On the latest episode of his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver tackled the issue of Black hair, something that some white people, for some reason, seem to have a lot of problems with.
Back in 2009, comedian Chris Rock made a documentary about this topic titled Good Hair that I reviewed here. He was spurred to investigate this question when one of his very young daughters came to him one day and asked him why she did not have ‘good’ hair. As I learned later, while his documentary sought to destigmatize natural hair, it was not universally acclaimed within the black community, especially by black women. As Alynda Wheat writes, Rock himself seemed to have succumbed to stereotypical thinking.
Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, opened Friday to mixed, but frequently positive, reviews. I’m going to take the painful stance of suggesting that’s because there aren’t a lot of black women in the film reviewing community. Good Hair is often funny, fascinating, and raises a few key ideas. What it doesn’t do is offer a cogent, relevant analysis of why black women relax their hair or wear hair extensions — which was supposed to have been the point.
…Nearly everyone in Chris Rock’s movie seems to agree on a few critical ideas (that can happen when you limit your sample). Frankly, as a black woman, I sat through Good Hair with one dominant thought: Who are these people? Their opinions rarely represented my own, or those of anyone I know. I am but one voice in this vast, complicated community, but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t say something.
My feeling is that what people of any race or gender do with their own hair is their own damn business and they should not be subjected to other people questioning their motives and or sitting in judgment on them.
I recommend capitalizing Black when referring to the race instead of just the color. There’s black hair, and then there’s Black hair.
[Good point. I have done so. -- Mano]
I endorse Mark’s comment; I too thought you meant black-coloured hair, not the hair of Black people. And, as very often happens on your posts, the video is geo-blocked for me and I’d have to go a bit out of my way to watch it — so not even a cover image to go by.
(When I was a child of 10 or so, I learned I was going to go to Australia to be with my mum, and was quite worried because there’d be blonde kids there, and as I’d learned from TV blonde-haired boys were tough guys and I’d have to struggle to hold my own; obs, where I lived, there were no blondes)
John, try y2mate.com.
@ ^
That’s a good idea. I sometimes use other services to download videos I want to watch away from a reliable internet connection, but I never thought of using them to bypass location restrictions. Top tip. Thanks.
Well that is not going to happen. This is a distinct identifying characteristic of the not incrowd so it will be used by the incrowd to express superiority. Got to get that racist attitude out of people before you can even start changing the perception of Black hair = wrong/bad hair.
I personally do judge: I consider anyone who bothers to have a hair “style” — that is, colouring it, cutting it into particular shapes, coiffing it, or whatever to be vacuously vain in that regard. But hey, it’s their hair to fuss over, and their time, money and effort to maintain the “style”.
(Like painting one’s face, or injecting ink under the skin, or sticking bits of stuff through their bodies, I think it’s pointless vanity. Me, I just cut mine when it becomes a bother)
Ah, privilege. Nice to have it, isn’t it?
“My feeling is ….”
While I strongly sympathize with this feeling it is a problem that all stars of African descent (Beyonce, Rihanna etc. etc.) prefer straight hair. The implicit message for teen girls is that “kroeshaar” (sorry, don’t know the English equivalent)
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/afrikaanse-jonge-volwassene-die-met-typisch-afrokapsel-camera-bekijken-77627231.jpg
is inferior. Many Surinamese girls wear wigs.
For boys this works a bit different.
@John Morales #6
Must be nice being the kind of person for whom not doing those things won’t negatively impact your life. As the video makes very clear, that’s not a luxury everyone has.
@Dauphni #9
Don’t even bother, John Morales is an all-around odious asshole who loves pretending to lack humanity, and might even actually do lack some.
Being opinionated is lacking humanity? Recognising that not everyone feels a need to primp and to decorate their body is lacking humanity? Heh.
(At least I don’t try to dehumanise others)
“vacuously vain”