THE SAUDA VOICE

LATEST NEWS:  Stephanie M. Watts (aka Sauda Voice) is busy writing her first book entitled Losing Faith.  She hopes to have it complete by the end of 2009. 

Losing Faith is a cautionary tale about love and betrayal.  Packed with contemporary themes, the story revolves around the life of Faith Sinclair, a young newlywed who quickly discovers that her husband is not the man he pretends to be.  He's hiding a secret, something so unspeakable that it threatens to unravel not only Faith's marriage, but life as she once knew it.

A 'Precious' Review

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(by Teresa Wiltz | The Root) - Inner-city girl, inner-city school, talented teacher. You may think you’ve seen this story before. You may think you’ve heard this story before. You haven’t. As Toni Morrison once noted, she wrote the The Bluest Eye to give voice to the interior lives of black girls. The eponymous subject of Precious: Based On the Novel by Sapphire is so outside the margins, to many folks, she doesn’t register as human: She’s fat, female and black, and for many, she doesn’t exist, except as an object of pity or scorn. And the genius of this movie is that it makes you feel with her, through her.

There is hype and there is Hype, and the hoopla surrounding Precious is Hype triple-squared, exclamation point. There have been cover stories and over-the-top Oprah promos and much to-do over the makeovers and make-unders of the film’s stars. (Mariah! Mo’Nique! Lenny!) A film with this much advance pub is bound to disappoint, done under by the weight of so much expectation and promise.

And yet, it doesn’t. Noamount of hype can prepare you for the visceral shock that you get from watching this film. Precious is that powerful. It’s also brutal, bitter, painful, and, at times, really hard to take. It’s got a lot of a lot: A lot of urban pathology, a lot of sadness and grief and a whole lot of rage and venom and jaw-dropping cruelty. It’s also a thing of beauty, aural, visual, spiritual, beauty found in the most unlikely of places. In director Lee Daniels’ hands, even a pot of pig’s feet simmering on the stove becomes poetry. As does the life of a morbidly obese black girl in Harlem.

As the title suggests—awkwardly—Precious is indeed based on Push, the 1996 novel by Sapphire, in which an illiterate 16-year-old (stunning newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) finds herself pregnant by her father. Again. The incestuous father is long gone, but the mother, Mary, is still around, a malevolent presence in her daughter’s life, bullying from her perch in front of the TV, spewing a constant stream of invective: “You’re a dummy. Don’t nobody want you; don’t nobody need you.” Whenever Mary (Mo’Nique) deigns to get up from the couch—which isn’t often—it is to wield a frying pan upside Precious’ head.

There isn’t much hope for Precious: When she’s not being abused by her mother, she’s being taunted by the boys on the streets. Food is her only comfort. She’s so beaten down that she can’t recognize friendship, batting it away when it is offered to her in the guise of the little neighborhood girl who’s always pestering her. Precious can’t see her, so caught up is she in her own pain. But when she’s offered a chance at attending an alternative school taught by a compassionate but demanding teacher (Paula Patton), she slowly, ever so slowly, begins to see the love that surrounds her. She allows herself to hope. And with hope, comes a chance at some sort of redemption.

“Every day I tell myself, something gon’ happen,” she muses to herself. “I’m going to break through, or someone’s going to break through to me … someday.”

This is a film about metaphysical need, DNA-deep, adolescent-sized, existential longing and the power of popular culture to—temporarily—transform unspeakable realities into BET fantasies. (This is BET circa 1987, folks, glamorous and glitzy, years before the era of booty-shaking video vixens.)

“I want to be on the cover of a magazine,” Precious says in a voiceover. “I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with real nice hair. But first, I wanna be in one of them BET videos.”

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Does Hollywood Still Have a Brown Paper Bag Test?

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(by Jada F. Smith | The Root) - I’ve been accused a time or two of being a little too color-struck, reading too deeply into decisions that could have been made based on pure happenstance. Yes, I rooted for the Jiggaboos in Spike Lee’s School Daze, and sure, I happen to find Idris Elba a helluva lot more attractive than Chris Brown, but I am no colorist. I wish, however, that I could say the same for Hollywood executives who cast black movies.

The new movie Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire sheds some much needed light on socioeconomic issues that haven’t changed much since the 1996 release of Sapphire’s book, Push. But the film’s casting also sheds light on how little color issues have changed since the Jiggaboos and the Wannabes first had it out in Madame Re-Re’s Hair Salon a few decades ago.

Call it overanalyzing, but is it a coincidence that Precious’ dark-skinned mother is physically and verbally abusive, her dark-skinned father is a drug addict who rapes her, and the main character herself is a dark-skinned 16-year-old mother of two? Meanwhile, the teacher, social worker and nurse who uplift and bring positivity into her life are all light-skinned.

