Kola Boof

The MAJORITY of Black Men in America, though not as vocal, share some variation of those beliefs, Troy. Yes. If they didn't, then the music videos and black men's magazines would be full of beautiful BLACK women and you wouldn't have people like Puff Diddy barring dark skinned models from auditioning for his liquor ads. So yes. The PROOF is in your culture & the daily exhibits advanced by this culture. Those who don't actively participate in this behavior....are pretty much SILENT about the others advancing it. The community here is VERY Anti-Black...but coming from slavery; Jim Crow and being immersed/raised in this shit; it's not noticeable to you all. But it's extremely Anti-Black here (from hair to skin color to anything having to do with Africa). (a) In their speech & writings, Black people (even many Africans) visit Africa like a grave--not a place to build up. ( They BAN any positive imagery of Black women of **child-bearing** age; she is not to be desired, because her womb produces nappy dark skinned Black people. © The entire goal is to become Mulatto (although recently, the Mulatto is not even good enough--now they shun the Mulatto and preach Multi-racialism; anything but blackness is to be valued). Black People have become...utterly pathetic. And the fact that no one is willing to confront our people simply highlights how the SLAVE TRADE took place 500 years ago when AFRICANS initially sold their own people for Bling Bling & made excuses as to why it was OKAY. Same shit; different era; same excuses.

Troy, You don't meet the MAJORITY of black men in America; I'm just sorry. The O.J. Simpsons; the Lil waynes; the California & Minneapolis "I don't want black children" brigade. And for the record...the so called Dark Skinned Woman is THE Black Woman. The entire black race comes from her. Just the fact they refer to our real mother as "dark skinned black women" as though she's some kind of mistake proves what trash most Blacks have become. I am honestly to the point where I can't stand Black people. I just consider myself African & removed from everybody else. I refuse to raise my sons in the Black community.

Excellent points Cynique. I agree with your reasoning 100%. I WILL be supporting Obama next year because I actually like most of what he's done; but I do feel that you speak for most of the people I know in that they'd just rather not vote.

Cynique.... I watch ALL MOVIES from every era ....currently. My statement remains: "I am not supporting anymore Black Maid movies--no matter how good they are." I think MILLIONS of Black Women feel me on this. We're fed up. We want a new image for Black women and we're not supporting this shit anymore. Bottom line.

"Clara's Heart" "Corinna, Corinna" "Backstairs at the White House" (NBC Mini-series about MAID & other black servants) Queen Latifah as the maid in Steve Martin's "House' movie "I'll Fly Away" (t.v. series) Hattie McDaniel in 50 classic movies as "the maid" "That's My Mama" (t.v. series) "Good Times" (t.v. series) ......these are just a few that I can name, Cynique. But for the 'dark brown' actress this remains the most commonly cast role. I have not seen Viola Davis (or women like her) cast as "Queen Nok" or "Nina Simone." Yet White and Mixed Race women are consistently given a broader range of roles and images.

Let me say something in regard to Troy's comment: "Some folks are all riled up about it." I personally don't doubt the film and book are entertaining and "good".....my complaint......is that I don't want to see another "Black Maid" movie. For the dark skinned black actress & us watching her on screen.... this seems to be an enduring wasteland. White Actresses have a full range of characters to play (types of women; VIABLE women images that tell the society to cherish & procreate with White wombs). The White Man's mother is presented as desirable; Queenly; intelligent; shrewd; accomplished; a normal and necessary figure. Black women's images in film are almost 3 to 4 different variations on the same 1-note bleakness. The movie "The Help" is basically being loved and supported by WHITE WOMEN. And that's because this is the way they are comfortable seeing Black women; just as many Black men have no problem with constantly seeing Black women portrayed as Maids or Prostitutes. I don't doubt the movie is good. I just refuse to accept in 2011 yet another Maid Epic....because it's time for Black women to have a better more hopeful image. Naomi Campbell is in negotiations to play me in a movie; Michelle Obama's story is riveting; we have novels like "Glorious" and black women Astronauts.

I just don't care for Tavis and Corny. I liked "Race Matters" by Corny...though I've always seen him totally different than Black Americans do. The fact that he makes almost a million a year yet has never set foot in West Africa (home of his actual ancestors) but went to Ethiopia & Paris and married a NON-Black Ethiopian woman tells me EVERYTHING I need to know. And Tavis Smiley lost me during a discussion on Black American women & Depression. I'd rather have a possum for a son than him. A LOT of Black men don't see what horrible sons they are. They don't even consider their mothers women. They don't think beyond HER usefulness to their daily lives. Can't stand Tavis.

