Mission Accomplished?

Well this is a monumental and historical week! All of my ranting and ravings of being a political expert has paid off! We have our first African American nominated for the Presidency of the United States. As I’ve watched every minute of the convention, I realized that this is true reality TV. I wonder how many of our youth have even flipped the channel to the convention. When I look back at the “struggle” I wonder If our youth will ever know what we went through as a people. Now don’t’ get me wrong, I’m not that old! I wasn’t friends with Harriet Tubman and I didn’t march with King, so I understand that a lot of what I know about our fight for racial equality has been read in books. The goal has always been to struggle and strive to make things better for the next generation. The question is, how do you make things better but also make sure they understand what it took to get here. I was talking to a young woman and although she was impressed with the election she wasn’t amazed, excited and as overjoyed as I was. I realized that when she was born we already had African American Mayors, Senators and Congress members and was very, very young when we had our first elected Governor, we had an African American woman and man as Secretary of Sate, so this next step of having an African American President didn’t seem that foreign to her. She had never been denied a job due to her race (that she knew of) and seemed to think the country was pretty much done with racism. Now she did agree that racial profiling and problems with the law did exist for African Americans, but that was only in certain areas she said. Since in her mind race was not a factor, she had pondered voting for Hillary, because she felt that she faced more closed doors being a woman than being African American. Martin Luther King is moving further and further away from our youth and eventually he’ll be some guy in their Social Studies book. But that’s what we wanted right? For our children to never have to suffer due to their race. The goal was always to make it better, but by accomplishing this goal will they understand and respect how we got here? It’s not just them, we’re all further removed from the experiences that our parents and grandparents went through, it’s a natural progression. So I guess we can say mission accomplished? …………right?

S.O.S (Save Our Sanity!)

I was reading the news the other day and I ran across an article that stated because of the state of the economy there are some school districts that are cutting down to four days a week. Making the school week Tuesday thru Friday. What!!!! The parents in this particular town didn't seem to mind it too much seeing that most of them are self-employed with jobs in farming or construction. Well I can't imagine having to stay home one more day with my kids! Don't get me wrong, you know I love them................................. but sometimes the only way I don't lose my mind IS to go to work! I mean what are we going to do on monday? Never mind that you would be missing a day's pay in your check, now you have to entertain them all day like its saturday or sunday. Think about it, you do all your house work on saturday cleaning, washing, taking care of your personal business. After all the work is done you might go to the mall, catch a movie, ya know just relax and hang out. Sunday comes you go to church, cook dinner, iron all the clothes you've washed on saturday, maybe go to the park, relax for the rest of the day and get ready for the work week. Now if we're not going anywhere on MONDAY what are we supposed to do? We've done all of our work, we've played all we can play and now we have an extra day to do all of that again? I say NO I don't care how much it cost! You send those kids to school! What is the government trying to do, make parents go crazy! If the government doesn't want parents marching, fighting and looting in the streets you will keep the schools open! S.O.S Save Our Sanity! I'd even pay extra if they could go on saturday for a few hours!

Black in America

Hey Pooka Family! Hope all is well and everyone is enjoying their summer!
Did anybody see the CNN special, "Black in America" which aired July 23 & 24th? I'm curious as to what other people thought about it? I watched a little of both segments (the Black Woman and the Black Man) and to be quite honest, I was a little disappointed with the program. I guess I expected more.more insight to the psychological and socio-economic factors that drive some people to prosperity and others to a lack of goals and aspirations. Also, I expected the program to provide more information, more analysis, and more diverse perspectives on the issue. I thought the program fell short by only touching on aspects of race, prosperity and poverty of which we already know i.e. the aspects that are intuitive and consistently spun in the media.

What do you think?

Fibroids and a Foodie???

Greetings Pooka Family!

It is again that time of sharing. You all know that I am President of the Foodie Nation. You may not know however that I have been a long time fibroid sufferer. This is a problem that unfortunately plagues African American women in very high numbers. I personally know several “sisters of the roid” as I affectionately call us. It is a very real issue that can range from annoyance to severe pain. I actually got to the point which required surgery for their removal. By my research there are several factors which can lead to fibroids some hereditary, but diet and exercise definitely play a key role. African American woman tend to have a diet high in salt and fat and may not exercise as often as we should. I unfortunately still suffer from fibroids but I need to make life style changes to avoid another surgery. Fibroids and a Foodie….can these two things coexist?? Fibroid growth has been linked to increases in estrogen in the body. The key is to limit your diet with estrogen free foods. A fibroid free diet should contain NO dairy, NO meat especially red and limited sugar. It should be low in fat and high in fiber! Well…what is a foodie supposed to eat! Did anyone see the cover of the latest Cooking Light magazine with the pan size puffed apple pancake. It made me cry!!! Now foods that help are lots of fresh fruits and veggies, (no problem, love those) nuts (good protein source), seafood, (ok, my favorite) fresh juices in moderation, flax-can put on my oatmeal. Ok all good but is anyone else bored by this list or is it just me?? To have good health is to have everything and I know this all to well. So therefore family I am going to have to work this out. I am going to have to update my recipe repertoire to take into consideration my health goals. I will become a regular at Whole Foods because there are many healthy alternatives and natural foods that I can eat (as my sister Dawn tells me everyday!!) I definitely have to get it moving with exercise for the body and yoga for the mind. I will do this family because I have to. I will be a Foodie with a Fibroid!! So send me your support and any tips and recipes that you would like to share. I would also love to hear from any other sisters of the roid. We can do this!!

Donna