Sesso (Winter-Spring 2015) Edition

Winter/Spring 2015

DA D DY disappeared What happens to girls when Daddy’s gone?

NO SUGARCOATING Adapting to diabetes can be a bitter pill

THE FARM Images of an historic, black-owned farm

BEING PRETTY

stress stresses

seen scene

Bad Rap lyrics

name game

KNOW IT; sHOW IT

Dear Readers,

LE T TER FROM THE EDITOR

It is our pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural issue of Sesso, a teaching magazine from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University.

Sesso is “says so” in the Gullah/Geechee dialect and celebrates the connection of the campus, Savannah and the region to the rich tradition of once enslaved people who preserved West African culture in the lowcountry of Georgia and South Carolina.

The magazine’s mission is to publish student long-form, narrative writing and much of it is produced in JMC’s online journalism courses. The magazine is edited and designed by professionals – faculty and freelancers. It is not student media nor a university marketing publication; it models and teaches professionl journalism.

Sesso’s special kind of teaching comes when students whose work is to be published sit alongside an editor for coaching as their reporting and writing are critiqued, changed and processed for publication..

Sesso’s first issue focuses on the stories of women—those who grew up without fathers in their lives and others who suffer from diabetes. In a third story, little girls define beauty for themselves. A photo essay by a graduating senior takes us to his 140-year-old family farm in rural Georgia.

There is also student short-form writing in Sesso’s departments. They will rotate through topics ranging from Take Care on health issues to Seen Scene—style—around campus and The Wayback Machine (with apologies to Rocky and Bullwinkle).

The latter allows students to step back and remember the arts and entertainment central to their childhoods; then they review subjects in the light of today.

In this issue, Miscellany readers can learn how to write Kryptonian like Superman and read a Q&A with a well-fed campus raccoon. The magazine’s back page, In the End – An Essay, lets students have their say on issues and irritations.

Sesso says so. Please enjoy.

Yours for good storytelling, Sandra Earley

Cover image adapted from photo entitled “Niña // Little Girl”

by Eva Peris. CC 2011 (flickr.com)

Publ isher

Wanda S. Lloyd

Stu dent Photogr a phers

Editor

Sandra Earley

Art Director Sherene LaMarche

sesso

My’Ron West Jocelyn Williams

Stu dent Interns

Stasheia Durham Imani McIntyre

[sez-soh; Gullah-Geechee; sez-soh]

verb

1. means “says so” in the Gullah-Geechee dialect found in the coastal corridor from southern North Carolina to north Florida.

Department of Journalism and Mass Communications Savannah State University Box 20634 • 3219 College St. • Savannah, GA 31404 912.358.3378 • sessomag@gmail.com

C O N T EN TS

• Winter/Spring 2015

s t o r y t e l l i n g

6 10 “In order to live, I had to take insulin shots for the rest of my life.” page 6

No Sugarcoating Diabetes and four young African-American women

By Jocelyn Williams

Daddy Disappeared

African-American girls growing up daddy-less find themselves angry and in the shadows

By Hannah R. Black

16

The Farm

18

Being Pretty

A picture essay – a historic, black-owned Georgia farm Photos by Taylor Roberts

The definition of pretty for African-American girls

By Stasheia Durham

D EPARTM ENTS T A K E

2

... of your health, beat stress

THE WAYBACK MACHINE

3

Hip-hop memories; today’s disappointment S e e n

4

M i s c e l l a ny

C A R E

22

Know it, show it Interview with a masked bandit You, too, can write Kryptonian Potable quotables

page 22

Scene

Bold prints, bookbags and shoes, oh my!

In the end - An essay

page 16

24

A Hannah by any other name · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 1

TAKE CARE students. Jacqueline Awe, Director of Student Development, can already suggest five ways that students can help themselves now: Sleep Hygiene

Students should sleep more than five hours.

Bedrooms should be conducive to sleep – clean, for example, with the heat set at a consistent temperature – not too hot or cold.

Go for cool.

Meditate and/or Pray

before it manages you

by ERICA RELAFORD

Whether it is staying up until the wee hours of the morning to cram for a test or running for dear life to make it to class on time, students at Savannah State University breathe in stress along with the air around them.

OK, so you already know that. But how can stress be managed?

First, let’s define it. Psychologists say stress is a short or long-lived reaction affecting the health of the mind and/or body. Stress can be a good thing, they add, in moderation and if you understand and manage it.

The American Psychological Association says that managing stress can become complicated and confusing in part because there are different types: acute, episodic acute and chronic.

Acute stress is the most common, gardenvariety form. It is caused by the demands and pressures of the recent past and the demands and pressures anticipated in the near future.

While too much acute stress can be exhausting, psychologists say that in small doses, acute stress is also thrilling and exciting.

SSU student and deadline artist, Maurice Freeman, 19, a sophomore majoring in political science and from Riverdale, Ga., says acute stress actually helps him be more effective in his studies.

“I kind of wait until [the] last minute for stress to come. That’s how I do my best work,” he says. “But if it gets too much, I sleep, take a shower or listen to music.”

People who experience episodic acute stress are often in a hurry, short-tempered, irritable,

2 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

anxious and tense. They frequently describe themselves as having a lot of energy. Maybe, psychologists say, but mostly, they’re stressed.

Again, acute stress can be exhilarating.

Use prayer and/or meditation to start the day in a peaceful frame of mind. Be thankful that you are present.

Exercise

Exercise helps students produce wonderful hormones helpful in shedding weight while also creating a feeling of happiness and health.

RELAFORD

Alexa Mosley, 19 and a sophomore in Marine Biology from Woodstock, Ga., says that when stress causes her to be anxious, she reaches out. “I deal with it by talking to people about it -- friends, family and [basically] whoever is willing to listen,” she says.

While some stress can be stimulating, chronic stress is not. It occurs when a person can’t see a way out of a miserable situation.

Unmanaged chronic stress can lead to fatal breakdowns, such as heart attacks and strokes.

Benjamin McLin, 19 and an English major from Macon, describes his chronic stress as emotional engagement that wreaks havoc on the body. McLin copes, he says, “by writing. It helps to reveal any pain or pressure from the outside world.”

Although these varieties of stress can be overwhelming, the University of Florida Counseling and Awareness Center suggests that stress is only harmful when excessive, that most of the stress experienced daily is helpful.

Take time to use the restroom

Don’t laugh. Research has shown that a person’s digestive track can be effected by stress. So relax and have a full bowel movement. Don’t rush toilet time.

Maintain a healthy diet

Lay off sugar, especially. Make healthier food choices and the body will feel more at peace.

Get help

Professional counselors at the SSU Counseling Center are always available to help students who may be going through personal and/ or academic stress. As Awe says: “Get help because help is not a bad four letter word.”

Erica Relaford, a senior in Journalism and Mass Communications, is the news editor for The Tigers Roar. She says, “Stress is the climax of my life.”

Bernadette Mitchell, 22, an English major from Atlanta, refuses to let bad stress into her life. “I don’t stress,” she says. “I’m not going to stress on something that I can’t control.”

During the 2015-2016 academic year, SSU plans a program to prevent the increase in student stress in

GET HELP!: Words of wisdom for students struggling with stress from the Disability Resource Center at Savannah State University.

THE WAYBACK MACHINE

by INDIA BROWN I am a product of the ‘90s and blessed to have a father who was not only a major music-head, but an all around hip-hop junkie.

As a little kid, I knew that I would fall in love with hip-hop and embrace its marvelous culture.

Not only did I jam to the music, but I also had the swag, dance moves and lingo on point.

I remember sneaking my dad’s lyrically explicit CDs and tapes, taking them to my room and jamming all night. He never noticed they were missing. My favorite CD was “When Disaster Strikes” by Busta Rhymes. I listened to it night and day. To this day, I can listen to that whole album back-to-back.

(In homage, “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show”)

The Decline and Fall of Hip-Hop Lyrics

When I was in elementary school, my music world changed. My dad found religion. He put roughly 264 CDs and tapes into the trash. I sneaked out to the garbage and saved a handful of those precious CDs.

