BEFORE.

This is terrifying. All political and the-personal-is-political ramifications aside, I'm really just profoundly happy she can still see. There was a rash of cases — I think back in 2011 — of people traveling to places to get this surgery done who weren't so lucky. (The original iris isn't gone — there's an extra…

YOU MUST SHARE. *sparkly puppy eyes of begging*

They do fascinating things with balloons and progressive enlargement. Granted, it takes a while. But I've seen surgeries (on PBS) where they done things like this with cojoined twins, where they have to stretch out scalp skin beforehand in order to have enough skin to cover the surgery wound after separation. Of…

Sadly oppression seems to give rise to the determination never to be oppressed again. Not so much with the determination not to oppress others. Time and time again, we see this. It's a human tendency that has to be consciously and constantly fought against, inside ourselves.

I think she also called Nicole Beharie, who is the lead on Sleepy Hollow, a sidekick.

"Artistic expression." "Awareness." Yep, yessir, thanky, I was never so aware until I saw this. Of all the self-congratulatory... guh. He is trying to sell overpriced clothes to rich people. This is a sensationalist attempt to sell overpriced clothes to rich people. Just freaking admit you are trying to sell…

I believe this, actually. It is not something that I am really comfortable saying out loud, as a black person, because I've heard been told conflicting stories and I'm not in a rush to tell people how to define themselves — I'm a bit careful before I say to, for example, a Yemeni student , "You look just like my…

Oh, I agree. That was to make an entirely different point. (Though I did read and essay about a Japanese girl having a wonderful pen pal relationship with a Nigerian girl. But nose bridges didn't enter into it. GOD I'm tired. Never mind.)

Perhaps it's because of the crowd I hang out with, however — but while I think…

Uganda:

The Embu of Kenya, then Sudanic and central — Ghana, Nigeria...

Sudanese variety segues us to the more "classic African" look (Sudan has a subtsantial Arab population, so this is reflected in that collage).

And here I feel you should just look at this cute little Berber baby girl going to school.

I want to stop going in order for a sec, because the next group is what I was talkng about when I say genetic diversity. If the Out of Africa thesis is correct, then the Khoisan people are the cousins of modern day East/Southeast Asians easily (Khoisan kids and parents — original inhabitants of South Africa:

Long picture thread is scary with the migrating captions. Breaking it up. Moving on to the Raya Wollo (4), Oromo, and Afar (5).

So yes, Nilotic: (I am truly, truly sorry, guys, and I tried to resize some of these, but I am not wildly skilled with the Photo Editor software...)

Still very broadly speaking, but slightly less broad than "Africa" — amongst sub Saharan Africans we have Sudanic, Nilotic, Ethiopic (ancient African-Arab mix), Central, Khoisan (possibly oldest group in the world), Bantu, Pygmy (perfectly respectable self-name before Westerners corrupted it to be insulting), and…

So this is the kind of day I'm going to have. :-)

Yes, you said African. I am telling you that "African" include a vast variety of phenotypes that the Western world, of which we are part, is conditioned to ignore, and this is harmful. Please do not insult me, I have not questioned your intelligence.

Exactly. It's a genetic mutation developed amongst several populations over a large geographic area as a defense against malaria — sadly, with major drawbacks.

What on earth did Scarlett Johannsen do aside from getting older? (And whitening her teeth. Not even straightening them.) I mean, it's a fact that the bulb of the nose (and the ears) continue growing until you die, and the cheeks lose fat when you start pushing thirty, but hers doesn't even look different. Are we…