Black entertainment has made little progress in the last century when it comes to colorism. Both dark- and light-skinned blacks continue to be cast in roles that perpetuate stereotypes within our own community. Light-skinned people are good; dark-skinned people are bad. Light-skinned people live comfortably; dark-skinned people live in the projects. Don’t believe that colorism is still seeping into our psyches? Read Monique Fields’ piece about her 4-year-old daughter who told her, “Brown people drive old cars.”

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Lou Dobbs Finally Leaves CNN

About DAYUM Time!!!

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NEW YORK (AP) - CNN's Lou Dobbs, a lightning rod for criticism following his transition from a business journalist to an opinionated anchor on such issues as illegal immigration, told viewers on Wednesday that he was quitting his nightly show to pursue new opportunities.

"This will be my last broadcast," Dobbs said after giving the day's headlines. Dobbs, who hosts a daily radio show unrelated to CNN, said the network had allowed him to be released early from his contract.

Dobbs was a CNN original, signing on when the cable network started in 1980. For much of that time, he hosted a nightly business broadcast that became one of the most influential shows in the corporate world, and CNN's most profitable show for advertising revenue.

But Dobbs said his world view changed after the 2001 terrorist attacks and corporate corruption scandals, and he began to more freely express his opinions. He was particularly persistent in bringing the immigration issue to the fore, winning him both higher ratings and enemies. Latino groups had an active petition drive seeking his removal.

His presence became awkward for CNN, particularly as it began emphasizing reporting and non-opinion shows. He angered management this summer by pressing questions about President Barack Obama's birth site after CNN reporters determined there was no issue.

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House Passes Health Care Bill, Now All Eyes on Senate

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WASHINGTON (ABC News) - Democrats in the House of Representatives narrowly passed sweeping health care reform legislation Saturday night, with only one Republican joining in the vote and the minority party nearly unanimous in its opposition.

"Oh what a night!" Speaker Nancy Pelosi proudly proclaimed at a press conference immediately following passage of the health care bill.

The vote passed 220-215 with 39 Democrats voting against the bill, and one Republican supporting the sweeping plan, Rep. Joseph Cao, a first-term Republican who holds an overwhelmingly Democratic seat in New Orleans. A whoop went up on the Democratic side of the chamber when the vote exceeded the 218 majority needed to pass and when the final tally was read. Democrats counted down the last few seconds in unison as Pelosi banged the gavel and boomed the standard line with added emphasis, "The bill is passed!"

"It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it," said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.

United in opposition, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, 'This is making me sick,'" Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., said of the bill, adding that Democrats were intent on passing a "jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.

The House passage of health care reform now moves attention to the Senate, where two bills have moved through committee and Majority Leader Harry Reid must rally support for a single, unified bill.

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Has Sammy Sosa Fallen Victim to Self-Hate?

What do you think?

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(via Huffington Post) - Sammy Sosa's skin appears to have lightened considerably. Photographs taken at an event in Las Vegas reveal a surprisingly light pigmentation on the former slugger. While no cause has been established at this time, the web site Midwest Sports Fans speculates that steroid use could be responsible.

There appears to be at least some evidence suggesting that steroid use could be one of the lifestyle choices that increases a person's likelihood of becoming symptomatic with vitiligo.

It was reported in June that Sosa, who captured the nation's attention as a prolific home run hitter in the 1990s and earlier this decade, tested positive for steroids in 2003.

UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune speaks with Rebecca Polihronis, an acquaintance of Sosa, who claims that that "he is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin." 

The Sauda Voice doesn't buy it!

In Our Lifetime

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(by Henry Louis Gates Jr. | The Root) - A new dawn of American leadership is at hand. President-elect Barack Obama.

We have all heard stories about those few magical transformative moments in African-American history, extraordinary ritual occasions through which the geographically and socially diverse black community—a nation within a nation, really—molds itself into one united body, determined to achieve one great social purpose and to bear witness to the process by which this grand achievement occurs.

The first time was New Year's Day in 1863, when tens of thousands of black people huddled together all over the North waiting to see if Abraham Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation. The second was the night of June 22, 1938, the storied rematch between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, when black families and friends crowded around radios to listen and cheer as the Brown Bomber knocked out Schmeling in the first round. The third, of course, was Aug. 28, 1963, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed to the world that he had a dream, in the shadow of a brooding Lincoln, peering down on the assembled throng, while those of us who couldn't be with him in Washington sat around our black-and-white television sets, bound together by King's melodious voice through our tears and with quickened-flesh.

But we have never seen anything like this. Nothing could have prepared any of us for the eruption (and, yes, that is the word) of spontaneous celebration that manifested itself in black homes, gathering places and the streets of our communities when Sen. Barack Obama was declared President-elect Obama. From Harlem to Harvard, from Maine to Hawaii—and even Alaska—from "the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire … [to] Stone Mountain of Georgia," as Dr. King put it, each of us will always remember this moment, as will our children, whom we woke up to watch history being made.