Happy belated birthday Cynique. I wish I could live that long and in such good condition as you are. I have a feeling you're going towards the 100 mark.

Amen.

Kola Boof Photo Shoot: This is a photo shoot and much, much more. Photo Shoot

No, it's not surprising Troy. Many Mixed-race Africans (particularly "Ethnic Ethiopians"--which means they are the Light-skinned slick-haired ones)....many Mixed Africans try to deny being mixed. In African countries like Nigeria & Ethiopia, it's not as cool to be mixed...so they will claim that their tribe was always Yellow skinned. You have Yoruba & Hausa who will claim they are Igbo just to explain away why they're so light. If you noticed the girls photo, she was BROWN! She wasn't even yellow. That's another thing in Africa. What we consider "light skinned" in Africa (Jill Scott, even Kola Boof) is nowhere near lightskinned in America and Europe. A sizeable portion of Sudan is mixed-race with Arab...but they are still charcoal to chocolate colored. The African Blood is so strong that very often the mixed children still come out "Black" (black in color with African hair texture). Which is always the African parent's hope when mixing. I still love that girl as my sister. I find it ridiculous that mixed & light people equate being considered Black with being loved. It's totally false. I love many mixed/lightskinned people far more than I love Blacks. Barack Obama is one. He's like my favorite living human! Just because I don't see a certain Mixed person as "Black" doesn't mean I don't greatly love and admire them. I'm am SO not like that. But people make that assumption.

Carey, I LOVE Barbara Neely's maid books. But she's really a detective who does maid work. Now that should be made into a movie!! Totally different stuff. You can't compare it. TROY, No. I refuted her claims by reminding her that "Some" Igbo are mixed today because of the European mixing that went on in Nigeria 100 years before slave trade started. The traders mixed with Igbo in 1400-1500s and now she's trying to pretend that never happened. 1st with Arabs in Nigeria then with Europeans.

DOUBLEDAY Book Club has picked up my novel "The Sexy Part of the Bible." If you are a member of either DOUBLEDAY or BLACK EXPRESSIONS please buy a copy from them. They have the book in hardcover. DOUBLEDAY: The Sexy Part of the Bible

Carey I'm not against you going to see it. But I don't want to see anymore "Black maid" movies. Ever! And if you read my commentary you'll understand why.

This new movie "THE HELP" caused me to write an essay about why I won't be seeing it. It's published by WOMANIST MUSINGS and I'm posting a link here. I hope that other Black women will read my feelings and add your own. READ ESSAY Click Here

