featured artist: william walker.

childhood is without prejudice. an outstanding mural by william walker. located on 56th and lake park, chicago. click here for a detailed view.

back to basics: shea.

i think shea butter is going to be added to my list of staples. i just got my very first package of nasabb shea butter, and i’m so glad i did. i’ve completely forgotten the benefits shea butter has for both the hair and scalp. needless to say, i’m going to keep using nasabb’s shea butter. i used to use sher essence shea butter, which is equally amazing but only available in small 4 oz containers. definitely check her store out if you are looking to sample shea butter, though. sher essence also provides with east african shea butter, which is extremely hard to find and VERY SOFT.

i massaged some into my hair may be four or five hours after co-washing my hair with avalon organics olive and grape seed conditioner. my hair was twisted in many buns and still damp. i took out the buns, applied the shea butter, and twisted my hair in large two-strand twists. i took the twists out later on, and my hair felt like heaven! the shea butter also left my curls looking effortless, soft, and healthy. i love the smell of nasabb’s shea butter, and i love that it is creamy– not too soft, but melts and absorbs easily into the skin and hair. A+!

other updates? i just realized that avalon organics’s lavender conditioner contains silicones! shame on me. it’s still great at moisturizing and detangling, but i prefer the moisturizing olive and grape conditioner (which is silicone-free).

what the…?

…

i have no words.

give up

my ‘pretty wings’ go to shame as i am endlessly degraded. i hold in the tears that instead turn into a built-up hatred, as every step i take is observed under a microscope. indirectly telling me i’m not good enough for respect, or flat out letting me know that my body just doesn’t make the cut. what i once thought were my god-given attributes are instead a warrant for public scrutiny. i am a spectacle that simultaneously serves to be his pleasure and dissatisfaction.

if i respond, or even give an angry glare, chaos. so i continue to walk, attempting to ignore my hair, skin, and nails being burnt to crisp. i survive– barely– as my daily walk is flooded with a storm of harassment. embarrassment.

but as i see through him, he turns my “stuck-up” demeanor into another warrant. oh, so you’re too good for us?

ATTACK.

like frantz fanon’s lived experience:
“they were countering my irrationality with rationality, my rationality with the ‘true rationality.’ i couldn’t hope to win.”

but of course, fanon doesn’t care about my lived experience. i am yet another obstruction to the his recognition. my internal criticism brings him down. my tears that have waited to surface are a sign of weakness that will resonate with the rest of the community. a pseudo-umma that has replaced unity with one-sided support. not only are my emotions not good enough, they have become a detriment. i am a detriment and thereby deserve nothing more or less than pure disrespect.

“you have to be tough to be able to live,”*
i tell myself as my skin’s lack of moisture turns me into stone. i lift my head to the world and feel a frozen breeze blow from my forever-imperfect body. the breeze of anger and conditioned oblivion that i once questioned has finally absorbed into my bloodstream.

i fall over, comply.

i can’t handle this newfound hatred i have. not for the world, nor myself. no, for “my people.”

and i give up on them.

____________________
*Also from Frantz Fanon’s “Lived Experience of the Black Man,” Black Skin, White Masks.

…

afterthoughts: i wrote this a while back, in response to what i saw as the antithesis of unity and harmony. and although i labeled this as an “off-topic” post (definitely a little more personal than my usual stuff), i think this important topic ties back to what we discuss at black queen. we have frequently discussed internal degradation that shows through in family members telling us to get a perm, or “friends” constantly scrutinizing our hairstyles. but where does this come from? how do our interactions with men (whether regarding our hair or not) relate to how we treat each other as women? how do our interactions with men relate to how we see ourselves?

why do black women want “good hair”?

thoughts?

i love avalon organics conditioner!

i switched to avalon organics conditioner a couple weeks ago, and i’m so glad i did! i found their shampoos and conditioners on sale at whole foods, and decided to give them a try. i don’t know if i’ll be able to use the conditioner at its regular price ($8-$9, depending on where you get it), but i also have a feeling that i won’t be using up the entire bottle too quickly. the product has such a thick and creamy consistency, and it has worked wonders for my hair. EXCELLENT for co-washes, especially during winter and/or in dry climates.

i specifically purchased the revitalizing shampoo with peppermint and nourishing conditioner with lavender. i am interested in the olive and grape seed oil conditioner as well.

snip snip diaries: beauty and make-up.

this is a continuation of my first snip snip diaries post.

