The comments section in any news outlet can often make you lose hope in humanity, so I usually avoid it. But on my usual rounds about the blogosphere I came upon an announcement that hair blogger extraordinaire, Nikki Walton (aka “Curly Nikki”) has launched her book, Better Than Good Hair, and judging by the comments on Clutch, Nikki is about to head into some serious haterade from people who are so obviously jealous of her hair, her beauty, her ingenuity, her family, her teeth and fingernails, whatever, you name it.
This is all par for the course when you reach a certain level of success–you’ll always have your haters–but I find it particularly disturbing that by and large, the critics of Nikki’s book are black women who should be celebrating the success of another black woman who has successfully started a blog, got it bought and gets paid major $$, is happily married to a BLACK man (where’s all the Black Love fawning over this, hmmm?) and has a beautiful daughter. She’s making the kind of living that is affording her the ability to stay home and raise her daughter and not be beholden to Corporate America, who can hire and fire on a whim. The chances of someone launching a personal blog and making that kind of money is like, 2%. Instead I’m seeing comments like this:
Then there are other passive aggressive folks who “wish her well,” but “won’t be buying her book.” Man, the crabs-in-a-barrel and sour grapes stink so bad you can smell them right through the screen. And since I’m not a fan of people picking on nice people for no other good reason than because their lives suck, I’m about to break it down, so listen well.
I have been following Nikki’s blog over the years and watched it grow. Plus I have a pretty successful blog myself, so I can tell you that I have a good idea how much blood, sweat and tears that woman has put into cultivating a following, gathering useful information, creating an appealing website where people want to visit and stay awhile, and developing relationships with manufacturers who partner with her for advertising. SHE WORKED HARD FOR YEARS GIVING OUT FREE INFORMATION THAT HELPED MANY, MANY BLACK WOMEN IN THEIR TRANSITION TO BECOMING NATURAL AND FOR THAT SHE IS TO BE COMMENDED. She is literally a part of natural hair history, and kudos to her for making a job out of her passion.
So why are these people hating? Oh. They aren’t making a living doing what they love and let’s face it, some of us are envious. It’s a natural emotion, but folks have got to fight against that negativity. Be happy for Nikki. Celebrate her success. Support her by buying her book, and give respect where where respect is due.
Now I’m off to buy Nikki’s book. How about you?
I just bought the book on Amazon. I'm so excited since I take the plunge this Saturday. I'll have my "initial" cut to going natural.
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