Welcome to the Tweed Trends podcast. Hey, Evette, what's trending today? Hey, I'm Evette, hey girl. And you are tuned in to Tweed Trends.
It's the quickest way to find out what's trending today. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to Tweed Trends. It's Black History Month.
Yes, let's get started. Yes, so it is officially Black History Month, and I am so excited. Black History Month is when I get into that whole mindset of celebrating Black excellence and filling my tank for all things Black would love, admiration, amazement, in some cases. I just really love the fact that there is a month that is set aside where not just Black people, but everybody, for the most part, actually stops to take a look to see what Black History has to offer.
And honestly, there is a lot out there to offer, because it seems like no matter how much studying I do of various topics and events and whatnot, there is always something that I still had not heard of, did not know about, and I'm just blown away like, oh my gosh, I've never heard of this person. I've never heard of this event. I got to get more. I need to know more.
Where can I find more? And it's kind of weird, though, because of the whole idea of being an African-American person that a lot of our history is nonexistent. There's no way to get it back, because I can't go to a genealogist and say, hey, I'd like you to trace my lineage back to the very beginning. It's pretty difficult to do that because of the simple fact that there aren't records after a certain point in time as to where some of us come from.
Now, there are other people that they do have that information and I am just like, so in awe of those types of situations, I'm like, you know what? Somebody cared a little bit to try to keep good records. But as per me, I went in to the African ancestry blood work stuff where they tracked my lineage, both my mother's side and my father's side back to places in Africa, where it's not a perfect science, but it can tell me more than what I can tell myself. So I'm good about it.
I'm all for it. I'm pleased with the information that I got back from it. But going back to history itself, there's history for everyone. Everyone has history for the simple fact that this moment in time right now is going to be history, the very next second, because that present automatically turns into the past as soon as it happens.
And so there are a lot of things that have been going on lately that will soon be in the archives of Black history. So I want to focus on some of those things today. The good and the bad, the not so great, and the oh my gosh, this is super duper awesome. So rather than continuing to run my mouth, let's go ahead and dive into some of these topics.
OK, so I mentioned that there are some things that had been coming out recently that would be filed into that same folder of Black history. And the further we get away from it, the more that it kind of falls into the history category. But we've got these two biopics, one, the one dealing with Salt and Pepper, and the other one is the Wendy Williams movie. Now, in no way, shape or form, am I mentioning them?
Because I want to dive into what those movies were about. But more on the fact that both of them covered the lives of African-American females and all of the various trials and tribulations that they've had to go through, the things that they've seen, the things that they've done, that sort of thing. And it's just, it's crazy because as an African-American female, there's a lot that you go through. Not trying to take anything away from anyone else.
African-American men have issues and they have stuff to go through. Just like everybody else in the world, not trying to put ourselves on a pedestal or anything. But as an African-American female, I can relate. I can understand.
It makes sense to me that it's like, it's a hard knock-a-life for an African-American female. I hear a new street, you hear me? But anyway, so on top of all of that, just recently, as a matter of fact, I think it was just this past Sunday, I don't know if you know or not, but Chloe Bailey, she is, you probably know her from Grown-ish, if not from singing with her sister, Hallie. But she had, I'm not going to call it a meltdown because it would have been the same with me.
She got a little teary-eyed talking on Instagram live the other day when people were coming for her about how they feel like she's being a little too sexy in these little videos that she's showing up for herself, dancing around in her underwear and whatnot. And the one thing I have to say about that is, when you put the information out, you open yourself up for criticism. Simple as that. So as soon as you put it out there in the street, then street can come right back at you.
And there's really nothing you can do about that other than keep the stuff to yourself or put it on a private page where only certain people can see that sort of thing. But that's not my focus either. The fact was she was getting really emotional and trying to explain to her fans and whoever else was willing to listen about how she's learning to love herself and how she's had body issues in the past. And she's learning to embrace those things now.
So I bring that to the situation with these biopics as well because as an African-American female, there have been so many times, especially when you track back into a time period where you didn't see that many of us doing things, you didn't see that many of us in the spotlight, we weren't considered beautiful, not by general standards. And then we come and we have these issues. We have things like Woman Crush Wednesday, where there is the way somebody is, how they wear their hair, how they dress, whatever it is, we can find things about everybody else, that's so awesome, but it is difficult. We are hard pressed to find something positive in ourselves.
And that's difficult, that's tough. But you know what? The crazy thing is, there's somebody out there that sees you and they are thinking that you are the most awesomest thing in the world. The problem is we don't give each other our flowers when it's deserved.
