African American skin

Genie Boy
The third Sunday in June, and you know what that means: time to celebrate Dads! It’s Father’s Day! It’s no surprise that Father’s Day was instituted following the success of Mother’s Day, inspired by Anna Jarvis. Another woman, Sonora Dodd, was behind the movement to recognize fathers and fatherhood. It’s a great time to talk about Dads, specifically my Dad, Genie Boy.

My Dad, Gene Russell

As long as I can remember, when growing up, my grandfather always referred to my Dad as Genie Boy.  What is it about nicknames?  What do we do to earn these names? Are these nicknames considered terms of endearment? Of course they are! I am named after my Dad; instead of my nickname being a direct derivative of my name, I get Cookie. Once I became an adult with a professional career, I wasn’t called Cookie.  But of course, my family and childhood friends would never call me anything but Cookie. My hubby calls me Gina. I like Gina; she sounds so grown up and professional.

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Today, I am wearing leather for my outfit pose/post. As you know, leather is a durable and flexible material created by tanning animal rawhide and skin. Today, I wanted to focus on another type of skin: human skin. How should we protect our skin, especially as African Americans or people of color? How durable is […]

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