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You mean capitalizing off of black insecurity for profit? This is not the first documentary of this kind nor is it the best. I am hoping that we can soon have a more sophisticated conversation.
Chris Rock was not the right person especially with his history of insensitivity towards black women. He lacks the nuance and basic understanding. Intellectually, he is mediocre at best. There needed to be someone who could bring both knowledge and empowerment to this topic. I felt that it was just too shallow and Hollywood. Did anyone catch the buffoonery during his multiple daytime television appearances?
Acts of Faith Blog as well as LosAngelista Blog both have strong points of view and neither are impressed or looking to see the film.
Now my question, putting what out in the open? We have a history of being psycho-analyzed and taken a part like science projects for mass consumption. People of other races quite frankly, don't understand the history, politics and social issues that surround this and they will walk away looking at us like we are a spectacle...dysfunctional...as always. So I do not get the point of you calling Chris Rock brave or claiming that this conversation or topic needs more attention.
P.S. Stop discussing Michael Jackson, it is played out and tired. Stop making him the poster boy for everything especially when you do not know all of the facts. You are not Michael and I doubt you knew him.
P.S.S. Was Bell Hooks consulted or just Nia Long and her ilk (no offense)?
I was just coming online to post my thoughts about Good Hair.
I found it painful.
two parts that made me beyond sad..
watching BABIES, and since they were under the age of 7, I consider them Babies, GETTING PERMS.
I felt like screaming
STOP THE VIOLENCE.
STOP THE HATRED.
how the hell do you put a perm on a child that young?
the other section that just made me mad was the one with the group of young women, from a very good high school in CA, and the group of them unloading on the one young Sista rocking her natural. That it didn't matter what was on her resume, or how she came dressed to the interview, that THEY wouldn't take her seriously BECAUSE OF HER HAIR.
WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF SELF-HATRED IS THAT SHYT.
That Rock let it stand there unchallenged just made me mad as hell at him.
I've been natural for 5 years - nothing political, it was about an exercise routine.
but, there was a whole lotta self-hatred and justification of self-hatred going on in that documentary.
plus, the thought of all those Black women making everybody rich, but Black folks pissed me off too.
1. Natural hair is work and will break and/or fall off if you don’t care for it properly. Hot pressed hair is work and will break off if you don't care for it properly. Permed hair is work and will thin if you do it long enough no matter how you take care of it.
2. Itty bitty Afro is FREEDOM. Warm water showering over your whole body, scalp included. Lord have mercy.
3.If you cut hair, it will grow back.
4. As a youth, I enjoyed by natural styles. Somewhere inside I felt it was almost insulting, or at least unappreciative, to not wear the hair God gave me.
5. As a young adult, I struggled with how to wear my natural hair in professional ways without always being confined to tight braids or pulled back buns. I’ve never had an employer say, “You can’t wear your hair like that here.” But I’ve gone on plenty of interviews that seemed promising, then I never heard from the company again. That's how that kind of discrimination works. Most places that will keep you out for wearing braids or locks won't tell you that's what they've done.
4. What black men think matters to black women. As a youth and young adult I couldn't have cared less that the beauty magazines thought women should have no butts. Black men made it perfectly clear that they thought my round butt was delightful. Same thing with hair. If a potential employer put me off because of hair, I was okay. If black men shunned me for that reason, I'd have felt hurt.
5. I was doing the pulled back bun thing when my husband said, "You're not wearing that bun to my family reunion. Get your hair locked. I'll pay for it. If you don't like it, take it out after the reunion." I didn't think I would like it, but I could do it for one weekend. What the heck; it was HIS family reunion. That was 13 years ago.
6. With locks, I have learned how to swim. I don't run from the rain, can wear my hair "out" and in a myriad of fly styles, and can fulfill a lifelong desire to honor the natural hair God gave me.
7. My daughter has thick, fairly long African American hair. When she was small I did her hair in cornrows and braids adorned with shells or beads at the ends that would make her hair swing in the air. I let her wear it "out" for holidays. Still, since she was 7 she's begged for a perm; the popular culture is strong. I let her get one in high school. She has to go through her own hair journey.