as for make-up, i prefer to play up my eyes more than anything else. i love almay’s one-coat triple effect mascara, along with their intense i-color purple eyeliner (for brown eyes). i usually line the bottom eyelid, and soften the line with a charcoal shade of rimmel eye pencil and/or revlon eyeshadow. i also love using green or gold shades on the bottom corner of my eyelids (near the nose). i will also apply a dark shade (like dark brown or black) on the crease of my eyelids, and highlight underneath my eyebrows with some gold.

more importantly, i think healthy, glowing skin should be sought after. i wash my face with nasabb’s black soap, and follow with witch hazel and aloe vera gel twice a day. since my skin is oily and acne-prone, i also make sure to scrub once or twice a week with st. ives apricot scrub. consuming flaxseeds and taking biotin and zinc supplements are also great for the skin. and as always, be sure to drink a lot of water. i usually have a huge 1-liter bottle of fiji water that i refill regularly.

some of my other favorite products are:
-burt’s bees beeswax lip balm
-l’oreal voluminous mascara
-neutrogena mineral sheers powder foundation, bronzer
-bobbi brown foundation stick, warm almond
-almay pure blends lip gloss, fig
-biore self-heating mask

product radar: essie “sassy satchel” nail polish

great color for the fall! click here to check out this and other essie nail products.

snip snip diaries: fashion and style.

after i did the big chop almost two months ago, i feel like my fashion and beauty sense has been more precise. before the big chop, i asked myself a lot of questions– mainly different versions of: can i pull this off? and then there were some stupid questions. will i need to change my wardrobe? will i need to work out more and lose some weight? all in all, i was thinking about it a lot, and i finally just did it. i grabbed my scissors and started snipping. i knew that i was over-thinking the big chop because of curiosity, but i was hesitating because i had never cut my hair so much. but enough was enough.

at first it was a shock. right after i cut my hair, i stared in the mirror and thought to myself: what have i done?! i’ll never be able to wear a fro. a mini-fro is out of the question. this just doesn’t look good! ugh! but i was wrong. i started messing around with my make-up, hair pins, head bands, and jewelry. i realized that i would have to be a little more creative with how i put together my outfits. super over-sized circular earrings became over-the-top. long, dangly earrings looked more elegant and brought better attention to my face. (i’m also on the look-out for larger studs.) high-waisted skirts and dresses also work better, along with scoop neck (and v-neck) cuts, loose/flowy blouses, and shift dresses. and more than ever, i prefer scarves over necklaces.

in short, i have found that what works for me is finding the right pieces that really compliment my face– not distract from it. with short hair, the attention automatically goes to your face. everything else must compliment your face. this doesn’t have to mean boring colors and no accessories. for me, it was the opposite. my short hair has given me the opportunity to experiment and have fun with clothes that i haven’t used in years. everybody’s style is different, but i definitely think that the big chop will allow you to change the way you dress without changing your wardrobe.

[featured clothing: adorable forever 21 dress with a floral texture. it features an empire waist and deep-v cut that works great with short hair. comes in beautiful colors for spring, summer, and fall!]

dear obama: on education.

Dear President Obama,

First, I would like to commend you on announcing the American Graduation Initiative and acknowledging the importance of community colleges. While interning for Women Employed, a Chicago-based social advocacy organization, I gained first-hand knowledge of the many difficulties that today’s community college students face. The interviews I had with single mothers attending Olive Harvey College allowed me to apply their individual stories to the bigger picture.

Work-study is hardly given to students who actually need it. Childcare is either limited to a small age window or not provided at all. Most importantly, too many community college students aren’t provided with the academic, financial, and guidance counseling that is vital to any student’s education. If these are the problems that students face now, can you envision what their situations will be like after the budget cuts have surfaced?

The goal of social mobility through higher education must remain tangible to anyone. It is hence crucial that work-study, grants, and loans are more properly allocated to low-income students who are having difficulties finding a job during this recession. On-campus housing shouldn’t be limited to students who don’t have children. Colleges need to have support systems that will guide their students through the difficulties of juggling school, family, and work. Finally, community college students should never resort to throwing in the towel, whether it is because of lack of financial aid or lack of affordable childcare.

WE’s Clear Connections Project has successfully linked a coalition of community colleges to lawmakers in Illinois, so that colleges can effectively communicate what is working and what isn’t. This program should likewise be found across the nation so that any and all barriers to higher education are acknowledged and stopped. If more lawmakers gain the first-hand knowledge that I did, the American Graduation Initiative will really make a difference.

