"Be the change you want to see in the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi

28 August 2014

Trending Now

What's Trending Now?



Tall Gladiator Sandals ... and ... #FERGUSON on Twitter!

Trending Now: Gladiator Sandals!

Interestingly enough, right now in fashion the item that most women desire to add to their wardrobe (if they haven't already) are gladiator sandals. More specifically, the tall ones that reach up towards the knees.

The true definition of a gladiator is (in ancient Rome) a person, often a slave or captive, who was armed with a sword or other weapon and compelled to fight to the death in a public arena against another person or a wild animal, for the entertainment of the spectators [Source: Dictionary.com]. Understanding what the term "gladiator" really means and keeping abreast with not only current fashion trends but also current social issues has lead me to write this blog page and to create this fashion collage. As an African American female, I often feel very disheartened about the history of slavery in America as it relates to the levels of racism and discrimination that is present in almost every aspect of my life: career, dating, fashion, shopping, dining, blogging, etc. We have an African American President serving his second term in the White House yet we have moved backwards as far as race relations in this country.

The black community and quite a few honest, unbiased members of other communities are in such an uproar over the social injustice that has recently taken place in Ferguson, Missouri near St. Louis because of the severe military gear that the local police have chosen to arm themselves with to battle against the innocent citizens who have taken to the streets to protest. There has been a recent unjust killing of an unarmed African American teenager (Michael Brown) by a white police officer reminiscent of what happened in Sanford, Florida a few years ago with the killing of another unarmed black teen (Trayvon Martin) by a neighborhood watchman (George Michael Zimmerman) who seemed to be reacting out of a deeply-rooted racial hatred. These similar events keep happening over and over again and now the black community is being more adamant about speaking out about police brutality and the various forms of it to try to bring about change on their own just as many African Americans protested during the civil rights movement of the sixties to get major legislation passed such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [Source: Wikipeida].


Image Source: BBC News

I just joined Twitter about 3 weeks ago on a whim impulse and I am glad that I did because the ongoing support from around the world is astonishing and plentiful when reviewing the hashtag #FERGUSON on Twitter unlike any other online social medium. I need not go on an on about this topic because passionate twitterers and journalists are covering this topic more in depth than the information being presented on CNN. Don't get me wrong ... I love CNN and watch it faithfully. But now that I am on twitter I am more easily able to get more of a complete story. Follow me on twitter (@shonshyne) for those "stand out" stories and photos that I have retweeted or favorited and check out the #FERGUSON hashtag yourself to see the enormous outcry of injustice and instantaneous news coverage.



Professor and scholar Cornel West's profound response I was able to access immediately as it was posted to Twitter under the Ferguson hashtag and is the best oratorical comment from a prominent figure in the black community. The letter written by Trayvon's mother addressing the family of Michael Brown I was also able to quickly access via Twitter's Ferguson hashtag as soon as it became publicly available. I extracted a direct link to the letter that was nestled inside of another tweet and tweeted it out using the Ferguson hashtag.



One black mother extending a comforting word to another black mother is not only touching but is not highlighted in the media often enough. I have only been on Twitter for three weeks but I am already a huge fan of this social media. Quite impressed actually with what I have learned in such a short amount of time and amazed at the significance and power of this form of information sharing. Unfortunately, I was not able to quickly find a video clip of Hillary Clinton's public statement televised on CNN today on twitter so I went to youtube instead. Just love youtube!



And I must also include this front page newspaper photo taken from CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper's twitter page:


Image Source: Newsweek Online U.S. Edition


This St. Louis newspaper's front page story and magnificent layout from August 19th in response to how the local Ferguson police chose to deal with protesters is simply jaw-dropping and just makes you shake your head in disbelief. C'mon local police in Ferguson!

Today, at a summit in San Francisco, Hillary Clinton said it best:

"Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war zone. Not in America. We are better than that."

In conclusion,