He is still being sued for copyright violation by Regina Kimbell, producer of My Nappy Roots. The hearing is scheduled next week.
No black male has any authority to discuss ANY "issues" surrounding black women without taking full responsibility for the part they play in it.
Rock is an inadequate male who takes pleasure in knocking down black women. I have not forgotten his "comedic" act where he insulted Michelle Obama. Or where he discusses his poor relationships with women.
He needs therapy not a movie!
Why isn't his WIFE involved in this project if he was so concerned about his daughters? There's a bit more going on than hairdos for them to be that distressed and insecure. He can tell them they're beautiful all day but it's his actions that matter most.
Why is Rock being given the benefit of the doubt that he and he alone is doing something that's soooo great? It's my understanding he spent all of 2 minutes on unprocessed hair. Which only shows how much research he did NOT do.
Aside from Kimbell there are many other filmmakers who have discussed this very same issue with more respect and nuance and a thorough historical lesson than Rock.
We must never forget Rock did this movie for his personal profit and throughout this piece makes fun of black women. I also find it rather strange that so many black women have taken it upon themselves to tell others why they need to pay to be insulted - and that they're not really being insulted because it's Rock. As if hearing a man's opinion about other women has more value. Why are so many still eating this up?
Follow Up to Good Hair - We're Still Being Laughed At http://actsoffaithinloveandlife.blogspot.com/20...
Chris Rock Pulls A Steve Harvery: Stop Stealing From Black Women!
http://actsoffaithinloveandlife.blogspot.com/20...
Black Women Hair Angst Should NOT Be Open For Public Consumption
http://actsoffaithinloveandlife.blogspot.com/20...
Bullseye!!
I co-sign. It is beyong comprehension that some black women still don't get it.
And I'd like to ask all the sistas with perms who have daughters, how can you honestly look your daughter in the eye and tell her that afro textured hair is beautiful when you rock yours straight. I'm not trying to be stank, I'm asking a serious question. And if you don't have daughters, what you teaching your son about black beauty when you emulate a a non-black standard?
I'll answer the question as I have two girls and two boys -- I teach my kids that hair is just that hair. It means nothing. If they were ball headed tomorrow they would still be beautiful. How is that possible? Because I make clear to my kids that beauty cannot be found on the outside. . . it is all within. Anything else is superficial and has ZERO value.
You can lose a limb, be a burn victim, have an accident and get disfigured tomorrow. . . . . physical beauty is fleeting. The virtues that last are -- Kindness, Compassion. Do you treat your friends well? Do you volunteer in your community? Those are the values I share with my children.
"what you teaching your son about black beauty when you emulate a a non-black standard?"
Want to go on record that I don't believe there are any "black standards" that are not self imposed. I teach my sons -- find someone who is kind. Respects her parents and family. Who will be there for you. Has her own ambitions. Who is comfortable in her own skin. Who relies on herself and does not "need" you but doesn't mind having you around her. Find someone who has her own interests but is open to sharing yours. Find someone who will be there if you were to lose a limb tomorrow and will stand by you and love you for who you are as a person and not just what you look like, how much money you have in the bank or your social status. Find someone who is empathetic toward others but is strong as well. Find someone who treats her friends well and who is honest.
Not once did I ever refer to physical attributes. Not remotely important to me and I hope it won't be to my boys. If I have anything to do with it they will not be that superficial. I don't care if she is black, white, asian, hispanic, or purple with pink polka dots. She could have long hair, short hair, purple hair, NO hair. Unimportant.
As an aside -- I wouldn't say you were trying to be "stank" . . . judgmental or condescending maybe but not stank.
Why did you try to equate natural hair with something gross like flaking skin?
See, this is the kind of talk I hear all the time from women who try to defend the fact that they perm their hair. They always come with this idea that natural hair is nasty and they don't even realize what they are saying.
