Island duo in Olympic figure skating!

Just because it's the Winter Olympics, doesn't mean that islandistas aren't still on the scene!

Even though we're from the tropics, we still know how to work the ice and Bermudan ice skater Vanessa James did just that on Monday, "electrifying" the crowd at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum along with her figure-skating partner, Yannick Bonheur as they competed for France.

James, who also has Barbadian roots, took a circuitous route to the Winter Olympics, where she and Bonheur made history as the first black pairs figure-skaters.


She had originally competed for Britain, as she had British citizenship through her Bermudian father, Kevin James and was that country's first black skating champion in 2005. However, after looking for a suitable pairs partner for years, she linked up with Bonheur and two years ago, switched to represent France.

As it so happens, Bonheur also has island roots, as his parents are originally from Martinique.

While they didn't win, the two endeared themselves to the audience with a daring, acrobatic routine and placed 14th.

Of their history-making turn on the ice, Bonheur said that they didn't set out to make history.

"I didn't search for a black girl in the first place, just a girl who wanted to try and work for it."

They aren't the first black skaters on the ice - Debi Thomas won a bronze medal back at the 88 Calgary Winter Olympics - or even at these games. German Robin Szolkowy (Tanzanian father, German mother) won bronze in the same contest with partner Aliona Savchenko.

But they are the first all-black duo in a sport ... shoot an Olympiad, that is still very light and the fact that there is now a black pair - and an island pair! in ice-skating is interesting to note.

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Sammy Sosa & black denial in the DR

A friend and fellow islandista brought our attention to this article from the Miami Herald from back in 2007.

And ... wow!

It certainly gives a lot of perspective on Sammy Sosa's little 'skin rejuvenation' exercise.

We had heard that 'shadeism' was bad in the DR but we did not know it was as bad as all this.

Some excerpts from the piece:


And to many in the Dominican Republic, to look pretty is to look less black.

Dominican hairdressers are internationally known for the best hair-straightening techniques. Store shelves are lined with rows of skin whiteners, hair relaxers and extensions.

Racial identification here is thorny and complex, defined not so much by skin color but by the texture of your hair, the width of your nose and even the depth of your pocket. The richer, the "whiter." And, experts say, it is fueled by a rejection of anything black.

"I always associated black with ugly. I was too dark and didn't have nice hair," said Catherine de la Rosa, a dark-skinned Dominican-American college student spending a semester here. "With time passing, I see I'm not black. I'm Latina.





Apparently, part of this goes back to the period that the Dominican Republic was colonised by Haiti.



The only country in the Americas to be freed from black colonial rule -- neighboring Haiti -- the Dominican Republic still shows signs of racial wounds more than 200 years later. Presidents historically encouraged Dominicans to embrace Spanish Catholic roots rather than African ancestry.

Here, as in much of Latin America -- the "one drop rule'' works in reverse: One drop of white blood allows even very dark-skinned people to be considered white.


Because of that, few Dominicans actually identify as black, even though their blackness is plain to see.



A walk down city streets shows a country where blacks and dark-skinned people vastly outnumber whites, and most estimates say that 90 percent of Dominicans are black or of mixed race. Yet census figures say only 11 percent of the country's nine million people are black.

To many Dominicans, to be black is to be Haitian. So dark-skinned Dominicans tend to describe themselves as any of the dozen or so racial categories that date back hundreds of years -- Indian, burned Indian, dirty Indian, washed Indian, dark Indian, cinnamon, moreno or mulatto, but rarely negro.

The Dominican Republic is not the only nation with so many words to describe skin color. Asked in a 1976 census survey to describe their own complexions, Brazilians came up with 136 different terms, including café au lait, sunburned, morena, Malaysian woman, singed and "toasted."




Several women said the cultural rejection of African looking hair is so strong that people often shout insults at women with natural curls.

"I cannot take the bus because people pull my hair and stick combs in it," said wavy haired performance artist Xiomara Fortuna. "They ask me if I just got out of prison. People just don't want that image to be seen."

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Sammy Sosa admits to bleaching

Wow, Sammy Sosa is sounding more and more confused by the day.