My colleagues and I laughed and shouted, whooped and hollered, hugged each other and cried. My father waited 95 years to see this day happen, and when he called as results came in, I silently thanked God for allowing him to live long enough to cast his vote for the first black man to become president. And even he still can't quite believe it!

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Young Voters Who Helped Elect Obama Stayed Home

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RICHMOND (AP) - Last year, 23-year-old Rashida Hill watched the presidential debates, visited the college political party meetings and put a Barack Obama bumper sticker on her townhouse door. She voted for Obama because she felt like the election was about "being a part of something."

But on Tuesday, the Virginia Commonwealth University student didn't bother voting in the governor's race because, she said, the candidates didn't give her anything to get excited about.

"The simple fact is, unless you put it in front of somebody, they're really not going to seek it out," Hill said.

Many of the young, first-time voters who propelled Obama to the presidency stayed home this year, a glaring absence that helped Republicans win governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey. More than 3 million voters who cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election — many of them minorities — failed to show up at the polls in either state.

Obama carried Virginia with 52 percent of the vote last year, but only 43 percent of voters surveyed in Associated Press exit polls Tuesday said they had voted for him.

Another group that solidified Obama's victory — independents — turned their backs on Democrats this year.

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MICHELLE OBAMA: The Accidental Icon

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(by Michaela angela Davis | Essence.com) - Mainstream media is feeling the heat of the rise of a new icon representing a new standard of beauty: America's First Lady Michelle Obama.

Certainly there are other Black women playing major power positions in mainstream media, Beyonce and Oprah for example, but this Lady O represents a paradigm shift on the White gaze on Black beauty. She is not here to entertain. She does not fulfill the familiar "from battered to beautiful" scenario the culture expects of Black women. Michelle Obama has no horror stories for her to overcome, no super-human stamina. She comes from a solid hardworking American family. She is smart. She is strong. She went to public and Ivy League schools. She works hard. She is successful. She is loved. End of story. Oh yeah, and she's happily married to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning (fine) President of the United States.

With nothing in her story to pity, nothing mystical (she's even too sharp and smart for White men to twist into a sexual fetish), what does Michelle's uneventful extraordinary life and style do to the mainstream image of beauty? Much of White mainstream identity has benefited from and counted on Black women being portrayed as sick, poor, ignorant, abused, and sexually deviant or just a loud hot ghetto-mess. Our pitiful position secured, and in some ways created, their position on the pedestal. What now? Is it really time for the White standard of beauty to step off?

When the identity of an entire culture and industry is dependent upon the negation or the degradation of the beauty or even existence of another (there was not one featured Black model in Vogue's historic September 2007 biggest issue ever) what happens when that very image is dominating media all over the world? What happens when a society addicted to the image of White women is faced with the inevitable existence of Michelle Obama representing many other women like her?

The emergence of Michelle Obama is the start of a new conversation about Black beauty and identity. It is one that must be had across generations, gender and race. What Michelle represents is real freedom for Black women to define their own authentic beauty and not as it compares to those who have been historically glorified. Michelle brazenly wears belts, cardigans and shorts wherever and whenever she feels fit. She does not let Vogue or Ebony tell her what to wear. We love her for owning her own story. When Black women get free with creating their identity, others must be prepared.

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Michael Jackson's 'This is It' Tops Box Office

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.

The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.

"This Is It" raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. The movie pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France and $3.2 million in China.

"He's just loved everywhere on the planet," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It doesn't matter if it's Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America. Every continent in the world loved him and his music."

In Great Britain, where Jackson had planned a marathon series of 50 London concerts starting last July, the movie earned $7.6 million.

"This Is It" captures Jackson in behind-the-scenes performances in the weeks before his death last June, as he rehearsed his biggest hits for the London shows.

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House Dems Unveil Health Bill

I hope this means that we are finally - FINALLY - making progress on making universal health care a reality.  Fingers crossed.

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government- run option to compete with private insurers.

But even as party leaders pointed toward a vote next week, there were fresh questions that went to the heart of their ambitious drive to remake the nation's health care system.

Congressional budget experts predicted the controversial government insurance option would probably cost consumers somewhat more than private coverage. At the same time, rank-and-file conservative Democrats sought additional information about the bill's overall impact on federal health care spending.

There was no official estimate on the total cost of the legislation, which ran to 1,990 pages. The Congressional Budget Office said the cost of additional coverage alone was slightly more than $1 trillion over a decade. But that omitted other items, including billions for disease prevention programs.

Yet another $230 billion or more in higher fees for doctors treating Medicare patients, included in an earlier version of the bill, was stripped out and will be voted on separately.

The measure "covers 96 percent of all Americans, and it puts affordable coverage in reach for millions of uninsured and underinsured families, lowering health care costs for all of us," boasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at a ceremony attended by dozens of Democratic lawmakers. She spoke on the steps of the Capitol, not far from where Obama issued his inaugural summons for Congress to act more than nine months ago.

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