First, I would like to commend you on announcing the American Graduation Initiative and acknowledging the importance of community colleges. While interning for Women Employed, a Chicago-based social advocacy organization, I gained first-hand knowledge of the many difficulties that today’s community college students face. The interviews I had with single mothers attending Olive Harvey College allowed me to apply their individual stories to the bigger picture.

Work-study is hardly given to students who actually need it. Childcare is either limited to a small age window or not provided at all. Most importantly, too many community college students aren’t provided with the academic, financial, and guidance counseling that is vital to any student’s education. If these are the problems that students face now, can you envision what their situations will be like after the budget cuts have surfaced?

The goal of social mobility through higher education must remain tangible to anyone. It is hence crucial that work-study, grants, and loans are more properly allocated to low-income students who are having difficulties finding a job during this recession. On-campus housing shouldn’t be limited to students who don’t have children. Colleges need to have support systems that will guide their students through the difficulties of juggling school, family, and work. Finally, community college students should never resort to throwing in the towel, whether it is because of lack of financial aid or lack of affordable childcare.

WE’s Clear Connections Program has successfully linked a coalition of community colleges to lawmakers in Illinois, so that colleges can effectively communicate what is working and what isn’t. This program should likewise be found across the nation so that any and all barriers to higher education are acknowledged and stopped. If more lawmakers gain the first-hand knowledge that I did, the American Graduation Initiative will really make a difference.

solange knowles joins the BC club.

wow! even though i’m not too crazy for celebrity news, solange’s big chop made me so happy. it was something so unique and unexpected; shocking in a way that immediately excited me.

let me explain. when india arie cut her hair, it was beautiful, but not particularly unusual. the neo-soul arena is not only well known for embracing natural hair, but for also embracing the cultural roots that accompany it. in short, natural hair and the natural lifestyle is a neo-soul thing. that is, until now.

what excited me about solange’s decision was her attempt to introduce something to the mainstream that, in my opinion, has yet to gain a lot of respect, particularly from the black community. i just got off the phone with a friend who told me she needs a perm. she also complained about being out in the sun and getting darker. further, most of the compliments i get about my hair usually go something like, “it’s so afrocentric,” or “hello, miss afro-nubian queen!”

don’t get me wrong, i am very aware and proud of my african heritage, but this same heritage (namely my east african-ness) automatically distinguishes me from other black women in a way that i find problematic. without understanding that i grew up with the “bad hair” in my family, a lot of friends and strangers explain that if they go natural, their hair will never look as “good” as mine. so i have come to understand that i cannot be the only person who serves as an example. i can’t be the only one to prove that it’s possible to embrace the big fro and then chop it off the next day.

my goal in life has never been to proselytize. i am not trying to convince all black women to wear fros and locs. nevertheless, it is clear that the women that grace the covers of vogue and cosmopolitan have an effect on how we [black women] view ourselves. after clicking through other blogs that revealed the new photos of solange, i came across a poll by thehollywoodgossip.com regarding solange’s new hair cut. 72% of their readers voted: “WTF no, what is she thinking?“ i didn’t know if i should have been surprised or disappointed, but i immediately asked myself, how many of these voters were black women?

i wouldn’t be surprised if black women were more opposed to solange’s hair cut than white women. from my experience, this problem has always been amongst black women. it’s either the girl on the bus that whispers “she needs a perm,” or the one telling me that she wishes she had my hair. in both cases, it involves a self-hatred that needs to stop. before we can ever expect to gain respect from others, we need to learn how to respect ourselves and embrace our diverse beauty that ranges from loose curls and freckles to buzz cuts and deep complexions.

l’oreal under fire

L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, whose advertising campaigns proclaim “because you’re worth it”, was found guilty of racial discrimination for considering black, Arab and Asian women unworthy of selling its shampoo.

France’s highest court was told that the group had sought an all-white team of sales staff to promote Fructis Style, a haircare product made by Garnier, L’Oréal’s beauty division.

The word went out that Garnier’s hostesses should be BBR — “bleu, blanc, rouge” — the colours of the French flag. The expression is widely recognised in the French recruitment world as a code for white French people born to white French parents, a court was told, in effect excluding the four million or so members of ethnic minorities in France.

La Cour de Cassation, the equivalent of the US Supreme Court, said that the policy was illegal under French employment law, upholding a ruling given by the Paris Appeal Court in 2007.