He has finally admitted to what we all knew - that he is bleaching his skin.

In an interview on Primer Impacto, a programme on the Spanish-language network Univision, Sammy said:

"It's a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some.

It's a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some. I'm not a racist, I live my life happily.I want people to calm down and realize that I didn't do any of this with mal intentions."

Asked about the obvious Michael Jackson comparison, Sammy somehow doesn't see the connection, saying:

"What happened was that I had been using the cream for a long time and that, combined with the bright TV lights, made my face look whiter than it really is. I don't think I look like Michael Jackson."

He says that his skin bleaching is a completely different kettle of fish.


"I respect him very much and may God keep him in his glory, but this is not the case with me.

I'm truly shocked that this has gotten so big. This has resonated more than the actual [Latin] Grammys."

Oh, and if that was not enough for you, he has said that he plans to market the "miracle cream" which can only be bought in Europe.

"I'm going to market it, I'm a businessman."

Lawd help us.

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Now Sammy Sosa's bleaching too?

Well a whaddis fadda?!

Just yesterday we blasted the eediat gal Lisa Hype over her song Proud a mi Bleaching.

At least she owned up to it openly.

[caption id="attachment_1717" align="alignright" width="280" caption="Photo credit: Exposay.com/PRN photos"][/caption]

However, Major League batter Sammy Sosa wants us to believe that he is undergoing a "rejuvenation process for his skin" and that is why he was photographed at two different events last week looking like a duppy.

After the pictures came out of Dominican Republic-born Sammy last week and people (naturally) asked what in the Little Kim, bleach face, Nadinola-rubbing hell is going on, a former Cubs employee, Rebecca Polihronis, the former Cubs Care/Community relations manager, jumped to his defence... and of course, promptly made the whole situation more absurd.

From the Chicago Tribune:

He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin (read: bleaching)," Polihronis said. "Women have it all of the time. He was surprised he came out looking so white. I thought it was a body double. Part of (the photo appearance) is just the lighting.

"He is in the middle of doing a cleansing process to his skin (as in cleansing it of melanin?). The picture is deceiving. He said, 'If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture.'

"People who saw him in person did not react the same way. He can't believe it is such a big deal."

Polihronis, the former Cubs Care/Community Relations manager for the team, said Sosa told her he has used moisturizing treatment (like Ambi or Fair & White?) at night on his face.

"He has always been concerned with the way he looks (you mean black?)," she said. "Probably just bad timing going to an awards show."

"He was doing a dermatological skin process after years and years (of playing baseball) in the sun," Polihronis said. "It did come out looking weird (in the picture)."

You know what we at islandista have to say to this - EH! Especially when you take a look at the photo below of how he looked back in 2005.

[caption id="attachment_1718" align="aligncenter" width="286" caption="Photo credit: Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images"][/caption]




Not that we need to point out the flipping obvious but - if he is just undergoing something as innocuous sounding (to white people like Polihronis who ent know nuh better or pretending she don't) as skin rejuvenation, how does that explain the obviously straightened, slicked back hair and the creepy green contacts? Creepy contacts, which by the way, he started with several months ago, as seen in the pic below of him from May.




[caption id="attachment_1719" align="aligncenter" width="338" caption="Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images"][/caption]

And if it was just a 'lighting' problem at the event, why was he pictured at two events on two subsequent nights - November 4th and 5th - looking like Casper the Dominican ghost?

I mean, come onnnn Sammy. If you're bleaching, just do like Lisa Hype and be "proud a yu bleaching cos yu cream dear". These flimsy arguments just insulting, man and we will not play along and pretend your self hatred is other than what it is.

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Lisa Hype's proud of her bleaching... no, really.

Well, just listen to this mess.

We wish she was being tongue in cheek, but no, Lisa Hype, the 'first lady' of Vybz Kartel's Portmore/Gaza Empire is dead serious about being proud of bleaching out her skin.

She told the Jamaica Star earlier this week:

"A bleaching a run the place and it all right because dat fi show yuh seh yuh a tek care of yourself."

EH? I cannot even follow that logic... so destroying your skin is taking care of yourself now? Since when and how come nobody ent tell us here at islandista?