Nonetheless in our home, it was goodbye, Busta Rhymes. Hello, Fred Hammond. But, I didn’t let my dad’s taste in music be the deciding factor about what I would listen to. Then hip-hop changed and betrayed me.

Fast forward to 2014, and let’s discuss lyrics.

That’s what I often think about these days when I listen to hip-hop music.

One hip-hop duo who gets it when it comes to bringing spiritual lyricism and a polished outlook to the game are The Underachievers.

Check out this line from one of their tracks entitled, “Devilish.”

what’s popular and sells now.

“Chakras line up so proper, spiritual monster, the pastor enlightened consciousness, the Holy Father, so bow down when you see me.”

Unlike some rap groups, The Underachievers packs their music with topics about spirituality.

Today, when you turn on the radio and listen to different rap and R&B stations, most of the lyrics are crap. There is hardly any meaning to most of songs in the rotation, while there might be a handful of songs or less, that actually express a message that is worth listening to. Take for instance an Atlanta rapper Young Thug. So many stations and magazines are calling him hot but I think his music is garbage.

Here’s Young Thug just throwing down words that sound good on the beat in ‘’Lifestyle.”

“I ain’t got AIDS but I swear to God I would bleed ‘Til I D.I.E 28 floors up I feel like I F.L.Y.E.E. Pee on top of these bitches. God told me they can never stop me so they ain’t gon’ stop me.”

How are these lines even counted as lyrics beats me.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read those lyrics? I think of someone who’s making music because of the money and

BROWN

Too many rappers today are too dependent on hard-hitting beats and how their lyrics flow on top of those beats.

How did the value of lyrics go down and who or what entity is to blame for the decline?

I remember when a lot of the blame was placed on Soulja Boy’s, “Crank that Soulja Boy.” It started an era when beat and dance dominated hip-hop music and lyrics died. Remember “Crank that Ben Laden” and “Crank that Lion King?’’ I do.

I think the change was more about wealthy white men who own music labels.

When lyrics mattered, a lot of black people were conscious of society’s ills and questioned authority. Anytime it comes to black people and questioning society, there seems to be a problem.

It is easier to control and manipulate a plethora of black people who are not aware, or act oblivious to white supremacy. What we also have to take into consideration was the tear jerking death of one of the two best rappers, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. We went from rap groups like X Clan to Rich

Gang.

“Great blackness brought from the genesis.

Won’t exist ‘til Armageddon is a witness,” says X Clan.

And, Rich Gang hits us with, “Give me a bed, I’ll do her, I want head, Medusa.”

Go figure.

Even in the lyrical mess that surrounds not only youth, but the older generation, too, there are rappers and rap groups who put emphasis on lyrics. Here’s a mini-list, in no particular order: • • • •

Pro Era Big Krit Joey Bada$$ The Underachievers

• BJ The Chicago Kid • Ab-Soul • Capital Steez • Denzel Curry

If you want a bigger list of artists, go to the following websites: • GrungeCake.com • XXLmag.com • TheFader.com

India Brown is a senior in Journalism and Mass Communications and an intern at WTOC-TV Savannah. She freelances for Grunge Cake magazine.

She says, “Meaningful lyrics feed my sanity.”

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 3

SEEN SCENE Look

u p a s y o u w a l k t h e h a ll s . L o o k d o w n o n t h e s i d e wa l k s . I n a c l a s s r o o m , watc h fa c e s a n d f e e t .

T a k e n ot e . I t ' s S e e n S c e n e - t h e fa s h io n a b l e , o f f b e a t , e c c e n t r i c , h o m e m a d e a n d s t y l i s h ly w o n d e r f u l a t S ava n n a h S tat e U n i v e r s i t y .

Spot something for Seen Scene? Photograph it, tell us about it in an email and send to sessomag@gmail.com.

POWER BROWS

So powerful we thought they were tattoos. For a really unnatural look, pair with false eyelashes.

VACATION IN A BUCKET

SPAGHETTI WESTERN COUTURE?

Hat, that is. Once available only in solid colors, now bucket hats come in getawayworthy tropicals and cosmos prints with constellations.

The print is almost art -- muted color in a seamless pattern. Could be a movie poster.

Too bad it’s a polo shirt.

Bold prints... and book ONE IN EVERY COLOR

With 46 different $80 bookbags, is he the only college student with more bags than books? Every trip to class is a walk down the runway.

MINTY FRESH

Young, fly and flashy ... it’s gotta be a freshman.

KNOCK OFF OR NO?

We’re going with knock off. Or thrift shop since a Google search of official Burberry bookbags or backpacks does not come up with this style.

4 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

SEEN SCENE CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN SNEAKERS

Asked how he could pay $1,500 for these studded sneakers, the owner said, “I’m a really spoiled kid.” We did some calculations: that $1,500 could buy a Macbook Pro, 9 credit hours at SSU, two months rent for a student apartment, or 691 rolls of Lifesavers.

MONEY (BOOK)BAGS

A representation of wealth... or of everincreasing student debt?

Photos by Imani Alston, Tina A. Brown, Sandra Earley, Sherene LaMarche and Wanda Lloyd

bags... and Shoes! Oh my !

WINGED VICTORY

We’re not sure of the symbolism here.

Do they get you to class on time?

But, ok, flying money – money flies up from basketball sneakers and into the pros pockets for riches beyond belief?

Or bye-bye cash? Let’s go with the first.

SELF-ILLUMINATION BOOTS

A little bit of Sharpie, a lot of boredom.

Not a bad thing, boredom.

SKULLS IN LOVE?

We hate prints with skulls and these would kill us...except look closely...sweet hearts in the eye sockets.

THE COFFEE AND CREAM CUT

Or if the Fresh Prince and Dennis Rodman had a lovechild...

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 5

NO

G N I T A O C R A G SU The impact of diabetes on the lives of four young African-American women living in the South.

by JOCELYN WILLIAMS

6 路 SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 路

D

ivinitee Barr didn’t remember much about the day she went into a diabetic coma.

Her mother had left the house for the day, putting her in charge of her younger brother and sister. Barr hadn’t had an appetite that morning, so she hadn’t eaten. The day before, she had been vomiting frequently.

Barr went into the bathroom intending to take a shower. “I never came out,” she says, “So [my siblings] went to the bathroom and found me passed out in the shower. They ran to the neighbors, and the neighbors called the police.”

Divinitee Barr, 23, is a reserved and petite, 5’ 3” woman from Jonesboro, Ga. who attends Georgia State University after transferring from Savannah State.

She didn’t have diabetes as a child. When she was a teenager, it crept up on her like a shadow does its owner. “I got it shortly after my sixteenth birthday,” she says. “It was slowly but surely happening.”

Barr had some of the more common symptoms, but never connected those with diabetes. Early on, doctors dismissed her symptoms as strep throat and Barr went about her business.

Her condition worsened progressively. She vomited. She became sluggish. Then she couldn’t sit up straight or even find much energy for bathing herself. That day in the shower, diabetes hit her hard. She fell into a diabetic a coma.

Several days later, when Barr finally opened her eyes at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, they told her she had been in a diabetic coma and reality set in.

She panicked.

“I screamed. I fought the doctors,” she remembers. “I often pulled the IVs, or whatever they hooked up to me, out of me. They had to strap me down to the bed. My arms were tied up, because I had tried to escape, and I bit my doctor. I felt like my life was over.”

Over 29 million Americans have diabetes, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 86 million adults are prediabetic with blood sugar higher than normal, but not enough to diagnose them with the disease.

The statistics for African-Americans are higher than for any other race. Thirteen percent of all African-Americans aged 20 years or older have been diagnosed with diabetes, according

to the American Diabetes Association. Blacks are twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with diabetes, says the U.S. Office of Minority Health.

Diabetes is particularly hard on young African-American women. Twelve percent of black women over age 20 have diagnosed diabetes. The disease is fourth most prevalent cause of death in African-American women after heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to the CDC. There is no known cure for diabetes and just getting care can be difficult for young AfricanAmericans, says a 2010 report from the Agency

“

worried. “My dad’s cousin had a glucose tester and they thought it would be good to test my blood sugar,” says the cheerful 19-year-old who is now a Savannah State student and basketball fan. “They did,” she says, “and it didn’t register on his meter.”

