Tayari's Blog: Kiri Davis On Oprah!
Posted by TayariJones on May 28, 2007 05:48 PM
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Current Events
Remember Kiri Davis whose film "A Girl Like Me" was featured on Cosmogirl a few months ago? Well, it seems she has much bigger fish to fry than whatever shadiness was (or wasn't) going on with that contest. 18-year-old Kiri was on Oprah today. I didn't see it, as I am in cardboard hell, trying to pack all my stuff to get out of town.
If someone did see it, I'd love a recap in the comments section. From the link above, it seems that it is a show about kids being ashamed of their looks.
(A quick aside... I worry a bit that the question of girl's self-esteem often comes down to whether they find themselves pretty or not. I mean, aren't their other measures of a self? Do we ask our sons whether they believe themselves to be beautiful? I am all in favor of reversing the trends that cause black girls to hate their dark skin and kinky hair. Like many sisters, I have an inner-Pecola that shows her sad face from time to time, so I am all for the balm. However, we must be careful not to swing so far in the direction that convinces our girls that all they need in life is to be pretty. OK. Off the soap box. I've got packing to do. Somebody tell me what they said on Oprah.)
And before I go, folks are blogging about it. I just have to pack. So here is the link to all the blog posts.
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There are 2 comments on "Kiri Davis On Oprah!". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.
Comment #1, by kpdreams ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
Hi Tayari-
I don't think they were trying to say that a girl's beauty is the only determining factor of her self-worth. They were saying if you look in the mirror and don't feel good about what you see, it affects every other area of your life. If a person is self-concious in one area, that often spreads to other areas. Like with Kiri's experiment she asked some girls which doll was the bad doll. The little girls said the black girl was the bad doll because she was black. So this goes back to what the girls see in themselves when they look in the mirror. They see a bad person, a person who is less than others simply because of how they look. In the end Oprah started a club for girls to learn how to feel good about themselves, and a part of the commitment letter they had to sign said something like I'm smart, I'm beautiful, etc etc. So they did focus on other aspects of self and not just beauty. They also had a young man on there who said he doesn't feel good about his looks because of his dark skin, so it's not just the girls who are affected by this. Overall, it was good show and didn't seem superficial at all.
Happy Packing-
Kizzy
May 29, 2007 10:13 AM
Comment #2, by Trenee
I can do you one better and provide you with the You Tube link so that you can see it for yourself:
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMWfojbYxIA
May 30, 2007 11:56 AM