Lisa's well proud of the track too, telling the Star that it running tings:

"Di girl dem seh mi a lock it fi dem this year. A me alone a talk fi dem. Mi nuh know which girl nowadays nah bleach, even fi use likkle Nadinola and rub on fi mek dem face cool.

People a bun it (bleaching). Nuff a dem a bun it and dem gal a do it. Mi nuh hear nobody lash out against the song. Everybody see mi and seh it gone."

She also admitted (as if we couldn't tell from her duppy face) that she has been bleaching for about two years because she likes the look.

Ordinarily you know, we would want to just throw up our hands in despair but trust, this got we vex.

What de hell is wrong with Kartel and Gaza? A so dem mus dark and anti-progressive?

Everything that is wrong and despicable in society them must tek up and glorify, from sexing underage teenagers (Virginity) to dissing up university students to pushing this destructive Gaza/Gully rivalry to bleaching?

Blasted idiots.

Gaza we seh? Am, NO.

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Trend alert: Guyanese-Canadian singers

[caption id="attachment_1581" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="From left to right - Melanie Fiona, Anjulie and Rhea. (Photo at right from closetdiaries.com)"][/caption]

 


 


 No seriously!


 


 The old saying is 'three is a trend' right?

And in the last few months, we have seen three Guyanese-Canadian singers who are definitely on the rise in the international music scene. Shoot, they all hail from in or around Toronto too. It's a freaky but fabulous coincidence.

First up was Melanie Fiona, whose track Give It To Me Right made some waves. She opened for Kanye West on his European tour in 2008 before she had even released her debut album, The Bridge and she was one of BET's Rising Icons.

Next to get our attention was Anjulie.

Again, she opened for a big name act - Jesse McCartney on his U.S. tour this time. Her debut single Boom reached number one on Billboard's US dance charts and her songs have been featured on several shows - The Hills, The City, the new Melrose Place and the Vampire Diaries, among others.

And now comes news that N.E.R.D. (aka Pharrell Williams and the not as cute guys) has added Guyanese-Canadian Rhea as the only female to their line-up.

And Pharrell and co. clearly have high expectations of Rhea. He told MTV.com:

"Musically, we're just somewhere else [with her].... The music is now very 3-D. It's something you have to hear. But you'll see. We're definitely somewhere else. I want to leave that impact moment for when you purchase your download and you purchase your CD.

... Now you have this little Tinkerbell that's just stepped in and has been amazing. ... It's made it a fun process. We can go in so many more directions, because we have the vocal support."

Whooooiiiiieeeee. No pressure, dread!

Of course, there's something more these (undeniably talented) chicks have in common than being Guyanese-Canadian warblers from T-dot.

Something that probably makes them more... marketable.

Not that we're being racial.  But we do call it as we see it. After all, we've observed something similar as increasing numbers of Barbadian singers have snagged record label contracts. Take a look at our collage below and see if you spot it. 


 

We're just saying...

[caption id="attachment_1568" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Clockwise from left - Rupee, Rihanna, Shontelle, Livvi Franc, Jaicko, Vita. In the center - Hal Linton"][/caption]

 

 Hums Sesame Street song (one of these things is not like the other...)

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Sugababe Keisha Buchanan: I'm not a bully

[caption id="attachment_1409" align="alignright" width="315" caption="Photo credit: WH Photography"][/caption]

What a piece of passa passa... Sugababes' founding member Keisha Buchanan had to leap to well... her own defence today via Twitter.



 

This is after her bandmate Amelle Berrabah buggered off for several days-  to the point that her family feared she was missing.

And the rumour is that the reason Amelle went AWOL is because she had a huge row with Keisha over her UK No.1 collaboration with Tinchy Stryder (no, we've never heard of a tinchy either but the UK celeb scene is like a whole different world).

Anyhow, after Amelle skipped out on two back to back performances in London and Glasglow and couldn't be reached, her family feared she had been kidnapped and sent police to her home. The suss is that she told them she was fine but just needed to get away from the band after her big fight with Keisha.

However, Keisha has denied it all strenuously, tweeting:

A completely made up story about me bullying Amelle, not being supportive, blah blah blah...