Duren’s blood sugar level didn’t register because it was too high -- over 500. The normal level of blood sugar is between 80 and 120.

Duren’s mom took her to the doctor where her blood sugar was checked again before sending her to the hospital. She stayed three days. “I just remember they stuck needles in my arms and said I had to stay in the hospital. My

They had to strap me down to the bed. My arms were tied up, because I had tried to escape, and I bit my doctor. I felt like my life was over.

”

of Healthcare Research and Quality. Care is expensive and can be hard to access. AfricanAmericans are often diagnosed late, after damage has occurred, damage that can include heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.

parents stayed with me the whole time,” she says.

Corinne Duren’s lifetime ordeal began earlier than Divinitee Barr’s. She was 8, in second grade and on a family trip, returning to Florida from her aunt’s wedding in Ohio.

“I had to immediately go on insulin shots because my pancreas wasn’t working at all,” she says. Then she points out the grimly obvious: “In

Doctors ran a myriad of tests, one of which is called an A1C . It gives doctors the information they need to determine the average blood sugar levels over the span of multiple months. The test showed that Duren’s blood sugar had been roller-coastering for a long time.

“We kept having to stop for me to use the bathroom,” she remembers.

Although her grandmother had diabetes, her parents didn’t think much about it. “They just thought I had too much juice to drink,” she says.

The symptoms struck again on the day of her parents’ anniversary.

The Duren family came together for a dinner.

Corinne frequently, but unintentionally, interrupted it to visit the bathroom.

Her parents grew

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY Divinitee Barr, 23, sits in the shade of a tree.

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 7

order to live, I had to take insulin shots for the rest of my life.”

Some of the common symptoms of diabetes are frequent urges to urinate, extreme fatigue, tingling or numbness in the fingers or toes, and changes in appetite, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Individually, these symptoms can be signs of conditions other than diabetes, and it’s easy to overlook them, especially if there is no family history that suggests caution.

The scientific name of the disease is diabetes mellitus. That translates to “sweet urine.” Older generations often refer to the disease as “sugar diabetes.” The sugar reference is apt because diabetes tend to pass a great amount of sugar when they urinate because of the body’s inability to control the glucose level in the blood stream.

While the body is an incredible machine, in diabetics it fails to perform an essential function necessary to the body’s stability: The pancreas produces little or no insulin. Insulin is needed to break down food and create glucose, a form of sugar. Sugar passes out of the body, largely unused.

Without glucose, the fuel for the cells, the body lacks energy. Without energy, the body cannot and will not function properly.

This manifestation is the autoimmune disease diabetes.

There is a particularly high rate of diabetes in the South and among African-Americans in the region.

“There’s an area in the southeastern U.S. called the “diabetes belt,” because the prevalence of diabetes [and obesity] is so much greater there than almost anywhere else in the U.S.,” says Dr. Sheri Colberg-Ochs in an interview.

She is a diabetes expert and professor at Old Dominion University.

This prevalence, she says, is directly correlated to the cultural and ethnic customs in the South, for example the unhealthy fried-food diet native to the region. Southern foods are infamous for being fried as well as heavily salted.

Sweet tea and other sugary drinks are favorites in the Southern diet.

An American Heart Association study shows that African-Americans are five times more likely to eat the classic Southern diet, thus increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease and diabetes.

Fighting diabetes is a long war made up of race, cuisine and healthcare inequality.

8 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

THE DAILY GRIND Corinne Duren, 19, prepares her insulin pump.

Shooting Up It was the teenage years when life as a diabetic became particularly hard for Erin Stones, a 22-year-old from Savannah.

She had been diagnosed at age 10, a time kids are supposed to be just kids and worry free.

Stones was, mostly, in childhood. The worrying became its worst once she grew older.

“Growing up with it while I was younger wasn’t that bad, she says. “It’s just, when I got older, going through puberty, [that’s] what made it difficult. In high school, I used to be embarrassed about it. I had to eat lunch earlier than my class because it would make my sugar drop. I stopped going to the nurse everyday because I was tired of getting teased all the time.”

She quickly became sick and had to be rushed to the emergency room with high blood sugar. “It was Valentine’s Day to be exact,” she says. “It hurt really bad. I had to stay in the hospital for about a week.”

Diabetes is like a prison. It tells you when you eat, what to eat and when to take your insulin.

“I’m not even supposed to eat fast food, but I do it anyway,” Stones jokes.

In addition to the strict rules about food, there’s another burden -- the cost of medicine, meters, needles and the like, not to mention doctors who are medical specialists and diagnostic tests. The cost of diabetes requires a liberal insurance plan or high disposable income, neither of which many diabetics have.

The cost amazes Duren. “It was $60 for one little bottle,” she says The bottle lasts about a month.

Kahla Braddy, a sparkling, smiling 22-yearold from Macon, Ga, is a Wesleyan College student. She is all too familiar with the drugs, the doctors, the monitoring of diet and exercise and their costs, although she has never had diabetes.

She cares for her maternal grandmother, a diabetic for 16 years and sometimes her mother, also diabetic. Braddy’s paternal grandmother and grandfather are diabetic, too, but care well for themselves, she says.

Her maternal grandmother’s medicines include “three insulin shots a day along with about 13 pills that are divided with her meals,” Braddy says.

“Without her pills, she gets weak,” Braddy says, this time alluding to her mother.

“Seeing my grandmother in pain and my mom weak is the toughest part of it all.”

Motherly in manner, Braddy makes it her duty to keep an eye on how the two women manage their diabetes, especially her grandmother.

Take, for example, the grocery shopping.

“The list is made before we leave,” she say sternly.

“I don’t allow her to add things that we haven’t discussed or she doesn’t need.”

Braddy tries to come up with ideas for healthy, but still fulfilling, meals that make her grandmother’s diet easier to abide by, especially when she sees that the older woman is becoming frustrated.

Sometimes Braddy has to take further action. She says she fusses at her grandmother sometimes and has gone as far as to “snatch things” away from her “when she’s not doing as she needs to.”

She also rewards her grandmother when she notices that the older woman is striving for self-control. “I’ll take her for frozen yogurt since that’s the healthy alternative to her favorite [food] – ice cream,” the granddaughter says.

Diabetics draws the family into its orbit in ways beyond the care needed. “It can be a huge emotional burden for both the person dealing with diabetes and his or her family members,” says Dr. Colberg-Ochs.

When Duren was taken to the hospital, her parents tried to hide their feelings. “My parents were scared,” she recalls, “but they didn’t try to let me know that.”

Then Duren’s parents went into action: They found her a permanent endocrinologist, a dietician and diabetic counselor. Her mother went to her school and completed the school nurse’s paperwork for the child. All of her teachers were informed of Duren’s new diagnosis. “Some were scared. Others were helpful,” she remembers.

And then there were her siblings. “My brother and sister were scared also,” she says.

She shared her sibling’s fear but that wasn’t her only emotion. There was guilt. “I used to feel like I messed things up for my brother and sister, because my parents stopped letting them have candy and other sweets,” she says.

Cabriel, Duren’s older sister, is a recent graduate of South Carolina State University.

“Cori being diagnosed scared me,” she says. “I had to step up big time as an older sister.”

At the time Corinne was diagnosed, Cabriel was young, too -- only 11. But she says she suggested that the family stay healthy and avoid sweets on Corinne’s behalf.

that she’s “not scared anymore.”

“I don’t eat sugar-free products or drink diet sodas,” she says, adding that she eats what she wants. “I was not always like this, so I prefer to keep living a normal lifestyle.”

The consequences of that kind of living can be serious. “If not controlled well, diabetes can result in a number of traumatic health complications,” Dr. Colberg-Ochs told me.

Then she listed some of the complications: lower limb amputations, blindness, kidney disease, and heart problems.

There are benefits to adapting to diabetes beyond the physical. Adapting to the demands “made me be more responsible and made me appreciate life more,” Stones says.

“Physically, it’s annoying because I get bruises on my arms, legs and stomach from using needles for so long,” she says. “But other than that, having diabetes really matured me at a young age.”

