Hi Nicole,
First of all, I want to thank you for your support, not only of me personally, but more importantly, your support of the facts that we collectively struggle against seeing that’s right under our noses. I find it fascinating that Y doesn’t actually address the many legitimate points you make Black Women overall – and I’m not saying that Y has to go on a One Sista Mission to address her fellow Sistas here – just simply acknowledge what you’re saying. She doesn’t -then, she misrepresents my positon on the question/matter of “swirling”. That’s unfair, because I’ve gone out of my way to be fair on the matter, to not lump all Black Women who find themselves in IRRs in one basket. Which probably explains why you haven’t come after me.:)

By now you’ve probably heard, but actually, it wasn’t the “swirlers” that were at issue here, but rather, a really troubled young lady named Bene Viera. I wrote a response to an article she wrote, which appeared in Clutch magazine and Essence magazine, “Dumb It Down”. The article, which Viera was being feted on to discuss on the Michael Baisden Show, a nationally syndicated radio program here in the States, was the source of her being “butthurt” by me. My response really put the screws to her and her views. Of course, it may not be able to be viewed at this point (you could try the Google cache; it was posted on my blog on Sep 9, 2010, under the title Debating the Dumb It Down Dilemma), but as I’ve been able to retrieve my entire blog content from WordPress, it will appear with everything else in due course. Yes, that means that I’ve decided to take the plunge and get my own fully functioning blog. I’ve been in negotiations with some really sharp people who have been most helpful to me in this regard, giving me all kinds of helpful advice and so on. So, that’s something I’m working on.

Thanks again so much for your support, Nicole. Much appreciated!

O.