Sorry, but just because someone wears their hair in its natural state doesn't necessarily mean they embrace their blackness. Whoopi Goldberg has worn locs for years, yet she had her then white boyfriend, Ted Danson, dress up in blackface, and seems to have a preference for white men. I know plenty of natural black women who have a strong Eurocentric sentiment, so it ain't about what's on top of your head, it's what's in your head.
i find that to be the case with many scorpio women. at least the scorpios i've known.
surprise, surprise...LOL!!!
Or what about natural sistas who get microbraids styles that long and look like straight styles?
For at least the first 15 years of my life, I had to sit still at that kitchen table and get that damned comb dragged across my scalp. Get up early every morning, to get my nappy hair combed, greased and platted. Wasn't a European standard but who could love their hair texture going thru this day after day, year after year. Then when I started getting it pressed and that hot grease hit my scalp or burned my ear, come on now. Getting it curled and having to roll it up every day or trying to make sure my "kitchen" didn't get wet in the bath tub. Then, when I became a tween, getting the mild vs. regular vs. strong permanent and dragging that comb thru it again to try to get it straight after leaving those chemicals on for 15-30 minutes wondering what part of my scalp was going to be burned. So, we a talking about years of having to figure out what's best for our "difficult" hair texture would prefer for it to be easier, not really wanting a European standard, just wanting to get that comb thru it without pulling our scalp out.
How many AA girls people really accept this hair texture? But if its all you've ever known, you just learn to deal with it. How many young "tender-headed" girls getting their hair combed daily havent thought about whether or not my friend Candace, with the good hair has to go thru this. It is what it is.
Our hair is not unmanageable. That is the biggest cop out ever for perming hair. Tightly curled hair does not swing in a ponytail, it's a puff. If you try to turn a puff into a ponytail, well then you have to jump through some hoops and manipulate your hair to do something it was no meant to do.
It does not hurt to comb our hair. If you try to comb our natural hair like a white person combs theirs, then yes, it will hurt. If you comb our hair when it is wet, and use a wide toothed comb, and start from the bottom, it will not hurt.
There's really no excuse for putting a perm in a child's hair. And no black women NEEDS a perm. That is a lie from the pit of hell. And the sad thing is, it's perpetuated by black women and passed on to their daughters, who then think their hair is some kind of problem or curse, and then they pass it on to their daughters, and so on and so on.
How easy is it to manage a natural hairstyle in a child? When you try and comb it, it's going to hurt. So platts or pressed pony tails have been the option that best suits us in trying to keep our children's hair.
Black women, not society, not white folks, not the media, but black women are the ones teaching each new generation of black girls that something is wrong with their hair. Black women are the ones creating this psychosis in our community. Black women are the ones claiming that black hair is unmanageable, which is a lie. Black women are the ones claiming that it hurts to comb black hair, which is a lie. Black women are the ones claiming that relaxing has nothing to do with European standards of beauty, which is a pathetic lie.
That is like saying any woman that says it hurts to give birth is a liar because it doesn't hurt if you push the right way. That assumption is not realistic.
This hair fixation is much ado about nothing. Every woman has the right to choose what is best for them. Whether it is having an abortion, wearing make up, choosing her outfit or choosing a hair style.
Unlike other races of women, we are told by our own mothers that our crown and glory is ugly. You don't have to say it outright, but that's exactly what you are saying when you put a perm in a child's hair. That's just as terrible as a black woman telling her child she's not pretty because she's not light. That's serious and damaging and that's why it's far more important than you think.
Teaching your child to love her one of a kind hair is just as important as teaching her to love her one of a kind skin. No one else has hair like us or skin like us. That's part of parenting a black child. And those who don't know that are falling down on the job. White people never fail to let their kids know they are the epitome of beauty. Yet, we don't see the importance of it. Ridiculous.
now THAT was some psychotic shit!!!
that was stunning.
okay...if u say so.
in other words, if you're really black, then you press or perm your hair. otherwise (ironically!), you're somehow betraying your 'black' culture.