Duren, like Stones, has adapted well, too. Always attached to her hip is her insulin pump, a device that pushes insulin into her body regularly without her having to give herself injections. The pump takes a lot of adapting.

“I never take the pump off unless I’m playing basketball, swimming or taking a shower,” she says. “Diabetes isn’t that bad, it’s just rough to deal with.”

The pump, in a sense, becomes part of the family. They don’t give it a name, but diabetes forces its victims to nurture it like a child. They feed it insulin and take care of it, making sure that it is always there. Its presence is always felt.

A meal in some families begins with grace or a blessing; for those suffering from diabetes, a

meal begins with a bit of fidgeting around with an insulin pump.

Duren’s pump failed to work properly once last year. She didn’t notice that the line supposed to send insulin into her body had gotten bent.

Not until after her blood sugar hit 800 and she had almost blacked out at a track meet was it that she realized what had happened.

Now, she carries an emergency supply of insulin for such situations. “I don’t want to have to go back to the hospital,” she says.

Despite the adaptation, some things don’t change. For those fighting the overwhelming dominion of diabetes, the battle is life-long.

Diabetes takes over. It imprisons its victims in their own bodies while letting them walk around looking like everyone else.

Diabetes can cause its victims to fall into an abyss of depression, like an anvil dropped down a pitch-black, bottomless hole. It creates a pain so deep it bellows. When it is controlled there is triumph, bittersweet triumph.

“Diabetes is every part of my life,” says Duren.

Jocelyn Williams graduates May 9 with a degree in Mass Communications, specializing in online journalism.

She is captain of the SSU golf team.

Photos by Jocelyn Williams Lead story image, “soldiers” by Heather Aitken

2009 (flickr.com)

“I suggested that we all don’t eat candy or foods with a lot of sugar and to start eating healthier so Cori didn’t feel left out,” Cabriel says.

The Battle to Adapt While most young adults can take advantage of a speedy metabolism and bottomless pit of a stomach, young diabetics have to maintain a high degree of self-control. Not all do and it’s not all the time for those who try to play by the rules.

Would like to...

T A U R LATE G N O C

Barr says she is careful about some of her diet, sticking to some of the rules, but she also gives herself some freedom.

“Some diabetics don’t do nothing and live by what their doctors tell them. They have a scheduled life,” she says. “I live.”

“Today, I still haven’t accepted the fact that I’m diabetic,” Barr adds. Then she says sternly

...on your inaugural issue TigersRoar.com |

The independent student voice of Savannah State. · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 9

Daddy's

GONE 10 路 SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 路

A Woman Scorned

“My daddy ain’t shit,” The woman’s voice is soft and raspy, but sultry like a ‘30s blues singer.

Her slight Jamaican accent is evident.

She is very angry. “I wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire.”

LEFT: Kimberly Lampke with her father before he disappeared.

RIGHT: Princess Lyons with her mother and now-absent father.

by HANNAH R. BLACK

She pauses and inhales sharply. “My mama said that he used to call her his queen, which is why they named me Princess. But that would make him a king. And he ain’t no king. Kings don’t abandon their kingdoms.”

She does not bother to hide her contempt in words or tone, although she apologizes for cursing. “This bastard left, just up and walked out,” she says.

Princess Lyons’ story is all too familiar. Her father, the man supposed to be her first true Prince Charming, has disappeared from her life.

“I was 7-years-old. Every night when I would say my prayers, I begged God to bring my daddy back.

I couldn’t understand why he had left me,” she says, speaking slowly and enunciating every word, as if she continues to try to piece together what happened to her so long ago.

Then came one more abandonment. · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 11

have chicken-foot stew.”

She clears her throat and her voice becomes tense. “But the man standing in front of me wasn’t my daddy -- at least, that’s what he told me. He peeled me off of him like I was a leech.

He looked me dead in my eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry sweetie. You must have me mistaken.’

“And the whole time I’m standing there, the baby boy keeps pointing at the man, my daddy, and calling him ‘Daddy’. And the woman looks at me and then looks at the man, and I can tell she knows something. And they walk off, with her fussing and the baby boy saying, ‘Daddy’ and the man, my daddy, shaking his head, with his arm around her waist.”

Princess cries, her soft sniffles turned to sobs.

Still, she continues: “I stood there, with a yucca root in my hand, just as confused. And I couldn’t think of anything to do but check out and go home.

“And when I got home, I didn’t say a word about what had happened to my grandma, who said she never did like his smooth-talking ass or to my mama, who never had another relationship that I knew about…”

She sighs and chuckles half-heartedly. “I’m 29,” she says, “and I remember that day like it was yesterday. That day I learned how to make chicken-foot stew. I got my period. And I’ve never said another prayer since.”

HAPPILY NEVER AFTER Kimberly Lampke with her one-time boyfriend.

“I was 13 and I was in the grocery store. My grandma had promised to teach me how to make chicken-foot stew,” she says. Her voice is light as she goes on about her grandma. “My grandma is the best cook ever. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my grandma. I remember my daddy saying that the only reason he married my mama was so that he could be closer to my grandma’s kitchen.”

Her happiness diminishes as she continues.

“Anyway, I was in the produce section, trying to pick the perfect yucca, and on the other side of a banana display, was a woman with a baby in a buggy. A little boy,” she remembers.

“The little boy was probably two and the cutest thing I had ever seen. Smooth brown skin, like the color of hot chocolate, and big brown eyes….His smile was something else. He was definitely going to be a ladies man,” she chuckles softly.

She sucks her teeth loudly and continues, “I kept staring at this little boy and he kept smiling at me. I knew for a fact that I didn’t know his mother. She was tall and yellow-boned and had a bougie air, as my mama would say. But it was just something about this little boy that drew me to him and the next thing I know, I was standing in front of the buggy, holding his little hand.”

“His mama laughed, an ugly laugh like she had a cold, and said something about the little boy being a charmer, but I wasn’t really listening because I was too focused on the person walking

12 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

toward the buggy.”

There is a long pause, then Princess speaks again. “He had gained some weight, but it was him. After six years, my daddy was walking up to me again,” she says.

She sniffs. “I saw him look at me. And I knew that he knew. I knew he knew who I was.”

“

What’s a Girl to D o ?

In 2014, more than 80 percent of singleparent households were headed by single mothers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Its 2012 Family Structure and Living Arrangements report shows that 57.6 percent of African-

...I remember that day like it was yesterday. That day I learned how to make chicken-foot stew. I got my period. And I’ve never said another prayer since.

”

The woman who held so much hatred in her heart, has turned into the child who once loved her daddy with all her might. “I must’ve looked like a fool because I just started laughing….

When my daddy walked up to that buggy, I hugged him with everything I had in me….To me, the years that had passed didn’t matter. I was taking my daddy home and we were going to

American children, boys and girls alike, live absent their biological fathers.

The lucky children may have stepdads who step up or biological dads who have custody or are still involved in their lives despite separation from their mothers. Nonetheless, more than half of African-American children live daddy-less for

much of their lives.

The absent father has an impact on both girls and boys. The effect on boys has been widely studied. Not so with girls, although in recent years there has been more attention paid.

Fathers are supposed to teach boys to be men.

What do dads teach a girl?

Simply put, a father is supposed to set the standard for any other man in a woman’s life. He shows her how a man is supposed to treat her.

Dr. Steve Perry, principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., told Iyanla Vanzant, on her show, “Iyanla: Fix My Life” on the OWN network, that daddyless girls set their own standards for themselves.

“They often make the huge mistake of allowing others to define them,” he added.

Vanzant, who is also a life coach, said fathers “are the ones who teach their daughters how to have an intimate, nonsexual relationship with a man.”

I Love Him .

He Loves Me Not …

Kimberly Lampke of Jacksonville, Fla. knows what the professionals are talking about. “There was Ken and JB. And Derim…..oooooo, he was so fine!” she laughs as she rattles off the men’s names from some previous relationships. She pushes back her plum red hair, adjusts her glasses, smiles and bats her naturally long lashes. “Cam, Shane and Austin. I can’t forget about Austin.”

