black girl

Black Girl/White Girl
$13.95
I was absolutely fascinated by this book. Picking it up, I assumed it would be a somewhat obvious/maybe even a bit cliche story of racial inequality on a college campus. However it was SO much more. JCO masterfully uses each scene to further our knowledge the inner lives of Black Girl, Minette, and White Girl, Genna.

Rather than seeing these women as two different races with completely different struggles, the reader is led to discover that "though we were lying in separate beds a crude plasterboard wall between us to divide us by day we were divided in two separate skins of necessity for all life must be divided all consciousness must be separate otherwise we could not see each other, we could not love each other otherwise." As the fascinating past of each girl is unveiled, we realize how similar their struggles are...and the difference in skin color may be the one thing that allows them to differentiate themselves from each other and therefore take notice of each other.

This book is not an easy read, but it is definitely worth the effort put in!! Incredibly insightful account of human nature and living up to the expectations of our parents.

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Black Canary Statue
$99.99
Care to take her on? She's the sonic siren! Hand-painted, cold-cast porcelain. 9 1/2-inches tall. Based on the art of Adam Hughes. Based on the art of Adam Hughes and sculpted by Jack Mathews, Black Canary-- the sonic siren-- cracks her knuckles in anticipation of taking on her next adversary. This latest addition to the instantly popular Cover Girls of the DC Universe statue line is posed just as she appears on Hughes' variant cover of Justice League of America #6. Hand painted, cold cast in porcelain, and measuring about 9 1/2-inches tall x 4-inches wide x 3 3/4-inches deep, this superb piece includes a 4-color certificate of authenticity and comes packaged in a 4-color box. Anticipate no more. Take her on yourself!

The Black Girl Next Door: A Memoir
$15.00
This is a memoir of a girl whose parents moved into an all-white neighborhood and sent her to an almost all-white school, then constantly berated her and her sister for not being 'black' enough. It follows her from being discriminated against in school as a young child to being an overachiever as a teenager, all while having a home life that she eventually went to college to escape from. The writing was very engaging and I enjoyed the descriptions of the 80s, since the author and I are the same age.

One thing that was strange about this book, however, was that the fact that her father was extremely emotionally and eventually, physically abusive, is first mentioned around page 250, when the author is 17 years old. Her mother's emotional abuse was mentioned throughout the book, but her father was barely mentioned at all, even though he appears as a monster at the very end.

Black Girl / Borom Sarret
$29.95
A wonderful look at Senegal, racism, and colonization, done through symbolism and language.
Everyone should see this film!