Comments on: Black Women at the London Olympics: An Open Letter to Essence Magazine

By: Val

Val — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:13:00 +0000

I see your point. That makes sense.

By: Kaia Shivers

Kaia Shivers — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:32:00 +0000

Val, thanks for the response. Since I teach women’s & gender studies with an emphasis on black women, I have to read Essence, even though I disagree with its platform BEFORE it was purchased by Time Warner. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know that not only is Essence white-owned, but the Essence Festival is white-owned too. Nevertheless, there are women and girls, of all color, who read this and use this as a standard key of measuring beauty and the pulse of black women. When Bush was in office, I didn’t vote for him, and I despised much of his policy, but it is my duty as a citizen to get in that ass. So while Essence is featuring women who bully women like Evelyn Lazado, let’s continue to take them to task. Their staying power makes them one of the few publications featuring black women that has a large circulation.

By: Val

Val — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:57:00 +0000

Nice letter but, Time Inc., Essence Magazine’s parent company, doesn’t give a hoot about promoting Black womanhood. Haven’t you read Essence in the last 5 or 6 years? Essence is just another media outlet dedicated to highlighting so-called Black dysfunction. I really don’t think that Essence would even know how to cover such extraordinary Black women and girls as the ones that competed in the London Olympics. But I’m sure they’ll get around to covering Gabby’s hair and Lolo supposedly getting too much attention. That I know they can do.