The judgment was a significant blow to the image of the world’s biggest cosmetics group, which has spent millions of dollars in global advertising campaigns featuring stars such as Andie MacDowell, Eva Longoria, Penélope Cruz and Claudia Schiffer.

That image already suffered a battering when L’Oréal executives were forced to deny claims that they had lightened the singer Beyoncé Knowles’s skin for a campaign last year. The ruling also hinted at widespread prejudice among French shoppers since L’Oréal believed that they were more likely to buy shampoo from white sales staff, the court was told.

The ruling will fuel anger among black and Arab French people, who complain that they face widespread discrimination when seeking employment.

The court ruled that Adecco, the temporary recruitment agency whose Districom division hired the hostesses, was also guilty of racial discrimination. The Paris Appeal Court had fined both L’Oréal and Adecco €30,000 (£25,500) and ordered them to pay a further €30,000 each in damages to SOS Racisme, the anti-racist campaign group, which brought the case. The court upheld the fines but told the appeal court judges to reconsider the damages.

L’Oréal expressed “disappointment” at the judgment, which ends three years of legal wrangling over the discrimination claims. Adecco declined to comment.

Samuel Thomas, the vice-chairman of SOS Racisme, described the ruling as a “very great victory”. He said: “Whatever the size of the company, none is able to escape prosecution.”

The court was told that a Districom executive had sent a fax to its headquarters in 2000 saying that Garnier’s hostesses should be aged 18 to 22, wear size 38 to 42 clothes (British sizes 8 to 12) and be “BBR”.

Prosecutors said that Garnier wanted to exclude members of the ethnic minorities on the ground that they would be less likely to sell its shampoo in French shops. The court was told that only 4.65 per cent of the hostesses hired for Garnier’s campaign were black, Asian or Arab.

Before the BBR fax went out, the agency had been offering a pool of candidates in which 38.7 per cent were from ethnic minorities, suggesting that they had been blocked during the final stages of recruitment.

Districom employees said that they were given oral instructions to favour white sales staff. But Thérèse Coulange, the deputy managing director of Districom, who sent the fax, said that she had merely wanted hostesses able to “express themselves correctly in French”. She said that the fax had been a personal initiative and not the implementation of company policy.

Laurent Dubois, Garnier’s former managing director, told a lower court that he had “never given the slightest order to discriminate against anyone” and described racial prejudice as “foreign to L’Oréal’s genes”.

[Source: timesonline.co.uk]

Side Dish: R.I.P. Micheal Jackson.

delicious!

my friend showed me this the other day. you just rub it on your neck, decolletage, or wrists for an amazing scent. its size is great for travel and the the lemon vanilla (shown above) is perfection.
$18, sephora.

feel up.

i was watching a documentary on storme delarverie, a male impersonator and performer during the 1950’s and 60’s. grace jones was also brought up, along with the overall struggle of playing with gender roles, especially in the african american community. grace jones has stood out to me for a while now when considering the media’s portrayal of black women and how this has affected the general public’s perception of us.

slave to the rhythm. a view to kill. nightclubbing. grace’s resume consists of works that, for the most part, scared her audience. but she was a star, and that couldn’t be disputed. the woman who appeared ‘mannish’ in photo and film truly glowed outside of hollywood. even while watching interviews with grace jones, her true beauty shines through in a bubbling character and bright smile. but why didn’t we get to see that on the silver screen? this issue was touched upon in america’s next top model, where cycle 2 contestant xiomara was not happy with her assignment to replicate grace jones. her dark complexion is another factor to consider, i.e. the overall disapproval 0f dark skin amongst whites and blacks (blacks especially) when it comes to beauty.

above all, i honestly don’t think grace jones was ever portrayed as human. she was given an alpha-female, dark chocolate ‘otherness’ role to the public, and her entire marketing campaign was another opportunity to separate the black woman from society. she [the general black woman] is associated with an intangible mystique that separates her from any other woman, while similarly confirming the problematic dialectic between black women counterparts. part scary, part unknown. undeniably conflicted.

i hope we can one day overcome the burden of conforming and reestablishing the past, continuously. i hope our strength and beauty can be recognized not only by others, but more importantly by every one of us.

