By Bar­bara Henry

The con­cept of Sis­ter­hood is prob­a­bly one of the most con­fus­ing amongst black women and girls.  Not because the con­cept is for­eign to us, but because, more often than not, we are bom­barded with images and exam­ples of black women mis­be­hav­ing when inter­act­ing with each other.  Instead of hav­ing the expe­ri­ence of see­ing more black women embrace in love, we see them entan­gled in cat­fights on our TV screens.

Were you glued to your seat for the last two sea­sons of The Real House­wives of Atlanta?  I sure was!  It’s a guilty plea­sure of mine, so I com­pletely under­stand why shows like, For the Love of Ray J, and every other love based real­ity show inter­ests you.  We enjoy sid­ing with our favorite char­ac­ters and its hard not to get drawn in by the sto­ry­lines and juicy gossip.

How­ever, the scenes and sce­nar­ios that we watch weekly don’t just stay on our TV screens, they are play­ing out in our daily social lives.  We encounter each other and we imme­di­ately begin to dis­sect every­thing about each other, from our hair­styles and fash­ion choices, all the way down to the ways that we speak and the neigh­bor­hoods that we live in or come from.  These are NOT acts of Sis­ter­hood.  Sis­ter­hood, or “sis­ta­hood” is meant to unify women, not to sep­a­rate us on the basis of com­pe­ti­tion and envy!

It’s much more affec­tive and health­ier to prac­tice admi­ra­tion and accep­tance in our daily inter­ac­tions with each other, espe­cially since row­di­ness and other neg­a­tive behav­iors are expected from black women in the larger soci­ety.  Why do you think the pro­duc­ers of The Real House­wives of Atlanta replaced the cast mem­ber who wasn’t fond of drama?

Instead of mak­ing fun of a fel­low baby­girlz’ out­fit or hair­style, try going over to her, intro­duc­ing your­self, and com­pli­ment­ing her on her beau­ti­ful eyes.  And when you are tempted to shy away from the baby­girl who lives in the neigh­bor­hood that is a bit tougher than yours or the one that isn’t as tough as yours, remem­ber that she has some­thing to add to your life.

Most impor­tantly, please know that the foun­da­tion of Sis­ter­hood begins one lit­tle sis­ter at a time.  That’s exactly how this mag­a­zine was cre­ated for you.  Through the power and unity of Sisterhood.

We would love for you to share your Sis­ter­hood expe­ri­ences with us.  What has Sis­ter­hood been like for you?