When Lampke was 16, her parents divorced and her mother was granted full custody of her.

Now 21, the daddy-less daughter admits that many of her attempts at finding what she calls her “happily ever after” have failed.

“One of these days, I’ll get it right,” she shrugs. “One of these days I’m going to kiss a frog and boom! My prince.”

Lampke, like many other women whose fathers are absent from their lives, suffers from what Washington Times columnist and author Jonetta Rose Barras calls “Fatherless Woman Syndrome.” In her 2000 book “What Ever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl?” Barras argues that women who suffer from the syndrome have at least one, if not all five, distinct traits.

First is the Un-factor, a sense of unworthiness or of being unlovable. These women, according to Barras, feel no one will ever want or love them and are in constant search for their fathers.

“Fatherless daughters…desperately try to recapture their fathers’ love with every man they meet,” she writes.

The second trait is the Triple Fears Factor.

Many women who are fatherless fear commitment. They constantly wonder if they will be abandoned or rejected.

As a result, writes Barras, fatherless women “confuse sex with love and hope to be healed by the physical closeness.”

Kimberly Lampke identifies with the third trait, The Sexual Healing Factor, all too well. “Ken wasn’t the best to have sex with,” she says.

“It was like he was jabbing away at my ovaries.” She punches at the air as she bites her bottom lip. “But I fell for him, and if that’s the way he liked it, that was the way I was going to have to like it, too.”

Overcompensation is the next factor.

The Over Factor is going above and beyond in the workplace or school to mask the hurt and pain.

“My manager is always telling me that I exceed expectation,” says Lampke. The small lens on her black Ray Bans fogs as she cleans them, exhaling slowly. “But that’s because I have a great work ethic.”

The final trait is RAD -- rage, anger and depression. Barras implies that the feelings can be directed outward towards others or inward towards self.

Lampke shakes her head. “I know I’m a little messed up in the head because of my parents’ divorce. I’ll be first to admit that. But I wouldn’t ever hurt myself or anyone I care about,” she says.

“Well,” she adds slowly, “There was that one time I thought Shane was cheating on me. I loved Shane more than anything and would have done anything for him….

“Late one night I was at his house and his phone kept going off.” She pounds her fist into the palm of her hand with each word. “I’m talking back-to-back-to-back. I was pissed and I knew it was ‘nobody’ named Ashley.…I grabbed his phone…then I politely dropped it out of the window of his mom’s four-story apartment.”

Out of the Mouths of B abes …

At Lovely Daniels’ small Savannah apartment, a small fury of purple and pink knocker balls and white barrettes comes flying through the front

HAPPIER TIMES? Laila Daniels with her father at her 2nd birthday party. door.

“I’m

thirsty!” a little girl says as she runs straight to the refrigerator, grabs a cup decorated with Disney princesses. And consumes the contents.

With a loud, satisfied “Aaah,” she tosses the cup into the sink. “OK, bye!” she says. In the blink of an eye, Laila Daniels turns back into the fury of barrettes, flying out the door as fast as she came in. The slam rattles the windows.

“I swear, I don’t know what I’m going to do with that girl,” says Laila’s petite mother of 27.

“She gets grown-er by the day and more and more like her daddy.” Lovely smiles at she looks out the window, “But I love her to death.”

Daniels is both mother and father to Laila.

The little girl’s father “is the one that has made the decision not to be in her life,” Lovely says, “not me.” The mother looks out the window again at her child, who is now standing, waving.

“I’m never going to speak bad about him to her or in front of her, but as far as I’m concerned, he can burn in hell,” Lovely says.

“He would call and say he was coming to get her, and I would have her all ready to go. I would go to the store and buy her brand new outfits, down to her undies and t-shirts -- new socks, new shoes, new hair bows, everything. But he would never show. After a while, I just got tired of it. It wasn’t fair for me to be raising her on my own, but it wasn’t fair for her to keep getting broken promise after broken promise.”

Lovely’s eyes squint slightly as she looks at a picture on the wall. “Laila is 5-years-old and the last time he was at one of her birthday parties,

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 13

she was 2.”

Ask Laila herself about her daddy and, young as she is, she has plenty of common sense: “I have two daddies. DeShawn and Andrew. DeShawn is my mama’s boyfriend, and he is my real daddy.”

The ball of energy runs out and comes back with a Disney princess bike. “DeShawn bought me my bike for Christmas. My other daddy didn’t buy me nothing,” the child says.“And he [DeShawn] says he gonna take the training wheels off and teach me how to ride like a big girl.”

When she speaks of her biological father, she loses some of her liveliness. “No, I don’t want to go to his house. He’s not gonna come get me.”.

Damsel in Distress M y Own Story If there was ever a modern day damsel-indistress, it was me. For what seemed like the majority of my life, I felt as if I was missing something, and in fact, I was. My mother died when I was a year old, and my father has never been in my life. As far as I knew, it could have been the janitor at my school, the man standing in the checkout line front of my grandmother and me at the grocery store, or just another person walking out of the mall as my best friend and I were walking in.

I believe much of my behavior in childhood

“

Wassil-Grimm who writes and comments on family psychology says, “females without father figures often become desperate for male attention.”

Well, that explains why I always felt I needed validation of my selfesteem when it came my relationships. “Tell me I’m pretty,” I’ve been known to say to the men in my life.

“Tell me you love me. Take me out and show me off.”

At age 16, my life plan was to get married, have babies and be happy. Fast forward 11 years and I have happiness, but no marriage.

Much of my happiness lies with my 7-year-old son, who is mirroring my life by growing up without a father.

It hurts knowing that I have contributed to this vicious cycle. His daddy is completely absent, as mine was. I can only hope that this will not have a negative effect on him when he begins to father children of his own.

My idea of “happily ever after” applies to more

ONE FATHER’S TAKE Dion Edwards, 23, talks about his daughter, Tristan. ever after” made me vulnerable. These days, I am succeeding as a single mother, while working full time and going to college full time, but I still secretly hope Prince Charming is on his way.

Tell me I’m pretty... Tell me you love me. Take me out and show me T wo S ides to off.

E very Story

”

and early adulthood, my likes and dislikes, is a direct response to not having my father in my life. For example, ever since I learned what 2 + 2 was, I hated math.

I had just reason, according to the experts.

In collaboration with Judy Milner and Nancy Schrepf, child psychologist Paul L. Adams studied the effects of fatherlessness on children’s mental health, social conditions and academic adjustment. They outlined their findings in their 1984 book, “Fatherless Children.” They found that because math is usually associated with masculinity, females who have no father or father figure in their lives, may have less interest in the subject.

In her 1994 book “Where’s Daddy?” Claudette

14 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

women than me.

New York therapist, Collette Dowling, calls the stock phrase of fairy tales the “Cinderella Complex” in her 1984 book of the same name.

She defines the term as “a women’s unconscious desire to be taken care of by others, based primarily on a fear of independence, often coupled with a need to be rescued by an outside force-e.g., a prince.”

Of course I wanted to be rescued. I felt I deserved it. Truthfully, I should sue Disney.

How dare they make me believe that my Prince Charming was going to come and rescue me? I may not have been scrubbing floors or catering to an evil stepmother, but the thought of doing exactly what I am doing now, scared me. “Happily

Not every father who is absent from his child’s life wants to be. Some fathers knowingly walk away from the responsibility of raising a child or have no choice when they are imprisoned, for example. Others are hampered by their daughters’ mothers in their attempt to be in their daughters’ lives. They know their absence affect daughters as much as sons.

Dion Edwards, 23, of Brunswick, Ga., is one of those fathers who says and believes he has been frozen out of his little girl’s life. He speaks in a deep, soft and solemn voice about 4-year-old Tristan, saying she “is the love of my life.” “My baby girl is so smart and so beautiful. Ever since she was old enough to talk, she would sit on my lap and say, ‘kisses for Daddy’ and kiss me on my cheek. And I would say, ‘kisses for Tristan’ and start tickling her and kissing her all over. She’d fall out laughing and I would have to catch her

frowns as he remembers the day. “I asked her why she didn’t ask me if I wanted to go and she told me her mother had told her that I had to work.”