The World of Grace Jones. theworldofgracejones.com

beware of the pick

do you have one of those black power/peace afro picks?

i’m just going to make this brief. be careful with that thing. it should seriously be used sparingly, or else your hair will break off a lot more than normal. even if you comb it through the roots a little bit, just to volumize. the super stiff metal teeth pull the hair in a really dangerous way if used frequently, and you could lose a substantial amount of hair.

and of course, eat well. take vitamins. especially biotin if you’re noticing weakness and hair loss. an unbalanced diet will also result in hair loss if you use styling tools like picks and tight headbands.

post-henna dryness remedy

so i mixed up 80 grams of henna with some lemon juice, coffee powder, olive oil, and honey last night. i left it in overnight, woke up, rinsed it off, and felt the usual lush-but-dry result. i remembered that i had a ripe avocado in the fridge, and decided to use it as a deep conditioning treatment. i’ve done this in the past, and it worked out so well. only this time, i didn’t have plain yogurt, so i only mixed the avocado with some olive oil. i massaged this mixture through my hair and scalp and left it in for about 10 minutes. i rinsed thoroughly, and finished everything off with a chamomile tea rinse. finally, i applied coconut oil throughout my hair, and added some olive oil to my ends and scalp. the dryness is gone!

more on henna here and here.

becoming a black queen, thus far.

i’ve been meaning to do this for a while. after being introduced to and amazed by afrobella’s blog, especially after reading her very first blog entry, i was inspired to write a similar story of my upbringing. brace yourself, it’s pretty long! click here for the full view.

i was born in khartoum, sudan, but my family moved to the states when i was only two months old. i lived in provo, utah for the majority of my childhood, so i grew influenced by my conservative, middle class surroundings. it wasn’t until my family moved to ohio that i got i glimpse of real diversity, and with this came racial and cultural tensions. i dealt with more teasing on the playground than ever before, and i noticed that most of my black and white friends ate at separate tables during lunch. i can’t remember many black classmates who had as many white friends as i did, except for one who was called an “oreo” during an altercation. but generally, the segregation wasn’t too extreme and tensions only grew at specific occasions. i got along with different types of people and enjoyed being surrounded by diverse perspectives.

however, there was something striking about the difference between my black classmates and i. the vast majority of the black girls had straightened hair, and it usually reached their jawline, or sometimes their shoulders. i always adored straight hair and would constantly ask my mom why she didn’t style my hair in that way. my mother would occasionally straighten my hair with a blow dryer and curl it slightly with a curling iron, but she never liked to do this too frequently. she knew the damage this type of style caused, and like most sudanese mothers, she styled my hair in buns and braids. i grew up on products like brylcreem, dax, and a homemade concoction that my grandmother used to make out of various oils and fats. it smelled horrible, but to this day, it is the only thing that keeps my hair moisturized in sudan’s sweltering, dry heat.

as my older sister began styling her hair on her own in junior high and high school, i noticed that she would always be straightening her hair. my sister, in particular, had a strong effect on how i viewed myself; it’s common knowledge that sisters get compared to each other like none other. her hair is much looser than mine. i would always observe her after we both had washed our hair. while my corkscrew curls would shrink , poof, and tangle, my sister’s hair was seemingly magical. her larger curls would easily flow down her back. when in sudan over vacation, i can recall one of my cousins asking my sister why my hair wasn’t “nice” like hers. i asked myself this question long before my cousin did. and no matter what i did, the answer always remained: “shiraz doesn’t know how to do her hair.”

a lot of my cousins on my mother’s side also have finer hair. the ideal beauty in khartoum (and most of sudan) is a woman with long, flowing hair and fair skin. but no matter how hard i tried, no matter how religiously i followed my sister’s, mother’s, or cousins’ hair routines, my hair was never exactly like theirs. and because similar beauty standards are held amongst black women in america, i grew up disliking my hair. any chance my mom allowed me to, i would straighten it with excitement. for the next week or so my hair would look “nice!” however, like many sudanese women, my mother objected to the use of chemical perms and instead preferred my hair slicked back in a greasy bun. regardless of the difficulties she had getting a comb through my head, and despite the monsoon of tears i shed whenever she had to detangle my hair in the bathtub, my mom adamantly refused to process my hair.

this all changed when my mom got me a children’s relaxer for my 13th birthday. my aunt recommended this specific perm, because she used it with no problems. i couldn’t wait to perm my hair, and after i did, i felt like a new person. my hair was more manageable. my curls didn’t shrink after i washed them. i could wear my hair down with less fuss. the relaxer gave me the possibility of the long, flowing hair that i always dreamed of. i got a second perm in high school, and began thermally straightening my hair regularly as well. life was good.

