Source: BravoTV

It was only a matter of time before Kenya had to explain why she went all Scarlet O’Hara on everybody during Sunday night’s episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta. Truthfully though, I can see the resemblance. Like Scarlet, Kenya is totally oblivious as to why she leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths and why no one trusts a word that comes out of hers, but in her latest Bravo blog, she calls herself explaining her antics, not only as they pertain to Porsha Stewart, but also her on-camera man, Walter. Here’s what she had to say about her love life:

“I moved to Atlanta around February, for one, hoping to rekindle the relationship I had with Walter. He was still single, said he wanted to have more children, said he could see me as his wife and wanted the same things I did. I moved forward hoping that I could have everything with him. When the RHOA came along in April, he couldn’t have been happier for me and said he didn’t mind our relationship being followed on TV. He intimated to me that he wanted to be married to me and that it would happen soon. I’m always talking about it on the show because he made it seem imminent. It was an exciting time for me.

“NeNe is a good judge of character, which is why we are friends. I think she saw something that I didn’t see or didn’t want to see when we were in Anguilla.

She is really trying to get us to believe she had no clue Walter was a phony, huh? Typically I’m not one to take a man’s side because the entire species has been known to tell women all sorts of lies to get what they want, but I’m not sure Walter wanted anything of what Kenya had to offer — except maybe time on camera. And even the most clueless of women usually knows when a man is just telling her what she wants to hear. Everyone at home knew Walter wasn’t in to her from the first time he appeared on RHOA. She can’t possibly expect us to believe she didn’t put the pieces together until last week can she?

Moving on to the other hot mess in her life, Kenya went on to explain why she got so antebellum turnt up during the argument with Porsha, and as I suspected, she seemed to be more perturbed at Porsha calling her old, rather than a tramp. She wrote:

“Being called old is the last dirty word you can call a woman. The fact is, if we are lucky we will all age graciously with wisdom, grace, and dignity…

[insert random reflection on Connecticut shooting victims]

“When an insecure woman is jealous, immature, spiteful, and/or ignorant, they will always try to tear an accomplished, beautiful woman down in order to feel better about their own lack of success. However, one cannot rewrite history. My legacy is untouchable, and I’m most proud of my professional achievements and accomplishments I have been able to bequeath despite the odds.”…

[insert random ode to Hattie McDaniel.]

“I’m Kenya Moore. I’m 41 and fabulous! My age, race, religion, social economic standing, and marital status are not indicators of my past, present, or future as I too can defy the odds just like Hattie. I am bold. I am humble. I am strong. I am complicated. I am complex. I am vulnerable. I am resilient. I am good. I am honest –That’s what makes me fabulous.

“I will forever be GONE WITH THE WIND FABULOUS. And I hope I can inspire others to be Gone With The Wind fabulous too at any age.

Anyone else feel like Kenya was about to bust into the 2012 version of Phenomenal Woman for a minute? Kenya was doing a whole lot in this post. I can’t say I’d mix the tragedy that is the Sandy Hook massacre with the silliness of women acting on reality TV and then throw in a little Hattie McDaniel to make my point but hey, we all have different hustles.

It’s good to see she’s at least trying to clean up her rep and not continuing the craziness we see on television in  her blogs.  That being said, I’m having a hard time figuring out which side of Kenya is really real. Any guesses?

Source: sgrho1922.org

Last but certainly not least…Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922 on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, IN.  With many community service ventures like Habitat for Humanity and Cancer Awareness, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority will continue to increase community involvement.  The following celeb members are honorary and official members of the organization.

by Charing Ball

Even before the film The Help opened, folks were already predicting that it would be nominated for an Academy Award.  The public hadn’t seen it and didn’t know whether the film, plot or acting was any good.  But the running joke for weeks prior to its opening was that the Academy Awards loves seeing Black characters playing maids, drug dealers, pimps and other lowly characters.

That’s why for many, the several nominations the film received including Best Picture, Best Actress (Viola Davis) and two Best Supporting Actress nods for Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain comes as little surprise. It’s been about 73 years since Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone With The Wind in which she too played a maid. And after all this time, it certainly seems that our best work in Hollywood always comes by way of cleaning up the mess of white folks.

Nevertheless, we will all be cheering on both Viola Davis, who is not a stranger to Hollywood, and Octavia Spencer, who seems to be on a fairytale ride, for bringing depth and grace to their roles. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that their success with this film is a bit bittersweet. As Kola Boof, feminist and Egyptian-Sudanese-American novelist, noted in a tweet, “I Really *HATE**that Viola Davis will have to sit in the OSCAR audience with the term “The Help” written across her chest all night.” Word.

At first, I was reluctant to go and see The Help because, like Red Tails, I objected to the questionable marketing strategy of the film, which felt it necessary to use images of black domestics to hawk Emeril Lagasse stainless steel cookware. And where have I seen that before? Oh Aunt Jemima and her famous pancakes. But I digress.

After months of folks giving me the same old justification of “that’s true but you should really see it first,” I conceded and sat down to watch the film. Certainly it was quite entertaining watching Minnie hand deliver a special pie to her evil, former boss. However, I was still less fulfilled emotionally with the conclusion of the film. While Skeeter, the aspiring journalist and white protagonist in the story, gets to go on to New York after “heroically” telling the tale of her Black domestics (which was more about shaming her former friends), the domestics themselves, whose stories were exploited for the benefit of the aspiring journalist, are again left to clean up the mess left behind by Ms. Skeeter.  I mean, who exactly is this satisfying to?

By Torri R. Oats

The recent release of the movie version of “The Help” has caused a firestorm of cinema commentary. More than anything, “The Help” has re-ignited a debate on the recurring role of the “mammy”in film over the decades, and the evolution of the African-American woman in the movie world.  Black leading ladies and execs behind the scenes in the feature film industry still lag far behind their Caucasian counterparts. Yet, there is hope. Black actresses of yesteryear have already done the heavy lifting, struggling through a Hollywood system that fought against their grace and dignity — sometimes playing “mammy” to make a way. The next generation built on their power, and never looked back. Because of them, more African-American women than ever are able to realize their dreams in front of and behind the cameras. We celebrate these women for their contributions to black film history. Here is how African-American ladies have gone from being “The Help” to the boss — more than ever before — in the Hollywood system.

The Foundation:  Roberta Hyson

To understand how far we’ve come, and in some ways, how far we have to go, one needs to return to the beginning and explore the roads traveled by Hollywood’s black female trailblazers. “Melancholy Dame,” a short from 1928 was made at the beginning of the “talkie” era, featuring the triple threat, Roberta Hyson.  Ms. Hyson, the first African-American woman in a theatrically released film, was known not for her portrayal of a mammy or any variation of such, but as an actress who portrayed positive characters in black cinema.  As one half a comedic duo formed with another talkie actress, Evelyn Preer, she was able to showcase all three of her “threats”: singing, dancing and acting. Thanks to Paramount pictures, which released many of these African-American talkies, Ms. Hyson’s work can still be enjoyed today. Roberta Hyson laid the very foundation for black women in film.