His shoulders tense up; his face reddens slightly; and his voice fills with anger and pain, up almost an octave. “Do you know how heated I was? It was her birthday. She kept me from my baby on her birthday. Petty. She’s just petty.”

His voice goes back to its original tone as he says, “It bothers me when my baby’s mother doesn’t realize the error of her ways. I think it’s selfish that she would keep my child away from me, knowing how much I care for her. She doesn’t just need me in her life. I need her in mine.”

LIFE GOES ON The author with her son, Darius.

(photo by Kelli Boyd Photography)

before she hit the floor.”

He pauses. “It isn’t fair what her mother is doing.”

Edwards has vowed to try to be in his daughter’s life, no matter how hard the child’s mother tries to keep him away. He laughs as he scratches his head: “I don’t want her to fall for any of the BS lines that guys give girls nowadays. I want her standards to be high and have one up on me.”

As Edwards continues his story, he rubs his hands together. “No one can predict the future, but I was with her mother for so long and we just kind of grew apart. I loved her and I thought that no matter what happened between us, she would

never keep my child away from me.” He looks away, “Our issues were and are our issues. They don’t have anything to do with Tristan.”

Tristan’s fourth birthday is a good example of how it works, he says. “I Facetimed her mother every hour the day of Tristan’s fourth birthday. It was a Saturday and I hadn’t heard anything about official birthday plans. I made sure I was off that day. When I hadn’t heard anything by noon, I went to her house. No answer.”

“At about 10:30 that night, my phone rings.

It was my baby girl. She sounded so excited to be talking to me. She told me that her mother had taken her to the Jacksonville Zoo and they got their nails and toes done and went shopping.” He

Edwards looks down to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m not even going to lie. I cry. I’m man enough to admit it. I cry because it hurts. Every day all day, I want to spend time with her and I can’t.”

He starts rubbing his hands together again, and his chest swells slightly as he lets out a long deliberate sigh. “We are suffering together. I know a girls needs her mother, but she needs her father, too. There are certain things that only her father can teach her.”

Hannah R. Black is a May 2015 graduate of SSU with a degree in Mass Communications and a specialty in online journalism.

She interned recently at Savannah Magazine.

She has decided not to sue Disney.

Edwards’ photo by Hannah R. Black

A Few Words of Advice...

The effects of fatherlessness are not limited to females. Although gender is a factor, the psychological impact is the same for both genders. This story was written because, although studies have been done, there is not as much research on fatherless girls as with fatherless boys.

If you are a fatherless girl or know someone who is, I suggest What Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl by Jonetta Rose Barras. This book can give women the courage they need to deal with the agony of growing up without a father. It offers the comforting message: You are not alone. — HRB

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 15

The thing about owning land...

In the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Taylor Roberts’ great, great, great grandfather Frank Cooper Sr. bought 76 acres of land in Burke County.

The year was 1875 and for the next 140 years, through the upheavals of the Great Depression, two world wars, Jim Crow laws, economic discrimination, the rise of violent hate groups and the Civil Right Movement, the family held on. The farm is now 296 acres and operated by Roberts’ father Clinton. “… My ancestors had the wisdom and fortitude to value ownership,” Roberts writes in his senior project for SSU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.

The Cooper Farm is sown in cotton and peanuts. There are two houses on the property and a church. First McCanaan Baptist was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

When Roberts asked his dad about the farm, the older man talked about legacy and freedom: “One of the things about owning land; …[is] the freedom you have to walk in the woods. Maybe if you like to hunt or fish, you’ve got that freedom to be able to do it.”

ABOVE: At the historic Cooper Farm in Burke County, there’s the farmer, Clinton Roberts, the John Deere, and the big sky.

OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The Cooper Farm, begun with 76 acres in 1875, is now 296 acres planted in peanuts and cotton; in the Roberts’ kitchen, it’s breakfast and the paper before work; Taylor Roberts, left, and his parents, Clinton and Sharon, stand on their front porch with family dog, Base; the farm supports 35 head of Black Angus cattle; hardworking hands with flip phone.

Photos by Taylor Roberts 16 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

“One of the things about owning land… [is] the freedom you have to walk in the woods. Maybe if you like to hunt or fish, you’ve got that freedom to be able to do it.”

Photo by Jocelyn Williams · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 17

The children’s cosmetics business is a multi-million dollar industry. Beauty pageants for kids can cost parents $3,000 to $5,000 a throw. Little girls regularly wear expensive adult MAC cosmetics applied with pricey makeup brushes.

While some adults are gasping “children’s cosmetics” and “beauty pageants,” many little girls are reaching for bright red lipsticks and other cosmetics and discussing the virtues of nail polish as they ride the bus.

These girls have known for years how to pop their hips and pout as they pose for pictures.

These girls are simply…

by STASHEIA DURHAM 18 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

O

n A t l a n t a’s MARTA city bus, four small heads, barely visible beyond the top of the seats, enter ahead of the women accompanying them.

They shuffle around after a quick debate of who will sit by whom, before settling in their seats and filling the bus with high-pitched chatter.

“When I get my hair done, I’ll be pretty,” says one of the girls who appeared to be about 9-years-old.

“Nuh-uh,” says the girl sporting purple stockings with pink polka dots, “you have to have a dress, too.”

“And hair bows,” the tallest of them adds.

“And you’ll need your nails done,” says their motherly escort as she takes the hand of the closest girl to her and examines her nails, sparking a discussion of nail polish colors and designs.

The definition of pretty for young girls has surpassed the clean and tidy image of yesteryears.

As children, my friends and I regularly endured the scolding of our parents concerning our looks.

Just as my hand touched the doorknob, I was sent back to my room to brush my hair or to change out of the clothes I had carelessly tossed on.

“You make sure you look like something when you go outside,” my best friend’s mom would tell her, running her thumb down her tongue, then onto the smudges of her daughter’s frowning face.

“

never meet a brush,” she says jokingly. “But it was about good hygiene back then, about creating good habits so you were presentable in public.

You were pretty because you were young and adorable.”

Te n - y e a r - o l d Layla Williams and her sister, Lazana Williams, 12, are like many girls their ages. They enjoy dolls and pretty dresses, but when it comes to NYX’s red ruby kisses lips lacquer, the Savannah girls are happy to leave their dolls and their frocks behind.

makeup to make a mess with.”

Lazana has been applying her own makeup since she was seven. “I’ve always seen my mom doing it,” she says. “I would watch her as she got dressed in the morning, and I wanted to dress and look like she did.”

Looking through her daughters’ tri-fold case of makeup brushes now, Williams says, “I’ve actually never sat down and thought about how far it’s come until now.”

“It’s bright and glamorous,” says Lazana, “it makes us stand out. We’re the only ones of our friends that wears red lipstick. We’re known for it.”

Lazana went into her mother’s closet, jewelry box and makeup case when she was not around.

“It was fun playing dress up,” she recalls.

Lazana would put on her mother’s bright red pumps, her pearls, her red lipstick; and stumble around the house pretending she was going to a dance.

I’ve always seen my mom [applying makeup],” she says. “I would watch her as she got dressed in the morning, and I wanted to dress and look like she did.

”

Erica Miller, a fashion design student at Savannah College of Art and Design, will always remember the scolding she bore about her appearance.

“I would always get in trouble for going out without combing my hair. I always had braids as a kid, because if it was up to me my hair would have

PASSIONATE ABOUT PRETTY: Layla Williams, 10, (left) and her sister, Lazana, 12.

They love all makeup – pricey MAC cosmetics, especially -and they own a collection of expensive professional brushes to apply the products.

Yet, it’s bright red lipstick that gets them going.

Dress-up time became more frequent when Lazana’s little sister Layla arrived two years later, and became big enough and eager to play, too.

Angela Williams, the girls’ mother, says she noticed her daughters’ trips to their imaginary ball when she returned and found her things out of place. “So, I decided to get them their own

The girls’ collection started with a small makeup set in a clear plastic bag that Williams says she purchased for about $5. The bag was intended for little girls, and contained a tube of lip gloss, some eye shadow and blush.

