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| Rhonda Lee |
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about the lovely Meteorologist Rhonda Lee who was fired for responding to a commenter on Facebook who made some rather dederogatory comments about her Natural hair. My mouth is STILL open over this as well as the commentors ignorant words he wrote. She works for KTBS-TV, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, La. Here’s the story:
On Oct. 1, a viewer identified as Emmitt Vascocu wrote,
“the black lady that does the news is a very nice lady.the only thing is
she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. im not sure if she is a
cancer patient. but still its not something myself that i think looks
good on tv. what about letting someone a male have waist long hair do
the news.what about that (cq).”
Lee replied the same day, “Hello
Emmitt–I am the ‘black lady’ to which you are referring. I’m sorry you
don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer. I’m a
non-smoking, 5’3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running, 37.5 year old woman,
and I’m in perfectly healthy physical condition.
“I am very proud
of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your
edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows
upward. Many Black women use strong straightening agents in order to
achieve a more European grade of hair and that is their choice. However
in my case I don’t find it necessary. I’m very proud of who I am and the
standard of beauty I display. Women come in all shapes, sizes,
nationalities, and levels of beauty. Showing little girls that being
comfortable in the skin and HAIR God gave me is my contribution to
society. Little girls (and boys for that matter) need to see that what
you look like isn’t a reason to not achieve their goals.
“Conforming to one standard isn’t what being American is about and I hope you can embrace that.
“Thank you for your comment and have a great weekend and thank for watching.”
Vascocu
replied that Lee was right to be proud of who she is and that he is not
a racist, but “. . . this world has . . . certain standerd (cq). if
youve come from a world of being poor are you going to dress in rags?. .
.” Clutch Magazine
She was respectfulul. She was even educational and to have been fired for trying to educate an idiot who STILL doesn’t get it? I am so offended by his words and his response was the worst! Is natural hair considered lowly and that when moving up in the world you should be sporting more European features???
Feel like doing something about this? Well you can. You can contact the General Manager, George Sirven, of the News Station KTBS at 318-861-5813 for questions.
Pretty darned disgusted right now Naturals,
Sabrina
So crazy that people can't just sit back and watch the news without commenting on the announcer's appearance. It sort of sounds like he's one of those men who prefers longer hair on women. My Dad is the same way and wasn't too happy when I first went natural but likes my hair better now that it has grown out.
You know…even if he felt like he had to express himself, he truly didn't let her words sink in because if he had he would have been embarrassed. Instead he goes on to insult her even more by equating her natural hair to being impoverished.