We don't pump each other up, we don't lift each other up, we're so busy trying to compete with everybody, that the majority of women tear each other down. That's women on a whole. But African-American women, we got that thing on lock where if we shared our thoughts and feelings and emotions about our friends and the things that we see in them that are so beautiful and so positive, we wouldn't have a thing to worry about because we would be the most positive people in the world. We would be doing that whole look in the mirror, wake up in the morning, thinking of ourselves as being flawless.
I woke up like this, look at you, mmm, work it, work it. That would be our whole mantra. But because we are so hard on ourselves, it makes it difficult. And that is why it's a good thing that we do have some positivity in our history.
We just have to dig it up. This all brings me to Sisley Tyson. Now we just lost her the other day at the age of 96, but she had a long, wonderful career. And she'd actually done some interviews just recently as a matter of fact.
But then if you look back at other roles that she's played and other interviews that she's done, you realize that there is so much greatness in this woman. And to me, two things stood out. One, I did not realize that she was a model first before she became an actress. That she'd actually been discovered by a fashion editor for Ebony Magazine.
But the other thing that stands out and is just like amazing to me, it's wonderful, it's uplifting, it's inspiring, is that she committed her career to presenting only positive images of black women. Now that's a tough thing, especially during the time period that she was coming through because one, there weren't a whole lot of positive images of black women. But two, knowing that there aren't that many images and offers out there, that's going to cut down the number of roles that you're going to get, that can have a big effect. But it didn't matter to her because obviously, kind of like how I was pointing out, she saw that there was a problem in the community and she wanted to not be a part of the problem but a part of the solution.
She wanted to be able to be that role model, to be that person that people looked to to say, you know what, sizzly did it, I probably could do this too. I can become a model, I can be an actress, I can do all of these things. One other thing that I didn't realize was that she had a child at a young age, I believe they said she was 17, and that her mother gave her a hard time about wanting to be an actress and really sizzly Tyson was just kind of like, you know, I need a job to pay the bills and take care of my baby. That is the goal here.
So if somebody is seeing something in me and saying that they think that I can do this, then I can. So why doubt it, why doubt myself, why doubt my God? And you know, and she had trials that she had to go through, she told of a story of when she started taking acting lessons and how an instructor had taken advantage of her and it was heartbreaking to listen to her, to tell this story because it's just like, wow, but just like all of us, we all have things that we've gone through, we've had things that we've had to overcome. And that was one of the things for her.
She was like, although this happened, she wasn't gonna let that stop her because she knew she could do great things, she knew she had a talent, and she had to go out there and get it. And so what she had to do to go get it, she went back out there and based that person again and made those dreams that she had come true. And so, and then, oh, the other thing, one other thing. At some point in her career, the suggestion was made to her that she should get braces to straighten her teeth.
And she mentions the fact that she had sucked her thumb until she was like 12 years old, which is the reason for the front teeth of hers that were kind of bucked out. That was the reason why. But it didn't face her any, she did not choose to fix it. And that was well within her rights because that's her.
That's how she was presenting herself. That's who she was, a part of who she was. So why change herself to be something, to do something for someone else, to make them feel better, to make them want to then utilize my services? There's somebody out there that will be fine with me playing this role, bucked, even all.
So it's not even necessary. But so after going through and listening and reading all of these things about Sisley Tyson, it took me back to these biopics in this situation with Chloe, because as a woman, as an African-American woman, there are times that we will be challenged on our looks, on our hair, on our figures, on how we present ourselves, and what we're doing, how we do it, how we move around in this world. But you know what? We have people like Sisley Tyson to look at as the example and say, you know what?
It can be done. And why can't it be done by me? That was today's episode of Tweet Trends. I hope you really enjoyed it.
And although I don't think I mentioned it yet, today is Groundhog's Day. So for this Groundhog's Day episode of Tweet Trends focused on Black Excellence, I hope that it is just like that movie Groundhog's Day with Bill Murray, where he had to relive it over and over and over again. I want you to relive the idea of Black Excellence over and over again. Let it live in your mind, your body, your spirit, let it come, losing out of your pores, and just every day, all day, as you live it, learn it, breathe it, eat it, sleep through it, all just be surrounded by Black Excellence.
And while you're doing all of that, be sure to head on over to Twitter and follow me at heyvat. That's at heyeveet, or just look for the hashtag Tweet Trends. All right, guys, I hope you have a great day. And I will see you back here again on Thursday, Black Excellence and all.