It wasn't just Amiri Baraka who was upset at my presence on stage. It was the majority of Black Men present...angry and verbally abusive because a Black African woman spoke directly to the Socio-political problems facing Black & Mixed Women as its own dilemma needful of revolution...while at the same time calling out the men's failure to acknowledge & represent Black FEMALE humanity in their rhetoric. Naturally these men expect black women to blindly support and agitate on behalf of "The Black Man" ...even though most of those men don't give a fuck about us and don't even know us once they get back to their rich abodes with their non-black women. Ever the Queen, I spoke unapologetically and forcefully to what concerns and should concern other Black Women...about BEING BLACK WOMEN...in this society that so completely hates & ignores Black women. There was also a very deliberate "Scheduling conflict" in which my publishers were told that my time on stage was at 4:30 pm, then 3:30 pm, then 2:30 pm and then 3:30 again. In the lobby there was a sign with my time as 4:30...but they had 2:30 on printed programs. And it just so happened that THE MEN (black sexist academics & publishing males) miscalculated their visions of what I would be like. More than 2 dozen of these men shouted "Get off the stage bitch!", "Jew loving Cunt!", "Feminist bitch", "Man-looking bitch", "Ugly black bitch" and other slurs IN UNISON towards me. It was extremely hurtful; I felt abused by their racist & sexist taunts...I felt overwhelmed by the real living Hatred that Black American Men have for Black Women. But I stood my ground, defying their intimidation tactics. I suggested that they "Make me" get off the stage. I promised to bite off and swallow the penis of any man who tried. The most vocal attacker of course was Amiri Baraka in the front row with his bodyguards, his wife and other members of his family. He sat in the front row. Because I so loved (and still love) Amiri Baraka and had always considered him one of my Fathers, symbolically, his taunts of hatred and anti-Black woman rhetoric were especially cutting and emotional for me. He called me "Bitch" 7 times, but also "Jew lover", "Cunt," "Man-looking Amazon bitch", "CIA Prostitute" and "Whore for the CIA." I so hated to slap him. It hurt me more than it hurt him. But the hate & bullying directed at me called for a show of WOMANLY fortitude. My power silenced everyone. The whole room (including his bodyguards) wanted to rip me limb from limb...but POSAR (my ex-fiance and former bodyguard of Al Sharpton) threatened to pulverize anyone who touched me. So no one touched me. And of course, I am formidable myself. It was the BLACK LITERATI's first face to face look at their real mother in action. It was a showdown and I was NOT silenced or reduced in any way. I was bigger than everybody. It was ME (and no else) being photographed by the dozens of papparrazi outside as I left the building. It was a "passing of the baton"....a seminal moment in which those who have cursed & hated my presence in the Black American Literati circle for years were finally forced to see that I am the future and that I am more relevant and powerful than they are. Instead of EMBRACING this strange child they've raised, the Black Americans keep thinking they can will me away with their jealousy, prejudice and misplaced pride. But I am their real mother. Forces more powerful than either them or myself have placed me here. And that brings me to an apt REVIEW of my new book posted today by the Seattle pop culture newspaper, THE STRANGER in which they declare that my name, Kola Boof, is the BEST WRITER'S NAME EVER and that my book is a work of supreme greatness: The Stranger Suggests Kola Boof You can't keep a good woman down. Especially when she's Nilotic Oromo African. I was the love in the room.

Cynique, I thank you so much. BLUSH. I think even you will appreciate the level of writing and imagination propelling the book. Thanks for your kindness. ______________________ Book lovers in New York!!! "Johnny Temple Presents Kola Boof" will be held at the Harlem Book Fair Sat. July 23rd Thurgood Marshall Hall 4:30 - 5:30 pm The next day, there's a Reception for me at Sankofa Academy on Fulton St. in Brooklyn, NY at 4pm. There will be food & I will be reading there followed by book signing. Then on Monday, July 25th...I have a reading at BlueStockings Bookstore in Manhattan at 7pm. Then I go to Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, West Palm Beach, Miami and San Francisco. Kola Boof TOUR SCHEDULE For people who'd like to see me in person, my book tour has been expanded (instead of 22 cities by December...I'm now doing 50 cities by next June). Please check this Tour Schedule for updates on dates & cities: Kola Boof Tour Schedule

THANK YOU TROY!! "Johnny Temple Presents Kola Boof" will be held at the Harlem Book Fair Sat. July 23rd Thurgood Marshall Hall 4:30 - 5:30 pm I'm of course reading the new novel & more. I could do the interview in the morning, however, as I will be arriving at 11 a.m. The next day, there's a Reception for me at Sankofa Academy on Fulton St. in Brooklyn, NY at 4pm. There will be food & I will be reading there followed by book signing. Then on Monday, July 25th...I have a reading at BlueStockings Bookstore in Manhattan at 7pm. Then I go to Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, West Palm Beach, Miami and San Francisco. Kola Boof TOUR SCHEDULE For people who'd like to see me in person, my book tour has been expanded (instead of 22 cities by December...I'm now doing 50 cities by next June). Please check this Tour Schedule for updates on dates & cities: Kola Boof Tour Schedule

Dear Troy, I was so overjoyed to see you at my book event in Harlem last month. Since AALBC is where it all started for me in America, I wanted to share with you & everyone how my new book is taking off! Thanks so much for your support and understanding. SUNDAY BOSTON GLOBE Madison Smartt Bell, one of the nation's most respected literary authors, wrote a glowing review of "The Sexy Part of the Bible" in SUNDAY's edition of the Boston Globe. Book Review of Sexy Part BOOKLIST review of Kola Boof's "The Sexy Part of the Bible" REVIEW of The Sexy Part BLACK EXPRESSIONS BOOK PICK FOR AUGUST!! *Hardcover Version: Kola Boof Sexy Part of the Bible