we know you didn't plagiarize her
it's not like she's the first to write about it
she's just trying to get some press

GOOD JOB LADY
DOWNLOAD "NO SEX IN THE CHAMPAGNE ROOM" TODAY
WWW.ITUNES.COM/CHYNAHDOLL

Beauty is found in all shades, dark to light. The First impression for meeting anyone is a physical view. Tameka you are a pretty woman. But, the consensus is you looked too mature and old for Usher. A cougar should not look like his mother. The dark skin color was not an issue. An extra spotlight is focused because you married a young talent in his prime.

First of all beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure there are people that totally disagree with the fact that this woman is ugly. Really people, we should be more excepting of our people, and the way they were created to look.

Girrrl, I don't know WHY u even bothered to mention this ridiculousNESS. I too saw that story and that she was claiming you "stole" from her book. LMAO. People will do ANYTHING for a quick buck and some EXPOSURE. No one is going out to buy her book, especially not after she bashed you, instead of congratulating you. This is an ISSUE, that all dark skinned women face (like myself) NOT someone's "thing" to claim ownership of. SMH!

I'm going to keep it real... Tameka is not cute period. Some people I know believe her to be borderline ugly w/o makeup of course. In any case it has nothing to do with her skintone it just so happen she's are dark-skinned. There are tons of pretty dark-skin sisters in the industry including Gabby Union, Nia Long, Keisha Pulliam, Kellita Williams, Robin Givens, the girl from the Bernie Mac show Camille Winbush... just to name a few. Tameka needs to just give it up and accept the fact that she's not attractive and stop blaming black women for her insecurities and failed marriage.

wow! i'm darking than you and I have a regular 9-5 in a major corporation. Trust..... YOu don't know tha struggle girl!

Maneka take your ugly brokedown *ss on and go get a job. claim your other kids that you act like don't exist. do my eyes a favor and stay out of public view. why must my eyes keep screaming because of your ugly face? and where's a paper bag when you need one?

You fugly for a darkskinned girl. stop stealing from people.

Its awful to be accused this way because when you walk/wear in the same shoes as another person;you can have the same experiences and embrace/relate to the same people. I understand very well.

I see you have a lot going for yourself and other will try and steal that pride if you let them but, keep doing you and let other hate.

keep looking good dear! do you! ha8ers need jobs....you dig!

I don't even want to read this looking at this chic who's obviously had a NOSE JOB.. I just did a story on black women and nose jobs. Its disheartening to see so many of them take away from heritage like that. Black men aren't getting nose jobs..

Comparison between e-book version of Aisha Curry's "Pretty for a black girl" and Tameka Foster's "She's pretty for a dark-skinned girl" essay, emphasis added]



Note that Curry doesn’t focus as much on the separation of light and dark-skinned slaves as Foster does. The flow of ideas is in the same order, but there aren’t enough similarities to make a claim of plagiarism. I scanned through the book and compared it to Foster’s essay and there are at least two other mildly similar paragraphs. Here’s a google document that compares those two sections.



Given the very similar titles of Foster’s essay and Curry’s book, along with the parallel concepts, I would say that Foster at least read “She’s Pretty for a Black Girl,” and that it inspired her essay. I don’t think she’s plagiarizing per se, but she should have listed her research sources and credited Curry’s ideas. This controversy is taking away from a very positive and thought-provoking message from Curry and Foster. Curry seems to realize this, and is gracious but honest on her blog, writing “It was just too coincidental for me. Something I worked hard to achieve was know being represented by someone else. Well on the positive side at least there is someone out there who understands and is trying to change the minds of others. I can’t accuse someone for doing anything. So, all I can do is continue to work hard and help others see the issues behind the words Pretty for a black girl.”



If you’re interested in reading more about this issue, Curry’s book can be downloaded for only $3.95 through her website, AishaCurry.com. I read parts of it this morning and found it both honest and absorbing. You can tell that Curry put a lot of heart and work into it. These are issues that I never deeply considered as a white woman and my eyes were opened, especially by Curry’s personal stories.

Tameka Foster’s essay:

There is an adage “hurt people, hurt people”. If this is true then we must examine the root of negative words and judgments that are passed on people. Unfortunately, we have internal stereotypes based off of skin color and facial features that stem from years of programming, dating back to the “Willie Lynch” method for creating a slave. In this infamous formula, one of the main factors in separating and creating division was placing the lighter skinned blacks in a higher position in the house, while those with darker skin were made to stay in the fields and deemed “less desirable”. Much like the Caste System in India. No matter what strides we make as a people, these issues continue to plague and rot our souls, causing significant decay to a portion of our population and truly hindering our progress. Perhaps we show progress in our wallets and lifestyles but not in our mind set.



Aisha Curry’s book, p. 59

However, we still use slave-minded mentalities against one another. These actions can also be traced back almost three hundred years ago, with something called Willie Lynch syndrome…. Willie Lynch devised a plan that would keep black people divided…. One of his main focuses was to cause dissention by pitching the old black slaves against the young black males… He also incited factions between the young and the old, the dark skinned slaves and light skinned slaves, and the males and females… Sorrowfully, we see that some of us are still controlled by this awful conditioned mindset right now today, two hundred and ninety seven years later… We have made great strides but not all is said and done.