"Tightly curled hair is not meant to bounce and behave Tightly curled hair does not swing in a ponytail, it's a puff."
Don't work like that...we have a spectrum of hair texture just like we do about skin color, facial features and physiques!!
The black race is not monolithic in any way!!
No they dont! And that is my point!! You speaking to a SUBset of black women. And there is a WHOLE bunch of us, not feelin your need to describe black women's texture as being PRIMARILY one way!
It ain't about KEYS, Carey or Chili...a whole bunch of us simply do not have the texture you describe!!! It don't have to be straight but it simply does not CURL TIGHTLY like you describe. IOW's we can't be no afro and it aint straight either. So back your declaration UP!! Everyone don't have the hair you describe AND it ain't necessarily sTRAIGHT!!
"But to play like they are anywhere near the majority"
Ain't got to play like a majority..we just ain't NO minority like you think!! Ask your hairdresser so YOU can get a CLUE!!
"he majority of black women's hair grows out, not down. That is a fact."
No it aint!! Ask your hairdresser...you talking about what you do not know!!! Our hair is on a spectrum like our skin color..bu the thing is..our skin color don't necessarily match the texture of the hair...cause we all MIXED.
So back your shyt UP!! You don't know what the phuck you talking about even if you THINK your texture hair is a majority.
It AIN't!!
The majority is that it ain't straight!! But the DEGREE of curl is soooo varied!!! All of us don't have tight curls even if it ain't straight...and whether you know it or not...we are a majority TOO!!
I guess now you're gonna tell me that most black women are Mariah's complexion as well.
God, do we hate our hair so much that now we're trying to convince ourselves that most black women have silken waves growing out of our scalps?
I agree. That is what I said. How bout you read it again so you can get it?
"Most black women in this country have a tight curl pattern. And I stand by that statement"
No they don't. Just cause you stand by a lie, don't make it true..
"I guess now you're gonna tell me that most black women are Mariah's complexion as well."
Nope. But that IS my point, complexion ain't got shyt to do with the texture of hair on your head!!! Women dark as night can have straight tresses and women look like albinos can have tightly coiled kinky hair. YOU just don't get it!! Black women's hair is on a spectrum just like our complexion..and jsut cause you see a sista that dont look hi yellow to you ..don't mean her hair is tightlyccoiled LIKE you SEEM to think!!! don;t take my word for it..ask your hairdresser...she'll tell you the same ASS shyt!
"do we hate our hair so much that now we're trying to convince ourselves that most black women have silken waves growing out of our scalps?"
NAW. I am trying to get you to understand that MOST black women don't have that tightly coiled shyt YOU talking about!!
Don't mean it is silken flowing tresses...but it fo sho ain't no rug head either!!
Please take a moment to check out my documentary film BLACK HAIR
It is free at youtube. 6 parts including an update from London, England.
It explores the Korean Take-over of the Black Beauty Supply and Hair biz..
The current situation makes it hard to believe that Madame C.J. Walker once ran the whole thing.
I am not a hater, I am a motivator.
Plus I am a White guy who stumbled upon this, and felt it was so wrong I had to make a film about it.
self-funded film, made from the heart.
Can it be taken back?
Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p96aaTSdrAE
Thanks for sharing.
From what I can gather (and I haven't seen the film) all Chris is doing is kind of like pointing at Black women saying "look at all of the stuff they do to their hair!" and making jokes instead of really trying to understand WHY we do what we do. I had a perm because I thought it would make my hair more manageable, not because I wanted to look white or be accepted in some group. Putting all of those chemicals made my hair break off. I regularly ended up with chemical burns after getting a perm because I'd inevitably scratch my head right even when I knew I was going to get a perm. Now I can scratch my hair in freedom knowing I'm not going to be torturing myself later for a few seconds of bliss (lol).