'In the past, I've let members talk c**p about me and tried to laugh it off because I know the truth, my friends, family and MOST of all God...

'But not any more. I may come across as a hard nut sometimes, but I'm actually really sensitive and it destroys me to think that people today are going to read that and believe it.

'They see me as the longest standing member and assume that I'm the b**ch who causes people to walk, and its totally untrue and unfair. All I've ever done is work my a**e off, trying to keep the dream alive, because I love the fans and my job.'

The thing is, fellow Sugababe Heidi Range said since Wednesday in Scotland, that the real reason for Amelle's no-show was that a friend of hers had been in a serious car crash and Amelle was "broken up about it".

And Amelle is on the record as being a bit of a drama queen - last year she was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a car (no charges were brought) and the year before that, she was arrested on allegations that she had assaulted an 18 year old girl (again, no charges were brought).

Buuut of course, the preferable rumour for the English press is that big, scary Keisha is at it again and that is the one that has been making the rounds.

Truth is, Keisha has always been the one targeted as 'the bitch' in the Sugababes. Part of it could be as she said - that  since she is the last original 'Babe standing in the revolving door that has been the band, she got smeared basically through a process of elimination.

Of course, it couldn't have anything to do with the mainstream media being so fond of pushing the meme that black women are aggressive and mean, could it?

Worse, Keisha is of Jamaican descent... whooooo.... scary! Intimidating! We know how scared the Brits are of the yardies. The commenters over at the Daily Mail are having a field day slagging her off right now.

Hm!

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Rihanna in blackface & Islandistas on I-D cover

Islandistas are all over the place for the September round of fashion magazines.

Islandistas Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis are featured on the cover of the September issue of I-D magazine, along with fellow models of colour Chanel Iman and Sessilee Lopez in a historic all-black cover.

Jourdan, who is five months pregnant (reportedly with a boy), spoke about her baby's father, the pressures on minority models and how she has finally become comfortable with not having the type of body prized in the Afro-Caribbean community.

About her boyfriend:


My boyfriend didn't even know I was a model when I started going out with him and we've been together for three years now. It's hard, you never really know whether people want to be around Jourdan or Jourdan Dunn, and he's been there from when I was just Jourdan.


About her body:


“I’m starting to feel more secure in who I am now. Being from an Afro-Caribbean family, being black, skinny, isn’t really acceptable in that community; it’s all about having curves and stuff.... That’s why I’ve never been comfortable with my body until now, when I realize I can say this is who I am, I’m healthy, I’ve always liked to eat, and I’m now happy enough in my own skin to not give a fuck what anyone says about me any more.


About the pressures on black models:


There are loads of black models working and the idea that there's only a few of us, or four of us, to let in as top models at any one time is just bullsh*t. It creates an unnecessary competition when we should be standing together.


True talk Jourdan. Pity Naomi didn't recognise this back in the day and was so mean to Tyra.

In other islandista fashion magazine news, we have more pics from Rihanna's shoot for the couture supplement of Vogue Italia.

And... we're on the fence about it.

Yes, it is supposed to be edgy and most of the pictures are very dark and stark but in some of them, it's like Klein is just relying on using disturbing and stereotypical imagery to get a rise.

The shots are littered with them - below is a shot that seems to hint at bondage and violence against women - pretty inappropriate considering what Rihanna has been through.




[caption id="attachment_1395" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="photo credit: Stephen Klein for Italian Vogue"][/caption]




There is another shot which seems reminiscent of blackface to me which is ... uncomfortable to do with any black model, far less one whose black and white sides are not many generations back.





Seriously. What the feck is this? We know that is not Rihanna's complexion and she does not even look like this in the majority of the pics so it is not like it is a make-up theme that is running throughout the shoot.







And then this one where she's on her hands and knees - in a pretty animalistic, stalking-type pose.





Black woman as fearsome animal? Hmm. Aren't fetishistic white fashion photogs tired of this yet?




There are other great shots like the two below but the inclusion of these kinds of images is a little suss to this islandista. What do you think?

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Islandista who keeps rising - Soledad O'Brien

Everyone wants a piece of Soledad O'Brien.

