In July 2011, Simone Bresi-Ando, founder of I’mPOSSIBLE was honoured when CNN international approached her to talk about her experience as a Black British female.
Zena Tuitt, Kehinde Olarinmoye and Desiree Banugo joined Simone to share their journeys as Black British women and were asked a range of questions during a two hour interview about their perception of the beauty and fashion industry; working in the corporate world and society as a whole.
Well done Simone and all the other ladies who took part in this discussion.
[Thanks T]
MAD NEWS UK 
That was well done! And i loved seeing all of those beautiful Black women. But i wish Black women on a whole would stop buying into the stereotype of all Black women being loud and rude. That is as stereotype that some Black men and the media came up with. And once it was out there the media ran with it. Black women are neither loud nor rude!! Yeah there are a few crazy ones …same thing goes for us men. But i like that one of them mentioned it and said they are not the stereotype. But the only way more Black women or men will be added to the media is if we stop watching shows that don’t have us in it. It is really that simple and stops buying from their sponsors. But we won’t do it… it has always been about the mighty dollar!! Now here in the states they are now going to make more African American shows for television because they see we are now watching our own…. And the numbers are really good… so they want to cash in on that. It all started with Tyler Perry’s sit com’s and then the Game on BET had record number….
i for one applaud this….
In July I was approached by CNN international to talk about my experiences as a Black British female. It’s not a regular occurrence for this to happen so I jumped at the chance!
Myself, Zena Tuitt, Kehinde Olarinmoye and Desiree Banugo were asked a range of questions during a two hour interview around our perception of the beauty and fashion industry; working in the corporate world and society as a whole as a Black British female.
We spoke at length about the impact of living in a country where women of colour were in such small numbers compared to the US and how this contributed to the ‘invisibility’ of certain types of images of woman in various stratas of British society. These conversations led onto what inspired us but also how good it was to be a British woman of colour in 2011, and how we’re using platforms like I’mPOSSIBLE. to shape our unique bi-cultural identity and define our multi-dimensional identities on our own terms.
It was an amazing opportunity to offer an insight into the often unheard voice and image of the ‘professional black female’. We are happy that CNN felt our story was newsworthy and provided us with a global digital platform to pique interest in the ‘every day’ lives of first generation British-born black females – an image often invisible in the media.
🙂