Since I've decided to go natural, I've learned now to take MUCH better care of my hair. I'm learning about the different oils and herbs to use. I've learned how to de-tangle my new-growth without combing my hair out. I've learned that air-drying is actually AWESOME (even if it does take a long time because my hair is so thick). I've also learned that my natural hair is just as (if not MORE) beautiful than my relaxed hair. Sure I could have learned all of this stuff before, but I never took the initiative because I thought I was doing enough with my relaxed hair. I'm actually excited about doing my hair now instead of dreading having to deal with it. I've always appreciated that my hair is thick (especially since it likes to break off in the back when I'm stressed), but I've grown to LOVE the fact that my hair is thick. I can't wait till I can rock an 8-12 inch Afro. LOL
I admit, I will miss my highlights though, I'm not putting anymore color in my hair when they grow out.
I've started a blog to document my hair journey and share what I'm learning along the way, feel free to check it out: http://muzikalhairjournal.blogspot.com/
How you wear your hair is much more of a fashion statement...and no one says we do not love ourselves if we are wearing GUCCI, Chanel, Giovanni, Amani, Kors.
Just as there is a spectrum of how folks wear clothing styles, some into ethnic, others into designer fashions and still others are into bohemian. Hair is treated the same way, it is about taste and style NOT self esteem. We see this same diversity in non-blacks..with their gothic, hippie rock and acid looks. Hair is about the fashion whether you black, white, pink green or orange.
Frankly, I'm with your dad ...all hair is good hair.
I'm soooo tired of everything I do being politicized.
My hair journey: I think I received my first relaxer around 9 or 10. Before that, Mom used the hot comb...oh Lawd, do I still remember having to *sitreallystill* in the kitchen! I also remember sitting for hours while Mom would braid and bead my hair. I'm smiling at the memories of carefully selecting which beads I'd wear: the small beads in rainbow colors or the big wooden ones. But in both cases, I had learned to get over being "tender-headed" really rather quickly.
When I was in middle school, I wanted a Jheri Curl. I remember wanting to look just like Bunny DeBarge. Seriously. Mom was firm: ABSOLUTELY NOT. Thank goodness for her firmness.
My hair was not "good hair" but it was thick and just past my shoulders, and that always seemed like a Very Good Thing. Dad said my hair reminded him of some of his aunts. And to this day, I remember being asked, "Why don't Black Girls grow their hair long?" By a Black Boy. I still remember him; we're still friends.
For the most part, I could do what I wanted with my hair as a teenager but I could NOT cut it. (Clearly, I am Southern with Southern parents.) I also couldn't color it, and did not do so until I was 25 or 26. So I could wear my hair short in the front, but there had to be "length" in the back. I also did the asymmetrical thing--but again, I had to have some hair back there. The two times I cut it shorter (the second time was to correct a bad cut the first time) my Grandmother went positively ape shit. "Oh my God! Why did you cut your hair!?!?! You need to keep your hair long."
My answer: "It'll grow back." That earned me the side eye.
Anyway, Mom made me keep the scissors out of my head before I took my Senior pics. She said that I'd want to look more "conservative" for such formal pictures. I disagreed, but like yearning to be Bunny DeBarge, it was a wise decision. By the time I graduated, it had all grown back. A few days before I left for college, I opted for a bob and chopped most of it off.
Mom was not amused.
I told her that in a few days, I wouldn't be around for her to see it. (Now I have to say that I was really obedient as a kid so on the rare occasion I did something "wrong" it would catch my parents' attention.)
I didn't really question the relaxers until into my mid-late 20s. Funny how work and marriage made me question why I was in a salon for a gazillion hours, triple-booked, while I had work to do. But everyone always told me that going natural meant chopping off all your hair. Um...no. Say I've been brainwashed by my Southern family, but I didn't want to do that. Still don't. I'll cut some of it, but super short? No. Don't like it that way. I have plenty of friends that rock short cuts, and they bring the fire. But not me.
