Good Hair and self Identity

Several weeks ago, My family and I watched Chris Rock's documentary called "Good Hair"  (http://www.goodhairdvd.com/).  It was fairly well done in that it attempted to look at the "hair" industry and the roots of the understanding of what is "good" hair and what is "bad".

WEB Dubois wrote in his classic book "The Souls of Black Folk" that African-Americans are unusual in that they define themselves through the eyes of another.  He understood at the turn of the 20th century what we continue to experience in the 21st, that European perceptions of health, wealth, and beauty continue to shape and inform our self identity. 

My goal is not to review the movie in its entirety, but to briefly point out some of the issues that arose in the movie to help stinulate conversation regarding these difficult issues.

1. African American Women often judge their own beauty by European standards, despite the fact that Eurpopean American women continue to adopt African-American traits as symbols of beauty (lip injections, hip injections, tanning beds, etc).  What is  missing is the link between African American women's self-identity and African-American men's perception of beauty.  Do African-American women also frame and reinforce the European model of beauty with its long straight hair and thin lips?

2. African American women spend an exorbitant amount on hair and hair products, particularly weaves.  Chris Rock documents that many women will pay upwards to $5000 for a good weave.  Some even put their hair on "lay away" while they sacrificed and saved.  This may be a circular arguement where many AA women can maintain that a certain level of sophistication is required vocationally, and that means processed hair or extensions.  It is difficult to know which came first!

3. The hair industry that is specifically for AA people is controlled exclusively by non AA people.  Al Sharpton (who has his own hair famously processed) is interviewed in the documentary and calls the exploitation "Financial retardation".  This is a multi-billion dollar industry where AA people are strictly consumers, but not producers or distributors.  The source of the hair is equally disturbing, but that's a different blog.

Is it time that we arrest the acceptance of European based beauty?  Maybe, as some have argued, the light-skinned model with long hair, thinner hips and light eyes represents the American ideal of beauty.  Maybe we have moved past the Afro-centrism of the 1960's and 70"s and adopted a generic American ideal.  My question for you is whether this is healthy?  Is this disturbing or simply acculturalization of a people to the American ideal.

Please leave your comments,


Pastor M Traylor

If you are African American and live in Cleveland, OH, you are generally expected to speak when you pass another person of color.  It is a common sign of courtesy and  respect.  African American culture is not homogeneous, but differs by region, socioeconomic status, and history.  For instance, when I visit my brother who lives near New York City, no one speaks unless they know you or want you to  purchase something.  Respect is understood by my willingness to avoid eye contact in the context.  It reminds me of how more primitive animals will avert eye contact when they are being submissive to a dominant leader.  In Columbia, SC, speaking is not enough.  It is courtesy to stop, have a conversation and you need to be sure to ask about parents, children, and work.  I learned that the hard way when I once rented a car from a Hertz there.  I learned about the Hertz worker's family, church, and his political philosophy.

I am writing because there is a more insidious problem that has gone unspoken within the African American culture that I think actually is more important than whether we speak, nod, ignore or fist-bump each other.  At first, this may seem strange, but I want you to think about this.  In the African American community, there is a tendency to oversexualize gender relationships.  You may not agree, but I want to share an experiment that I have done over the past week in Rochester, NY.

I have been convicted over the past several months that one of the ways of ministering to others is simply to recognize them.  Many people feel invisible.  They feel that nothing they do matters.  Their feelings and ultimately, their person has no influence or impact.  So I decided that I would look people in the eyes as I passed and speak if they returned a glance.  I found that this experiment had two different effects when I spoke to African American women.  Either, the women quickly looked away and avoided me or they began to flirt.  My theorum is that my glances were almost always read as sexual, even though I was intention to make my glance brief, and to keep my body language neutral.

This may because  many times African American men speak to African American women in a flirtatious and provocative way.  Its sort of the chicken and the egg.  I know of African American men who feel that unless they are flirtatious and provocative, women tend to ignore them.  This is why all the male African American intellectuals wonder why all of the "smart" African American women still love the "bad boys".  In other words, do men speak to women this way because it is effective or are women simply reacting to the overwhelming sexual behavior that is directed towards them.

Whatever the reason, I feel sad that potential opportunities to recognize and honor one another is twisted by our tendency to oversexualize.  I know that some will disagree with the assumption in this post, but I can not explain high rates of early sexual participation found in the African American culture (which is significantly higher than whites) without recognizing that the adolescents are seeking to establish an adult identity, and that identity in our culture and community, is defined sexually.

Leave some comments on this topic and your experiences