Royals, Weddings

Angela of Liechtenstein was the first Black Princess to wear it.

The ReadyWriter

Panama-born Angela Brown became the first black woman to marry into a ruling European royal family when she wed Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein in 2000.

Angela met the prince, who is eleven years her junior, at a reception in New York and the pair were married at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York, with Angela wearing a gown she’d designed herself. Eighteen years later Meghan Markle copied the dress as the bride of Prince Harry.

Like Harry, Prince Maximilian is a second son (of reigning Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein) and is unlikely to inherit the throne, allowing him to live a relatively normal life.

Meghan Markle married her Prince Charming, Prince Harry of Windsor, during an understated yet elegant ceremony at Windsor Castle in England.

Meghan and Harry’s wedding was the most viewed BBC television event of the year.

Child molestation, Whitney Houston

Shocking Claim: Whitney Houston Was Molested by Her Cousin, Dee Dee Warwick

The ReadyWriter

Friends of Whitney Houston — who are peddling a documentary film on her life — claim Whitney was molested by Dionne Warwick’s sister, singer Dee Dee Warwick.

Dee Dee is not around to defend herself; she died in 2008 at age 63 following a long illness.

Dee Dee is Whitney’s cousin and the younger sister of pop legend Dionne Warwick, the family member who had the most influence on Whitney’s music career.

The documentary “Whitney” premiered at Cannes film festival on Wednesday night and the filmmakers waited until the end of the film to drop the shocking claim that the legendary singer was molested by her cousin at a young age.

Mary Jones, a longtime assistant to Houston, revealed in the documentary that Whitney told her Warwick had molested her.

“It made her question her sexual preference,” Jones told Entertainment Weekly.

In her 2013 book, “Remembering Whitney”, Cissy Houston, gospel singer and Whitney’s mother, makes no mention of molestation claims.

“I think she was ashamed,” Jones said of why Whitney never told her mother. “If Cissy had known, she would have done something about it, because Cissy loves her children.”

Whitney died of an accidental drowning at age 48 on Feb. 11, 2012 in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub.

Her pop single “I Will Always Love You” is the fifth best-selling single in the world with certified sales of 20 million.

Conversations Of A Sistah, R&B Music, Rap artist, Tracy L. Bell, Tracy L. Bell - Blog Talk Radio, Tracy L. Bell Host Conversations Of A Sistah

Race Appropriation, who owns it? Tonight on “Conversations Of A Sistah”

The ReadyWriter

Race Appropriation, or cultural appropriation is when someone else adopts a style from a race that is not his or her own. But that’s not the whole story, appropriation refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. It’s fine to take aspects of another culture but when it permeates the masses, there lies the problem.

Recently in an interview with the breakfast club Azalia Banks slammed Cardi B for trying to impersonate a black woman. Cardi B is among a group of white and Hispanic rappers who are heavily promoted by the media as acceptable crossover hip-hop artists. This is not sitting well with other celebrities.

In a recent interview with the Breakfast Club, Banks dissed Cardi by calling her an “illiterate, untalented rat” and a “caricature of a black woman,” then dismissed the rapper as a one-hit wonder and not influential at all.

Several other artist have imitated us in the past as well. You have Eminen, Vanilla Ice, Jon B, Miley Cyrus, Iggy Izalea and Bruno Mars just to name a few.

So what is so wrong with imitating black R&B artist, rappers and entertainers?

Join Host Tracy L. Bell at 6:30 p.m. EST on “Conversations Of A Sistah” for her commentary on “Race Appropriation, who owns it?”

All “LINKS” in this post will access the online show.
Hope to see you on the air!!!
Love, Love & Marriage, Love & Relationships

He Kept Both Promises and Marrying Her was one!!

The ReadyWriter

The couple who survived that deadly Charlottesville, VA attack last August by white supremacist were married this past weekend in Gordonsville, Virginia.

Marcus Martin, who was pictured mid-air in a powerful photo taken when the Dodge Challenger struck on August 12, married his fiancée Marissa Blair in Gordonsville, Virginia, during an outdoor ceremony paid for by well-wishers.

Martin, 26, pushed Blair, 27, his then fiance out of the way when the car struck. He suffered a broken leg while the couple’s friend, 32-year-old paralegal and fellow anti-fascist protester Heather Heyer, was killed.

The couple were demonstrating against thousands of white supremacists who had massed in the Virginia town to protest against the decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

All donations gathered at the wedding (where the happy bride and groom are pictured dancing) will be donated to the Heather Heyer Foundation.

Racially motivated, Racism in America

White woman calls the cops on black graduate student sleeping in Yale dorm

The ReadyWriter

A white graduate student at Yale called the police on a black student (pictured here) who fell asleep in the common area of a dorm, sparking a nationwide conversation about race after videos of the incident went viral.

The white woman confronted Lolade Siyonbola, 34, after she fell asleep on the couch in the school’s Hall of Graduate Studies.

“I have every right to call the police. You cannot sleep in that room,” she said to Siyonbola.

The cops, who asked to see Siyonbola’s ID, proceeded to question her for more than 15 minutes before they confirmed she was a student at Yale.

They said the process was prolonged because her name was misspelled in a school database of student information.

During their interactions, Siyonbola unlocked the door to her dorm room to show them that she was a student and called the officers’ behavior “harassment.”

More than 350,000 people watched Siyonbola’s Facebook videos, with some commenters expressing their support while others commended her for remaining calm.

Lynn Cooley, the dean of Yale’s graduate school of arts and sciences, sent an email to graduate students addressing the situation on Tuesday.

“Incidents like that of last night remind us of the continued work needed to make Yale a truly inclusive place,” she wrote.

“I am committed to redoubling our efforts to build a supportive community in which all graduate students are empowered in their intellectual pursuits and professional goals within a welcoming environment.”

This country is really sitting on a hotbed of racism.