In my early 30s, I tried weaves for the first time. I used to be adamant that "I didn't need a weave" until my nieces grew from babies to girlhood. Their hair was *never* the same when I'd see them: sometimes braided/cornrows or curly braids or curly ponytail...whatever. Their hairstyles were just another accessory. So I figured, "Why not." So I'd get them in, take them out...no big deal.
Anyway, I had to re-visit my relaxer relationship when I discovered that I suffered a *huge* amount of hair breakage. All we could tell is that the former hairstylist did a piss poor job of rinsing out all of the relaxer. So my stylist cut my hair into long layers to mask it; she then weaved in a track. And I left it alone. In short order, it started growing back. I just left it alone. After some months, I touched my non-relaxed hair for the first time in years. She felt wonderful! :) So I decided to braid most of the hair and let it grow out with the weave in place. I've just decided that I'll blow dry it straight if that's how I want to wear it. I'll likely take the weave out in the spring.
Who knows *what* I'll do with it in a few years.
Anyway, I didn't mean to write a book, but I think every Black woman has a "hairstory." While I'm not mad at Chris Rock for the film, I could have slapped him when he said that Black men don't care about hair. BULLSHIT! Yes the hell they do. Just look at the video "models" they use for one example. That's not an accident.
While I'm sure his heart sank when his little girls asked him why they didn't have 'good hair," he needs to also look within himself--while looking at his wife. Would he have married a woman with her natural crown of tightly curly hair? Or, for that matter, a woman sharing his skin tone?
Oh, but I've written much too much as it is...!!!
I understand rocking weaves or extensions, too. And yeah, it is bullshyt that brothas don't care about how sistas rock their hair. I used to see it all the damned time when during my club days, and I saw it in full effect during Congressional Black Caucus weekend in DC a few weeks ago.
Sistas rocking long hair got hollered at. Didn't matter if sista was a stick insect or one of the Bertha Butt sisters - if she rocked a long weave, or had naturally long hair, she got hollas.
I saw some elegant sistas rocking the pixie cuts, and they got no play.
SMH at that, because those sistas looked pretty tight to me.
But yeah...brothas need to stop trippin' 'cuz I've seen and heard it too many times--from my own brother *and* his friends. In fact, I had to pull him up when we were teenagers over he and another friend's repeated use of "Red Bone." Arghhhhhhh!!!!! Ooooooh, just the mere *thought* of that vile term makes me wanna slap somebody. At least it sunk in.
Re: CBC--see, that's when I'm reminded that DC is still a Southern city. *snicker* I am not at all surprised. I actually meant to hang out a lot more, but didn't get the opportunity. Went to the gala and one party and went home. We're an old, married couple...so boring :<) --but glad I'm not trying to date in DC. God, it's just brutal!
For your basic, nappy thick hair, it takes time and effort, regardless of the style. I have worn my hair in every style imaginable (with the exception of the Jheri curl - I just couldn't get with the plastic bag and 'jheri curl juice')
Now that I've allowed it to be live without chemicals, I have rocked a TWA (teeny-weeny-afro), two-strand twists, Angela Davis afro, braids, corn rows, press & curled. Recently, I wore it flat twisted for so long, it started to lock.
So, I went to a natural stylist who palmed rolled it right, and now I am locking. Plus, I recently got it colored for the first time in my life. If at some point, I don't like it or get tired of it, I'll cut it off and start all over.
As two of my close family members have suffered hair loss from chemo/cancer, I'm just happy to have it growing out of my head.
I could give less than a damn what anybody else thinks about my hair.... black men, white women, white men, other black women, whoever... As long as they ain't trying to touch it without my permission, they are cool with me. (Well, the right brotha can touch it all he wants, but I digress....)
It's mine, whether I grow it, dye it, press it or buy it. I can do whatever the hell I want to do with it. PERIOD.
That is all.
Hey...I resemble that remark! LOL!! :<) It's very true, for me, anyway...I mentioned it downthread. But the essential thing is, it's our hair and we can do what we want with it.
The only people who touch my hair: my Man, my Mama and my hairstylist.
Alrightey then, say that.
Now, I rock straight hair because I think I look my best with straight hair.