Seriously.

The famous CNN journalist and Special Investigations host was born in the United States to a black Cuban mother and white Australian father of Irish descent.

Looks simple written there but when you hear that she is a member of both the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and that she has been awarded by the NAACP once,  named as one of 100 Top Irish Americans twice and awarded a prize as Groundbreaking Latina of the Year, you see what we mean.

Everyone - black people, Hispanics, Irish folk, Aussies and yes, now islandistas - proudly stake their bit of a claim to this fabulous islandista by descent.

Yes, we're claiming Soledad too - as a Cubana doing well in the world, she makes us proud to claim her.

Her documentaries are smashes. Both Black in America and Black in America 2 were the most-watched documentaries of the year on CNN in 2008 and in 2009 (so far).

The follow up will be (of course) Latino in America, set to air in October this year.

Could 'Irish in America' and 'Australian in America' be far behind? We kid, we kid...

The story of Soledad's unique, multi-cultural ancestry goes back to John Hopkins University in Maryland in 1958 where interracial marriage was still against the law. That didn't stop Soledad's father Edward, from pestering Estella, the alluring Cubana he saw every day at Mass (both were Catholic).

Solead told Irish Central (of course!):


"As students at John Hopkins in Maryland they used to both go to daily Mass. My father would ask her every day if she would like a ride home, and every day my mother would refuse – you didn’t take a ride from a man you don’t know. But one day she eventually said yes, and that’s how they started dating."


Of course, their dating was severely hampered by segregation - they couldn't go out to most restaurants, bars or even the movies, so Estella cooked for Edward at home. One year later, in 1959, they got married - going to neighbouring Washington D.C. since they could not legally marry in Maryland.

Soledad is well aware that everyone sees a little bit of their culture in her and want to claim her and she's cool with that.

In the interview with Irish Central, she says:


"Every culture sees their own culture in me. I remember my uncle from Australia said, ‘You look so Australian.’ It’s the freckles.

"I look like an O'Brien. If you saw my dad you'd agree. When I was filming Latino in America and I interviewed a wife who was Dominican and her husband who was Puerto Rican and she said, 'I read your mother's Cuban, I knew you were one of us!'

“I love that in the black community that people consider me to be someone who contributes on all fronts."


Her multi-culti background has also helped her very nicely as a journalist, which she owns to.


" There’s something very nice about being an insider and an outsider. As a journalist I think there’s a plus to that. “Whether it’s working moms, or Afro Caribbeans, or Latinos or Irish people or Australians, you can see the inside story and the outside one.”

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NY Fashion week gets it : black is the new black

Let's hope we're not putting our mouth on the fashion industry by speaking too quickly but it finally seems like the message of diversity is getting through to the fashion types. Maybe it's the Obama effect, as the NY Times put it, (or as Tracy Morgan  more succintly put it: "black is the new president, bitch!") but the recently concluded New York Fashion Week was far more colourful than any in recent times.

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Islandista Jourdan Dunn was one of the big winners, walking in 20+ shows and opening for both old guard designers such as Oscar de la Renta (pictured) and new guard designer Jason Wu, who famously designed First Lady Michelle Obama's inauguration ball gown"][/caption]

Jezebel did an exhaustive (seriously, that must have been time consuming- really got to large them up for taking the time to go through all of the pics on style.com and break it down- whew!) study of the week and concluded that some 18% of the spots in fashion shows were given to models of colour. Their analysis:

There were 116 labels that held shows at the recently ended New York fashion week; that's 3,697 spots in runway and presentation lineups. Of those, 668 were given to models of color — which, at just over 18%, is 6% better than one year ago. (And certainly better than in the fall of 2007, when WWD reported that one-third of the New York shows used no models of color at all.)

They even did graphs breaking down the race of the models of colour used. Of that number, 41% were black, 36% were Asian and 22% Latina, with 1% being other ethnicities.

While this is no where close to being an accurate representation of the racial composition of the United States, which is 26% non-white, it is encouraging progress so let's give credit where credit is due.

Now, it's on to Milan Fashion Week, which, while known for being very vanilla, also produced the iconic all-black Italian Vogue. So here's hoping...

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