"In the beginning"

Kareen Wynter graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Boston College.  She also earned a Master of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.  In the 1990s, Kareen Wynter worked for ABC affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio.  Dedicated and fearless, tenaciously, she reported in the blazing-hot summer sun while very pregnant.  And ring-less.  (But don’t read too much into that.  Her fingers were probably swollen.)

"The Between"

As a general assignment correspondent for television news network CNN based in their Los Angeles bureau, Kareen Wynter reported on the execution of infamous Death Row inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams, quadruple murderer and co-founder of the Crips street gang.  She even covered illegal immigration in California. 

Now, as CNN’s entertainment correspondent and “go to girl” for late-breaking celebrity buzz, no event from the Academy Awards, the Michael Jackson trial, to the ongoing Lindsay Lohan family saga escapes her roving eye.  Recently, for Showbiz Tonight, Kareen Wynter sat down with A-list mega-star Angelina Jolie to discuss the thespian’s debut effort as writer and director of In the Land of Blood and Honey, a love story emerging from the landscape of the Bosnian War.

But is this "the end"? Proverbs 30:31, 'Beauty is vain. The woman that fears the Lord shall be praised.'

The title of this post should have been “The Many Facets of Kareen Wynter.”  But Kareen Wynter is a young black woman whose accomplishments are not enough to make her feel good in the skin she was born in.

Whatever happened to “I’m Black and I’m proud”?  What message does pan-caking and skin-bleaching send to young girls of color?  Is black no longer beautiful? 

Stay black y’all.  But maybe I need to lighten up.  Maybe skin-bleaching is the same and just as harmless as nose-tweaking.  When questioned about his many obvious physical “upgrades,” the late Michael Jackson (while denying them) once said, ‘Nobody ever says anything about white people and tanning.’  As one who knew better than most, maybe he was right.  Maybe skin bleaching is just “the opposite” of tanning.  Hmmm.  So why does it feel so wrong?