The small clear bag of glitter lip gloss, barely noticeable blush and eye shadow has grown into a large black case containing three different kinds of eyeliners, four multi-colored eye shadow compacts, two jars of concealer, three tubes of mascara, MAC foundation and a variety of lipsticks and lip glosses.

The makeup inside the case cost about $150.

The look of long fake lashes and red-hot lips has become the norm for her children. The sisters don’t even complain about having to wake up an hour early to apply their cosmetics, or about the days they are stuck at home. They are always excited about trying new ways to apply eyeliner or to experiment with different colors of eye shadow.

“We just saw a video online about how to contour your face with concealer and bronzer and we’ve been trying to do it,” Layla says.

“But we need more practice,” her sister adds.

The family isn’t making a big deal out of how much make up the girls’ use. “It’s just something they like to do,” Williams says of her daughters.

“They go to school, participate in clubs and play outside like everyone else. They’re just into makeup a little more than a girl their age would normally be.”

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 19

pageants, it’s an appearance that requires girls to dress up and perform like pint-sized adults, complete with fake hair, spray tans, full makeup, ornate costumes and even artificial teeth (known as flippers),” Michelle Healy wrote in USA Today in September 2013.

Critics of children’s pageants cite the damage the events can do to a child’s self-esteem. They face sugar and caffeine highs as they lurk on the competition circuit as well as the financial burden on families – a single contest can cost $3,000 to $5,000, according to USA Today.

Others see pageants as a good thing. The competitions they say are instructive and as character building as sports. Debate.org features comments from readers saying pageants are a way for kids to fulfill their dreams, a hobby as much as soccer is. The beauty contests, readers say, help participants with public speaking, poise and the kind of branding they’ll need in the future.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Layla and Lazana’s extensive makeup collection continues to grow.

“It’s just a few more minutes it takes getting ready,” Layla says.

What would happen if they went without makeup? Would they still be pretty? The girls twist their faces simultaneously into a frown.

“We would be normal,” Layla says, not warming up to the idea. “But not pretty.”

“We’ve been putting on makeup so long we wouldn’t even look the same without it,” Lazana says.

Hours before everyone arrives for Zariah Weems eighth birthday party, she goes around to every one asking, “Do you know it’s my birthday today?”

It’s a hard fact to miss with pink and white Hello Kitty decorations covering every surface of her family’s Atlanta apartment. The cartoon character’s face covers the chairs where the kids will receive foot messages; on the table where they will get their nails painted; and around the edges of the mirror where they will watch as their makeup is being applied.

It’s a Princess Party.

First, the second and third graders are turned into little princesses. Then the princesses transform the empty space of the living room into a “ball,” where soft classical music is played while they prance around in puffy dresses. Finally, they eat the pink and white Hello Kitty decorated cake at a “tea party.”

Nothing seems abnormal about dedicating more than four hours to doing nails and painting the toes of seven-and-eight-year old girls.

When everyone has left, Shameree Weems, Zariah’s mother begins to clean. She moves around the room unsticking candy from the

20 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

furniture. On one wall, there’s a picture of Weem’s oldest daughter Jamekia. She has a sash across her body, smiling into the camera moments before competing in her first and only pageant.

Now children’s beauty pageants are too expensive for Shameree Weems, a 29-yearold Wal-Mart cashier and the mother of four.

She says she spent $5,000 dollars on Jamekia’s makeup, costumes, coaches and travel for a single competition.

“We tried it, but not anymore,” she says, “It was way more serious than I anticipated. It went completely over my head. I was pulling her from school early or not having her go at all. It got to a point where neither of us thought it was fun anymore, so we left it alone.”

Events move routinely and predictably at the Community Life Concepts after-school program in Atlanta. The kids, ages five through 12, exit their school buses and file into the program’s room decorated with colorful drawings and art projects created by the children. They complete their homework assignments then race into free time until their parents pick them up.

The children run on the playground and draw on the pavement with big sticks of chalk, happy to be done with class for the day.

Except, that is, for a group of five girls, wearing green bottoms and white shirts, colors of their school’s uniform. They head toward a shaded bench at the edge of the playground. Each of them pull their small makeup bags and mirrors out of their backpacks.

Twelve-year-old Jasmine Ayers is the only one who has permission to wear makeup.

My mom said as long as I don’t look too

Nothing seems abnormal about dedicating more than four hours to doing nails and painting the toes of seven and eight-year-old girls.

Beauty pageants were born in Atlantic City, N.J. in 1921 when a hotel owner wanted to boost tourism. Now the Miss America competition is featured in nearly every state in the nation and on reality TV shows. Beauty pageants for children have spawned TV shows such as “Toddlers and Tiaras” and “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” and their luxe mini-adult look. “…In the case of so-called ‘high-glitz’

grown I can,” she says.

The small front section of her book bag is dedicated to her cosmetics and beauty tools. “Lip gloss, eye shadow and mascara,” she says, listing the contents of her bag. “I can’t wear eyeliner or foundation or lipstick.”

That may be the rule, but she’s a makeupwearing outlaw on the playground. She shrugs: “We all do even though were not supposed to.”

She doesn’t usually get caught, Jasmine says, her ponytails swinging: “We don’t get picked up until like six and there’s time to go wash it off.”

Eleven-year-old Larika Herd doesn’t have a filled make-up compartment like her friends on the shady bench, but she does have a face full of makeup.

“We meet in the bathroom in the morning and they let me use theirs,” she says.

Emily Wilson is 12-years-old, and, although she isn’t allowed to wear makeup either, she’s the expert in the group. She has plenty of tips on how to apply makeup and what colors go best with someone’s complexion.

“Pink eye shadow looks really good on darker skin, but for you,” Wilson softly presses a finger on my eyelid, “ some red eye shadow would look nice.”

Terrica Hall, 12, owns the most expensive beauty supplies of the five.

On the weekends she visits her father who always gives her money before taking her home. On school days, once she’s home, she and her neighborhood friends walk to the plaza up the street to buy cosmetics. “I usually get like $50 every weekend, every now and then, I’ll get a little more,” says Hall.

“I was buying toys and candy, but now I save it and spend it on makeup.”

Ava Davis, 10, didn’t need her friends to teach her to wear makeup.

She’s an only child, she says, who grew up spending a lot of time with her older cousins. They provided her with an Internet reality-check about the virtues of good makeup.

They taught Ava that the people she sees on TV don’t look that way in real life. It’s the makeup that changes them. The truth about celebrity beauty seems bittersweet for Ava, but she’s determined.

“If that’s how they look pretty, I can do the same thing,” she says.

Alexis Robinson’s daughter Nia wears a full face of makeup at the age of six with her mother’s blessing.

“She’s a girl and it’s part of being a girl,” Robinson says, “things like girls wearing dresses and skirts and being lady-like is something we learn at a younger age than she is. This is another one of those things that I’m teaching her is part of being a woman.”

Nia’s cosmetics cost around $100 every three or four months, according to Robinson, a small cost to the Wells Fargo bank manager.

MORNING ROUTINES: The Williams sisters do their makeup together in the bathroom each day.

Nia likes putting on her makeup. She describes her joy while running her hand down the hair of the doll she holds, “It takes a long time sometimes, but every one tells me how cute I look when they see me.”

Nine-year-old Olivia Adams is one of the princesses at Zariah Weems’ birthday party. The two girls often play together and Olivia witnesses Zariah’s and her sisters’ interest in makeup and beauty products.

She’s not particularly impressed. “They’re pretty when they wear makeup,” she says. “It’s just

I’m not allowed, and I think I look pretty, too.”

Olivia and her mother Tisha Adams paint each other’s toes and nails all the time, but their nail polish and dress-up time is not about beauty products, it’s about spending time together.

“I’ve let her wobble around here in my heels and put on a little lipstick,” Adams says, “but it’s our way of bonding and those things don’t go beyond play time. I don’t just tell her she’s not allowed to wear it; I tell her she looks fine and doesn’t need it.”

Stasheia Durham, a graduate in Journalism and Mass Communications in, says pretty has nothing to do with makeup.