i never got a third perm, but i continued straightening my hair with flat irons. as time passed, i found myself straightening my hair less often. i grew weary of spending 5 hours on my hair every weekend, and one hour each morning for touch ups. i did have “beauty days” on occasions, where i would straighten my hair and give myself a facial, manicure, and pedicure. whenever i straightened my hair, i noticed that i’d get more compliments. in fact, i’d get all compliments when it was straight, whereas no one really cared for my hair when it was natural.

it really hit me harder when a friend had a horrible fake pony on, and another friend and i asked her why she was wearing it. she responded, “i can’t wear my hair out right now, it’s nappy! i’ll look like shiraz!” she laughed, while i just stared at her. “i’m kidding, it would be worse,” she said.

why does it have to be worse? i thought. why is my hair bad and anything nappier worse?

i decided to flat iron my hair for my high school graduation. deep down, i didn’t want to, but i couldn’t think of another way to wear my cap and gown. as usual, i got a flood of compliments, but i realized something crucial. those compliments, as great as they sounded, actually insulted me. i never felt better about myself after hearing that i should wear my hair like “that” more often. i was proud of myself for not completely conforming to what society viewed as beautiful, but i was dissatisfied that i had still used the flat iron that was tucked away in my closet. i didn’t feel like myself. i wasn’t myself. i was unnatural.

it was at that moment that i knew. i knew i would never straighten my hair again. i knew that the beauty standards imposed on sudanese and african american women were unrealistic, insulting, and dehumanizing. it wasn’t a matter of women choosing to look a certain way. no one is happy with toxic chemicals being slathered on her scalp; no one is happy to see a cabinet full of “lightening” skin products. this was a matter of looking in the mirror and being conditioned to be unhappy with what one sees. and while most women deal with this in various aspects, regardless of skin color, the way women of african descent have systematically responded to their supposed “flaws” is by far the most dangerous and tragic.

so i got rid of the fear, and began wearing my hair out. i was in college, and i no longer cared if this would result in people laughing at me or telling me that i need a perm. i still remember the first day i legitimately had my hair completely out and natural– not in a bun or afro puff. i was so worried about what my friends would say. what were people in the street going to say? will they point and laugh? will they stare? but i sucked it up, because deep down they didn’t matter.

surprisingly, there hasn’t been a day when someone didn’t compliment me on my hair. the first day i wore my hair out, my friend told me it looked great. she told me to keep wearing my hair like that. i did, not because of her or the other compliments. i continued to wear my hair naturally, because it truly completed me. to this day, i’ve never looked back.

oiling scalp for dandruff

if you’re a regular reader, it’s obvious that i’ve had issues with my dry, itchy scalp and dandruff. a friend of mine and i were talking about this a little bit ago, and she suggested oiling my scalp and not washing it too much. that’s when it hit me, i would hardly ever moisturize my scalp. so i’ve been doing so with olive oil and my qhemet biologics heavy cream for the past month. i’ll massage and moisturize my scalp whether i’m co-washing or shampooing. it has definitely made a huge difference, and i recommend this to anyone who is dealing with the same issue. it’s easy to forget if you tend to be on the go.. especially if you co-wash once every few days, quickly moisturize your hair, and go to work/school. but just taking that extra one or two minutes can save you a lot of frustration, embarrassment, and irritation!

don’t use too much oil, a quarter sized amount will do for a large portion of your head.

featured artist: tabitha bianca brown

this is some amazing artwork. tabitha bianca brown uses mixed media, graphite, photoshop, among other mediums to create these:

click here to view larger images.

check out more of her work at the pairabirds, her website.

More Advice to Obama: Get Out Of Vacation Mode

The Obamas kept a low profile while vacationing on the island of Oahu. Aside from daily trips to the gym and golf courses, the president-elect seldom left his vacation retreat, a rented $9 million home near Honolulu. When he did venture out, it usually was to grab some shave ice, a local treat, look at baby tigers at the zoo or take some other child-friendly excursion.

While on vacation, Obama did his best to stay out of the discussion over the escalating violence in the Middle East, where Israeli troops launched an offensive against Hamas leaders who had fired rockets from Gaza. … Pro-Palestinian activists protested outside Obama’s vacation home on Tuesday and urged a new approach to the Middle East. Obama did not acknowledge them.

{Source: AP via Yahoo! News}

.

Dear Obama,
Vacation is over. Now is the time to at least pretend like you care about Gaza.

See also: Nowhere to Run [AlJazeeraEnglish on YouTube]