The Traits of A Strong Beautiful Woman of Color

If strength is beauty she'd be drop dead gorgeous

If faith is wealth she'd be filthy rich

If perseverance is water she'd be an ocean

If patience is rain she'd be a storm

If humility is a flood she'd be a tsunami

If love is an animal she'd be a zoo

If determination is a country she'd be a continent

If resilience is a tree she'd be a forest

If loyalty is a disease she'd be an epidemic

by MiMi (modified from The traits of a strong African Woman)

I am Honored to Be a Part of this Beautiful Network

When I received the invitation to join, I was very excited. It is wonderful to expand my network of smart, sophisticated, intellectually stimulating and culturally diverse women. I aim to embrace the beauty and cultural diversity of all our sisters, those of color or otherwise. Together we can create a stronger voice, reach a wider audience and break down barriers. I look forward to writing and reading with all of you. I graciously accept this invitation.

Where are the SisStars ...

If this is going to be an active Blog --- than where are the Sisters?

I posted and there is no communication. I am looking for a place to communicate by sharing thoughts, not silence.

So if you are out there, and there are five of us, show yourselves. I am anxious to visit with you all.

Amias

as a woman of COLORED ...

I have tried hard to inject myself within the sisterhood of all women over the last thirty years. I have done this by trying to communicate with my sisters around the world, online and off. I come to their aid whenever possible. I listen. However, I hate to report that I have not been as successful in communicating with my sister as I would Like.

Here in my home town of Houston Texas, I try and communicate with my African born sisters. They treat me like I have a disease, and when I do business with them, they talk about me, thinking that I don’t understand what they are saying.

My brown American born sisters are so busy hating on each other; they don’t bother to communicate anything else. They are very competitive for men, many of which take their money, impregnate and/or beat them and leave.

When I crosses the culture lines to make friends with my white sisters, I am always the token brown in any white group, and many of them points this out for one reason or another. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling, so I am always trying to be comical to hide being uncomfortable. Eventually I just quietly leave, knowing I was not welcome to begin with.

My Asian sisters that I do business with, does the same as my African born sisters. They take my money and talk about me in their language. The reason I know they do this is that, on many occasions I have gotten so tired of them speaking as if I didn’t exist, I took a tape recorder and recorded their conversation and paid to have it interpreted. It shocked me how mean they can be while braiding my hair or manicure my nails.

On two occasions I went back and read to them what they had said while I was paying them to service me. Both called me an American nigger, that didn’t have brains enough to go into business for myself. They went on and on about how stupid America women are. My African born sisters even brag about how they purposely braid our hair so tight it comes out of our scalp, and they make us pay for their services in advance so we will not complain or get up to leave. Needless to say, I stop doing business with them. I wear my hair natural, and do my own pedicures and manicures.

What I am saying is, it seems to me, as women we have missed the boat. We do not work as a team to resolve issues, local or global. We are always fighting each other over some little perceived infractions. We do not communicate in open and honest dialogue. As we age, we have become so bitter that we don’t pass out knowledge on to the young women.

I created a sisterhood web site and it’s hard for me to get sisters to participate. When Nasra asked me to be a part of this group, I hesitated, but only for a moment. In spite of our differences, I believe there is a sisterhood of wonderful women out here, and eventually, I am going to find them. In the mean time, I will keep all my doors opened --- and can assure you that I will communicate in open and honest dialogue.

Acceptance For Who We Are

By Nasra Al Adawi

Being A Women of Color does not imply a tag of ethnic or certain race. I as one I have gone through of journey of discoveries I should have loved both side of who I am. I can only explain it that growingn as an interracial child is not easy. There are days I wished I looked more Arab and there were days I wished my skin would have been darker. My visit to Tanzania in 2006 on a mission to meet women with breast cancer taught me many other lessons about myself. I'm African and it is so sad that I have missed learning about my African heritage. I have missed knowing what it Africa is all about. Now with my father gone I'm trying to retrieve how was his life as an African man who was born in Zanzibar in which he had rich heritage of another African Island called Comoro Island…

I remember when I went to visit women in the hosipital they really glowed in their own natural color, I realized I did miss that. I use to worry about my skin tone as it was not as my mother who is originally Omani. My hair was not good enough for me, it was afro but it was not coarse hair, I was so dissatisfied of what God had gave me, so I splashed myself with hair straighterner and now when I decided to stop, having been living in chemical so so long. My hair without straightener is impossible to manage, I could hardly comb it. I realized what I have done to me. I decided I would no longer splash myself in makeup, be as natural as I can be. As for my afro hair is long story, I failed to keep it afro, being bold was not appealing either. I'm still looking for ways to get my natural hair back, I just don’t want to be straightening my hair on a lifetime basis.

I regret that I did not take the opportunity to try writing my father letters in Swahili, I would been now writing poetry in Swahili and all I'm able to do is just converse in Swahili. I would have made my dad proud of me, instead of complaining about receiving letters written in Swahili, I should taken at least an attempt to try learning on my own. Yet the journey of learning is endless so I have to put my learning hat and be ready to seek knowledge, as fountain of knowledge is open for those who seek it.

I recently realized that I'm beautiful the way I am and I have to keep reminding myself that to accept the person I am. For I was born as this, take me as I am with all my flaws.

International Association For Women of Color Day

The International Association for Women of Color Day is not a membership organization but a network for those who wish to conduct Women of Color Day observances. Please do visit the official website http://www.womenofcolorday.com/

This blog has been created in correlation with Facebook Women of Color Group, this group was created by Marian Douglas-Ungaro.

This blog is an open page for women of all colors, to pour their thought, its not just a celebration based on a day…Is about life time of who we are…