"Ms.Thelma, DeNeen, and Claudia.

Tonight's post is all about my sisters.

The first black woman I have to write about is Thelma Causey. Can you imagine being 86 years old and getting shot in a neighborhood you spent a great deal of your life in by some punk who you probably knew when he was just a thought? Well that's what happened to poor Ms. Causey, but she didn't let it get her down.

"Thelma Causey walked out of the hospital Monday night, several hours after a ricocheting bullet struck her leg, without so much as a Tylenol from the doctors.

She rode home in her own car, too, because she was afraid she would get charged for another ambulance ride.

She stayed home Tuesday from her job checking in students at the West Philadelphia High School cafeteria, but she plans to go to work Wednesday "if my daughter don't raise too much Cain."

"Miss Thelma" is 86 years old, and being hit by a stray bullet doesn't appear to have slowed her one bit..."

Let's just go ahead and make Ms. Causey a field Negro for life. [Story]

The next sister I want to talk about is DeNeen L. Brown from the Washington Post, who wrote a provocative article a few months back about sisters dating outside of their race. I am thinking about her because I heard her (at least I think it was her) on Michael Smerconish's radio show a couple of days ago. Smerconish, of all people, was talking about the shortage of black men, and although he admitted his discomfort with the subject, I thought it was very interesting that he would go there. (BTW Mike, you are welcome for ripping off my logo. And yes, I know you did it :)

Some excerpts from Ms. Brown's article:

"So many black women are single, she says, because they are stuck in the groove of a one-track song: sitting alone, waiting for that one "good" black man to come along and sweep them off their feet.

Waiting. Talking to girlfriends. Waiting. Going out alone. Waiting. Going to work. Waiting.
Waiting for a "good" black man, with the same education level to marry them.

Waiting. Even when they know the odds are stacked against them.
Single black women with college degrees outnumber single black men with college degrees almost 3 to 1 in major urban areas such as Washington, according to a 2008 population survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Given those numbers, any economist would advise them to start looking elsewhere.

It's Econ 101 for the single, educated black woman.

"Black women are in market failure," says writer Karyn Langhorne Folan. "The solution is to find a new market for your commodity. And in this case, we are the commodity and the new market is men of other races..." [Article]

I sense a movie in there somewhere. But this is a complex issue. Clearly most sisters want to date within their race, but either the pool is too small or there are some unrealistic expectations out there. I suspect it might be a bit of both. (Some are even blaming it on a plethora of jump offs) When I was doing the dating scene (A long long long time ago, waaaay before Mrs. Field..) it didn't seem to be as bad as it is now. I hear this lament from my single female friends all the time. But then, I hear brothers crying a river, too.

Hey, is there an "E-Harmony" for black folks?

And finally, I want to talk about this sister.....wait, you mean that isn't a sister? Yeah I thought her "do" looked kind of fishy.

" Claudia Schiffer has been accused of racial insensitivity after appearing on a magazine cover made up as a black woman.

The 39-year-old supermodel wore dark foundation and an afro wig in the shots taken by celebrated fashion designer and photographer Karl LagerfeldRead more:

But Shevelle Rhule, fashion editor at black lifestyle magazine Pride, said the images of Miss Schiffer were tasteless.

She said: 'It shows poor taste and it's offensive.
'There are not enough women of colour featured in mainstream magazines. This just suggests you can counteract the problem by using white models.

'I don't believe they deliberately set out to offend, they obviously see it as being arty and feel that they are pushing boundaries.

'But clearly no thought has been given to the history behind what they have done and the comparisons it draws with minstrel shows.'"

I feel you Shevelle, models gotta eat too.