My stylist said that good hair was "healthy, well-groomed" hair, regardless of texture. She rocks some kicking dreads that are never matted and are always clean and healthy looking. As my stylist, I have to say my hair is in better shape now than when I lived in California and rocked a press and curl.
She got rid of my dandruff issues and hipped me to Paul Mitchell T-Tree Shampoo, Mizani, Nexus and Aveda hair products that keep me tight, even between shop visits, cause I can't afford to go every two weeks. I even color and highlight my own hair, and I always get compliments.
If you're happy to be nappy, I'm happy you're nappy, too. But for me, I have too much hair to rock a 'fro, so I rock it straight for the reason I gave.
Paul Mooney said in "Good hair" - "If you're relaxed, Whites are relaxed, but if you're nappy, Whites are not happy..."
I've seen sistas get fired for rocking killer braids in corporate style fashion, but they made out like bandits when they sued.
Get it where you fit in - with your hair and everything else in life.
After we discovered "Black is Beautiful", I became diligent about getting rid of the term among my friends. I would say clean and groomed hair is good hair. The summer after my senior year I did not comb my hair all summer. I washed it every day with Kirk's Castille soap. I greased the scalp with Posner’s Bergamot every night. Now that was some good hair.
I raised my kids and tried to teach their friends and cousins, good hair is clean and groomed hair.
Ahkoben
"She feels that she was punished for being so vain."
So she did not think that that awful thing was a punishment?
Then why would her hair be?
Wicked?!It was the feeling of self pity that annoyed me.
But i cannot blame her for that, time to time it engulf us all.
http://www.examiner.com/x-7361-Houston-Black-Cu...
here
http://www.examiner.com/x-7361-Houston-Black-Cu...
and here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-7361-Houston-Black-Cu...
http://www.rhymeswithsnitch.com/2009/10/you-be-...
I saw Rock's "Good Hair" and after viewing "My Nappy Roots" I can now understand why the filmmaker feels like her film was stolen. The topic and style of filming are very, very similar.
If Rock had not seen this film prior to making his film, then I could believe that the obvious similarites are coincidental. But Rock claims he did see "My Nappy Roots" and used it for research purposes.
I think, in the very least, he should have given the sister some credit for co-opting her message and film style.
Makes me pissed that Chris Rock didn't have an original idea; that he's benefitting off of someone else's hard work.
I'd sue for copyright violation - if he's going to use someone else's ideas, he should at least pay for the privilege.
While I'm glad he's addressing his daughter's self-esteem issues, there are probably other ways he could have done that. Why did Lola feel that she didn't have "good hair" in the first place?
Isn't there a parallelism?
god made/nature made
good hair/bad hair
Both are lazy terms, so lazy that we fail to come with what they really mean.
Good point!
For many Egypt is not even Africa
I believe that everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their hair.
I think so.
I do have a question that I would love some feedback on. Is it true that those of us who are AA only go into swimming only if we have good hair, thus the reason why not many AA have dominated the sport?
We have issues with our hair and I don't have a problem with it because over the years we have developed many, many "hair care systems" to make it work for us individually and collectively.
"Would Michelle Obama be first lady if she had natural hair?" Ima give that one some serious thought. I would hope so; BUT this is America where she has to go along to get along.
Re: FLOTUS: I don't think so. If she wore an afro she'd definitely NOT be FLOTUS. Folks would think Angela Davis and catch the vapors. Juan Williams would spontaneously combust--which I realize is reason enough. Heh.
Seriously, though, herein lies the rub--ANY FLOTUS needs to have look that says "corporate" which, more to the point, says "safe" and "mature." Relaxed hair for African American women is seen as "corporate" and "safe." I dare say that you'll ever see a FLOTUS with long blonde or brunette hair worn down in public. It would be "too sexy." We already have to get folks smelling salts because of her arm or because she wore shorts during a summertime vacation.
Or
Will he get re-elected if Michelle cut it all off and went to a natural?
Just asking...