Photos by Stasheia Durham

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 21

SAYS SO Thoughts, ideas, statistics & musings

OUT & ABOUT

Interview with a Masked Bandit

by JOCELYN WLLIAMS Every other Tuesday, the Waste Management garbage truck makes rounds on the Savannah State University campus, emptying dumpsters.

Garbage Day is a joyous one for students tired of seeing pizza boxes, wing bones, bottles, tissues and other garbage littering the ground around the overflowing dumpsters. It’s not so happy for Rockford (you can call him “Rocky”) Raccoon. Especially near the end of the two-week garbage cycle, he swims in the indulgence of free eats around the dumpsters. No meal plan needed.

We caught Rocky on a break recently and asked him for his view on dumpsters, every-two-week garbage collection and things SSU.

Rocky: “Every other Tuesday, a huge garbage truck comes by and takes everything away. I just wish the truck would take some other trash besides mine.”

SESSO: OK then, what’s an raccoon’s idea of happiness?

R: “That damned mask. People think raccoons steal things, but if your trash is pouring out over the side of your dumpster, opportunity knocks. I’m a COBA kind of guy.

HEEERE’S ROCKY: A familiar face around the dumpster outside the Vil. (Illustration by Linda Blount)

SS: What is your greatest regret in life?

Rocky: “A pizza box with crusts inside. It doesn’t get much better R: “Not eating that half-eaten than a gift like that from a tuna sandwich some girl threw in the dumpster last Monday. Then struggling college student.”

Waste Management came by and SS: What is your favorite find in a got to it before I did.” dumpster?

SS: Thanks for your time, Rocky.

R: “Every blue moon, I find a lit, semi-smoked cigarette. I can kick back and relax after leftovers from the Union.

SS: Don’t you know that SSU is a tobacco-free campus?

R: “Yeah, right.”

SS: Frankly, Rocky, that mask makes you look like a thief.

Public records know it, show it

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

FOR REGIONAL COMPARISON FORT VALLEY STATE ARMSTRONG STATE GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY

ENROLLMENT, SALARIES & TRAVEL

SAVANNAH STATE UNIVERSITY

ALBANY STATE UNIVERSITY

Enrollment: 4,674 President Cheryl D. Dozier

Enrollment: 3,910 President Art Dunning (interim)

Enrollment: 2,594 President Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith

Enrollment: 6,377 President Linda M. Bleicken

Enrollment: 20,517 President Brooks A. Keel

for HBCUs in University System of Georgia

Salary $245,000.04

Salary $189,066.69

Salary $280,195.39

Salary $241,440.00

Salary $381,000.12

Travel expenses $73,478.61

Travel expenses $5,133.15

Travel expenses $7,388.40

Travel expenses $13,091.42

Travel expenses $14,023.91

(for Fall 2014 and FY 2014, respectively)

Sources: www.open.georgia.gov; university websites; U.S. News & World Report

22 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

A URL that means U Really Learn It all started with Nadia’s Cousin Salman.

url: www.khanacademy.org

LEARNING

It’s free. And again we say, FREE.

But back to Cousin Salman.

He’s Salman “It” being Khan Khan, one smart cookie Academy where you can get smart, savvy, who has three degrees understandable video from that really brainy school, MIT. tutoring on math, physics, economics, His little cousin, music, art history and Nadia, was having cosmology (whatever trouble with math in that is, but if you’re school. Cousin Salman studying it, you need fixed that with lessons to know). using squiggles and

diagrams on Yahoo!’s Doodle notepad.

Poof ! People heard about Cousin Salman’s tutoring, he put them on You Tube and now there’s all that help out there.

Thank you, Cousin Salman.

(P.S. We looked it up: Cosmology is the study of the universe.)

READING & WRITING

A Tip for Better Emails

From SSU President, Cheryl D. Dozier.

Taken from the Spring Institute on January 5, 2015.

“Send an important email to yourself FIRST so you can examine it for grammar, spelling, punctuation and tone,

ES P EC I A L LY TO N E , before you send it. Don’t email a blast when you’re angry.

Wait to email until you’ve calmed down.”

Potable Quotables We rounded up a small collection of inspirational quotes used in the email signatures of campus staff and faculty. Here are some words of wisdom shared daily.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

- Abraham Lincoln Sametria R. McFall Dickerson, PhD, MPA Assistant Dean College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences

“Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms” - Anthony Storr Randall Lowery Assistant Director of Physical Plant

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Mr. André E. House Assistant Director Auxiliary Services Director of Parking & Transportation Risk Management, Fleet Management

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

- Maya Angelou Mable J. Moore Ph.D. Chief Information Officer & Special Assistant to the President

Slow day?

Learn

by RONALD T. SHIELDS II

K R

I was Y sitting at work on a P slow day and started T l o o k i n g for a new O Superman t h e m e d s c re e n s a ve r N on for my laptop and I I remembered a shield A that had Kr y ptonian N words in the background but I couldn’t find it. So as web surfing generally evolves into a mindless hunt for nothing, I stumbled on a few translations of things spelled out in kryptonian along with an alphabet.

Obviously, from the comic books, the people of Krypton speak English so there is no way to actually speak the language of Superman’s people, but I don’t think there is a person alive that has never had a “secret” way of communicating with a friend or group of friends; this is just another one of those things.

This alphabet, in its many different forms, have been featured in Superman Comic books, Smallville and the Superman animated series. However, I must admit, it is easy to learn but it is pretty tough to get the shapes just right.

· SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 · 23

IN THE END - AN ESSAY

What’s In a Name?

by HANNAH ROCHELLE BLACK

I was recently told by a customer at Kroger that there was no way my name was Hannah and that I must have taken my name tag from a white girl.

Wait, did my African-American brother just say this to me?

Yes, he did. He read my nametag as I checked his groceries out and he was serious. Dead serious.

I politely informed him that not only was I named after my grandmother, my name also makes a Biblical reference and it means “favor” or “grace” in Hebrew.

I then proceeded to ask him what name should have been given to me since I was a little chocolate girl: Quesha? Tyneisha? Lanique? Or something else to that effect? Not expecting my response, he walked away stunned.

If you had any trouble reading those names above, then I just proved my point.

So I got to thinking: Do certain names go with certain races? Can a little black girl growing up in the ‘hood make it with a name such as Katherine or, in the suburbs, a little white boy named JaQuavious?

Even now, as I am writing this, my spell

check is having a conniption with these names.

Although I can’t see myself giving my child a 12-letter name, I don’t think it’s fair to label African-American female names ending in “-esha,” or “-ique,” or “-asia” as ghetto and ignorant. What about names like “Apple” and “Satchel”? They float around in the white community. Celebrity or not, if your child is named “Satchel,” the bottom line is that your child is named for a bag.

Sometimes I wish we could go back to the days when names were simple. My mother graduated from high school in 1973. In her yearbook, girls, both black and white, had names like Elizabeth and Joyce. Guys had names like David and Michael. I graduated from high school in 2006 with a classmate named Xochquintessa (OH-ch-kwin-tes-sa). A girl.

In our search to give our children names that are unique and meaningful, we forget that there must be some type of practicality. We also forget that there is a world outside our own four walls. In this world, people form opinions about you before they even meet you. Sometimes, based on their opinion, you may not get the chance to plead your case otherwise.

Nevertheless, I believe the name doesn’t make the person. A name is only a small variable in the making of you. A person makes the name, not vice versa. Still, don’t call me Xochquintessa. I’m Hannah.

A Hannah by any other name would not be me!

Photo by Jocelyn Williams 24 · SESSO Winter/Spring 2015 ·

THE WRITE ATTITUDE enhances student

learning by improving attitudes about writing.

SSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)

Sierra Walton SSU Student, Majoring in Mass Communications

Website: qep.savannahstate.edu Instagram: @Write_SSU Twitter @WriteSSU Facebook: WriteSSU Email: qep@savannahstate.edu

Smart

Since 1890, Savannah State has prepared

BOLD students for amazing careers — whether it’s making scientific breakthroughs, forging new business models or impacting our local community. It all starts right here in Savannah.

College of Business Administration College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences College of Sciences and Technology School of Teacher Education

www.SAVANNAHSTATE.edu