it just lyrics over a tight beat? If we are truly Black and proud, why in the year 2007 do we continue to have conversations about light skin vs. dark skin and good hair vs. bad hair?
Inarguably, there are realities beyond our control and history that cannot be changed. We can make tremendous change, however, if we would simply stop perpetuating self-hatred, negativity and ignorance. One person at a time; no mass marches, rallies or boycotts required.
In response to the question, do Black women who wear their hair in its natural state do so for genuine political reasons?, Talitha Coverson, a recent FAMU graduate, said, "In the 1960s and 70s the political statement was defiance and recognition of Black beauty. Today, it does serve as a political statement; however, it is more indirect not necessarily intentional, but by all means the end result is highly political." With some exceptions, prior to and following the 1960s and early 1970s, there really was no such philosophy as "Black is Beautiful." The very concept, in terms of Black and White thought, was in itself an oxymoron. Black was far from beautiful and Black attributes even further. In popular "beauty culture", natural Black hair was and is perceived as an insignia of inferiority.
The "politics" of Black hair is an extremely controversial subject matter. Black people, for the most part, are as hair-struck as they are color-struck and suffer from as many hair-complexes as they do color-complexes. Black men and women alike have internalized Western notions of beauty, particularly in regards to "good" and "bad" hair. Black males are certainly not exempt from criticism when it comes to Black women's hair. The ways in which Black women desire to -or not to- wear their hair is a direct result of not only centuries of their colonial conditioning, but of Black men's conditioning as well. Essentially, Black men influence beauty culture, particularly Black female hair culture. In general, Black men are mostly attracted to light-skinned, long straight-haired women. Due to Black men's socialized preference, Black women, seeking both approval and love, transform themselves accordingly.
In response to the question, how do Black men influence the ways in which Black women wear their hair?, Rashad Broomfield, a senior at the University of South Florida, answered "In general, women do their hair to reflect what men want and vice versa." Black women seem to bear the brunt of these racist superficial Eurocentric standards. In Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women's Consciousness, author Ingrid Banks notes, "What is deemed desirable is measured against white standards of beauty, which include long and straight hair (usually blonde), that is, hair that is not kinky or nappy." To live up to these standards -or rather limitations- of beauty, Black women, unconsciously enthused, straighten/perm or hot comb their hair. Black women's preoccupation with Eurocentric beauty culture is reflected in, not only the amounts of bleaching products that Black women purchase, but also in the sales of hair straightening merchandise (i.e. African Pride, Dark & Lovely, Just 4 Me, Soft & Beautiful, et cetera).
There is a lot of power in words and greater politics in vocabulary and the meaning of language. The Brand names of the previously mentioned straightening agents suggest, African/Black inadequacy. The Brand name African Pride is a critical paradox. How can one take pride in their culture, yet seek ways in which to abandon and/or undermine it? Dark & Lovely insinuates that if one is in fact "Dark," since Blackness is a characteristic of otherness/ugliness, there is a slight hope that they can be a tad "lovely" by straightening their hair. Just 4 Me is neither for me nor my Black/African sisters because it censures rather than celebrates natural Black hair. Natural Black hair has been and is already Soft and Beautiful. There is no need for chemically false softness or socialized beauty.
These agents reiterate and illustrate a black/white dichotomy wherein white is the standard by which people of color, Black people in particular, are critically and aesthetically assessed. Ayanla D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps, authors of Hair Story: Untangling the roots of Black hair in America, comments "The pervasiveness of what bell hooks terms th[e] 'dull dish that is mainstream White culture' has succeeded in keeping many people unaware of the… unique culture of Black hair." Although the majority of Black women who have chemically processed hair have from a very young age had their hair chemically "treated," most Black women who chemically "treat" their hair claim that they do so for both "manageability" and "versatility;" however, their argument is misleading because at such young ages one generally is not afforded the opportunity of choice and if one made such a choice it would be reflective of and influenced by their peers. Therefore, they cannot know how manageable and/or versatile their hair, in its natural state, really is. Furthermore, they cannot argue that it is their "personal choice" when in fact they were not given a choice and if so were not cognizant of the choice chosen.
When asked, do Black women who wear their hair in its natural state demonstrate that they are more "conscious" than the average Black woman?, Nyota Lormine, a junior at the University of South Florida, replied "In a way they do, but at the same time there are those sisters that do it for fashion. Some chemically processed sisters are "conscious," but they choose not to take themselves out of that particular prison for "manageability." Nonetheless, the straightening of Black hair does not necessitate nor indicate lower levels of "consciousness." Black people, Black women specifically, must understand the justifications, implications, and ramifications of chemically processing their hair. Historically and inadvertently, hair has been a tool used to justify African otherness, which subsequently warranted enslavement and later disenfranchisement. Due to the above mentioned historical context, natural Black hair is indicative, consciously or unconsciously, of a political/subversive agenda. Black hair is not only an indictment of mainstream beauty mores, but also symbolizes self-confidence. Black women who wear their hair naturally tend to exude higher levels of self-assurance.
When asked, what does wearing your hair natural mean to you?, Heru Holloway, a former FIU student commented, "It is an expression of self. It is also rooted in an acceptance of who I am mentally. Being that standards of beauty are Eurocentric, for me wearing my hair naturally is a conscientious undertaking." Traditionally, Western beauty mores have been utilized to excuse the treatment of Africans by Europeans. Although standards of beauty are such that they exclude African/Black people, being knowledgeable of these artificial and biased standards and recognizing that Black, in its natural state, is, in fact, beautiful allows for a paradigm shift -or dissolution- that includes all people. This very necessary paradigm shift, develops and gains momentum with every kinky, curly, wavy, and nappy natural.
In this 1919 photo provided by Chicago History Museum, a crowd of men and armed National Guard stand in front of the Ogden Cafe during race riots in Chicago.
This is Sydney-Nicole Livingston, the Beauty of the Week for the Oct. 1, 2007 edition of JET magazine. I don't usually pay much attention to the JET centerfold because, well, I've always thought it a little cheesy. I did notice Ms. Livingston for a couple of reasons: first, there is a close resemblance between her and my niece's mother; secondly, she is a brown-skinned sister with short hair. How often to do you see that? 
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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