So Fresh and So Green

Scientists have discovered the gene responsible for curly hair and they are developing a treatment to cure you of those awful curls from the inside out.

Likewise the pill would also make curly hair straight. So maybe it’s human to see the grass as being greener on the other side. On graduation picture day in high school I discovered girls with curly hair wanted straight hair and girls with straight hair wanted curls.

Surely with all the straighteners, relaxers, curling irons, texturizers, sprays and serums there’s a lot of money to be made here for the company that can capitalize on this. Professor Nick Martin, author of the research, will be in talks with a major cosmetics company in January.

“Villain get the money like curls”

Love this beat, nicely varied soundscape.

He claims the findings can also help with forensics investigators to determine the texture of hair of an assailant based on a DNA sample. (more…)

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Are you unemployed, all non void? If you are chances are you are a male. This great recession is being called a “he-cession” by some due to the staggering levels of male unemployment this time around.

The loss of male dominated industries like manufacturing is considered a major cause for this. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gives us more information on who theses males are and surprise surprise many of them are Black males.

Maybe you and I don’t need stats to tell us this but these studies can be necessary, particularly when dealing with government funded aid when race is involved, to “justify” the release of funds to specific groups. Anyway, it’s good to be informed.

Lest you find yourself in danger of viewing young Black males as an abstract group of people you can’t relate to Pac Div has decided to let you know what their plight is from the horse’s mouth. This song was more surprising than these stats for me and didn’t sound like what I thought it would based on what I heard from them before and the title.

I like these guys. They don’t sound like what I knew the West Coast to sound like years ago which is what new, younger artists should do. Not only do they change who they sound like to me from track to track, they talk about things a regular person can relate too. Imagine that a rap song with lyrics you can relate to- Outrageous!

Many Black males were unemployed, like TV show patriarch James Evans was, during the “good times” this country had so when the economy takes a dive even more Black males are unemployed right along with those who haven’t been employed in years. (more…)

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Photo Credit: “man, woman and child” by Tracy Collins I chose this photo because sometimes I think we forget why the environment is important and who we take care of the environment for.

Former Special Advisor for Green Jobs to the White House Van Jones was and I’m sure still is a strong advocate for Black people understanding the need to be more concerned about the environment. All of this understanding should be placed in the context of the quality of life we enjoy, or don’t enjoy, for ourselves, our loved ones and our communities.

The Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change under the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is set to release its second poll to gauge how involved with and concerned about the environment African Americans are. Given all of the changes we may have all experienced and today’s economic climate I am somewhat interested in seeing what this year’s findings are because this info is central to what sofreshandsogreen.com is about.

The New Birth version of Bobby Womack’s “I Can Understand It” is one of my favorite songs of all time and I was so impressed the first time I saw Black Thought sing this live with The Roots. They also perform “The Seed 2.0″ with Cody Chesnutt. I chose this song because my hope is that Black folks will understand we have more to lose than just about anybody in the climate change game. Sometimes we put surviving above everything else but environmental issues factor into survival. And we should do this for the seeds, the children, who just live in this world and didn’t make it. (more…)

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On September12th in 1977 Stephen Bantu Biko, noted anti-apartheid nonviolent activist in the 1960s and leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, died in police custody. He was 30 years old. His life was dramatized in the movie Cry Freedom where he was played by Denzel Washington. Numerous songs have been written about the slain revolutionary. Here are 2 of them and some more info about him below. (more…)

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