Miss Universe is African But…..

What’s really good family?

This has been one interesting and funny week somehow. It all kicked off with me giving my big brother “MAG Nation” a beat down in fantasy football. Don’t you LOVE when the little brother teaches the older brother a lesson or two every once in a while? Ain’t nothing like that good HUMBLE PIE huh? Now onto preparing for my Uncle Ricky aka “HINDS Cowboys” for this Sunday’s showdown, fantasy football is that new CRACK I swear… I don’t recommend it for many people because once you get that first fix a.k.a. the “W” the high is like no other.

Ok people; Let Me Get Focused…

My world consists of very basic things such as my love for God, family, friends, music, sports and country. So when I came across the news on my twitter timeline that an African woman “Miss Angola” to be exact Leila Lopes had been recently crowned Miss Universe 2011, I didn’t even think twice about it. But wait a minute; I think I did just MISS something. There was pageantry going on with beautiful women in scantily clad clothing from all over the world competing and all I cared about was how my fantasy football teams were performing? SMH! So let me be the latest person to congratulate Ms. Lopes on her much deserved victory.

But by now you all should know that there has to be more to this story and a point to make which is why I decided to blog about it right? So am going to share with you some of my observations and commentary on the whole farce and allow you to draw your on conclusion.

Did you know that mere hours after the conclusion of the contest, some publication was quick to run a story on Ms. Lopes claiming that the new Miss Universe had falsified documents to enter and win a qualifying contest in England which wrongfully enabled her to part-take in a Miss Angola competition for Angolan citizens living in the UK despite never living outside of Angola. I mean this is absurd… You are asking that she be disqualified for being from, raised and living in Angola. Now that is what I call Supa-Stupid! I remain shocked that somehow Obama or some Nigerian has not been held responsible for this yet somehow. And like my Big Homie “A” always says; life is not about having opportunities but more importantly what you make of those opportunities”. Hence AVAILABILITY all over again people (check out my blog a few weeks back).

Where I pause for concern is the residual and lasting impact such beauty contest like the Miss Universe pageantry have on young girls of color in the African and black community. It is very perplexing to me how many women of color continue to confine themselves to the beauty defined through the lens of those who look nothing like them.  Black women, I don’t care how many highlights you put in your hair and varying colors of contact lenses you try on, you will never be that blonde hair, blue eye bimbo you work so very hard to become.

My time growing up in Nigeria takes me back to those distinct images of women till this day bleaching their skin, sewing racks of hair extensions and eye wear that have them looking like cartoon characters. Why don’t these beauty pageants restrict or ban all the breast and butt implants, nose jobs and veneer teeth in their competitions if they really had an interest in highlighting natural BEAUTY for young girls to look up to.

Moisturize Ur Sexy!