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THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN ASTROLOGY

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Ralph Ellison

THE NEW TIMES HOLLER!’S military consultant, General Funkeshoe.

Deep Cough

  
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CHRIS ROCK'S GOOD HAIR


A Special Review For THE NEW TIMES HOLLER!
From The Snappy Nappy
© Amir Bey, 2009
October 14
CHRIS ROCK’S INVESTIGATION CONCERNING THE SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF AFRICAN HAIR

I’m glad Chris made this film. It comes from a sincere motivation on his part: as a father of two girls, he doesn't want them to feel they have "bad" hair, and as someone who can address issues from a highly visible forum and "change the world" thereby, he stepped up to the plate.

The film is uproariously funny as it delves into the psychological and sociological forces that perpetuate an exploitive multi-billion dollar industry. One can trace the collective evolution of African Americans by looking at how their hair has been worn. In unique ways African hair has been used to make social statements: the Afro, dreadlocks, cornrows, and even processed hair, from the conk to relaxed hair, while not vehicles of protest, reflect conformity with perceived European concepts of beauty and acceptability, or for bodacious, fly, hip projections (See Jimi Hendrix and James Brown).

CHRIS ROCK: PARLE AT THE PARLOR


Getting at the roots of a nappy situation

In GOOD HAIR, Rock approaches the good hair question with his usual bold and insightful humor. His stand-up monologues are often no-holds-barred social commentary, and in the film the questions put to celebrities often catch them off guard, and force honest answers. As far as my memory serves me:
"Do you swim?"
"I have a swimming pool."
"That's not answering my question."
Pointing to her neck she replies, "Well, I go up to here."
"Would you let someone run his fingers through your hair?"
"It'd require more intimacy for me to do that than to have sex!"

Since the majority of human Earth dwellers have straight or "flat" hair, kinky hair is arguably the most unique hair on the planet; its texture, growth, size - straight hair is measured by length, while African Hair worn in an Afro can be estimated by dimensions as opposed to length - inspires adjectives such as a "leapin' 'Fro"; it's body allows it to be sculpted and scorned in varieties of ways.

It has been said that the condition of a people can be gaged by the status of its women, then African American women's feeling about the "good" or "bad" of their hair and its styling may be revealing about African Americans' collective condition.

One danger in using hair relaxers that was graphically and repeatedly pointed out by Rock is the harmful effects of the chemicals that are used in it. A few drops of it tore through the skin of raw chicken, and aluminum soda cans were dissolved within hours. Peoples' use of it is similar to the entrenched use of tobacco; knowing it's harmful but still finding reasons to justify it.

START 'EM YOUNG!
Rock interviewed people who had their daughter's hair straightened early, one parent had her child's hair done before she was two. An expert confirmed that that kind of treatment at such an early age could result in permanent damage to the child's hairs' roots.

EARLIER CULTURAL WAVES

           

Will there ever be an Afro in the White House?
                     

Kathleen Cleaver with her famous 'Fro.

The film’s format owes much to Michael Moore’s concepts to the point that if there was no Michael Moore, this film would not have been made the way it was. However, Chris Rock is no stranger to social commentary, and the insights, revelations, and humor are pungent, on the money, and substantially raise questions that need to be asked. Unlike Moore's audiences, Rock is not preaching to the choir, and he knows his audience will not easily change their lifestyles nor end the lucrative businesses of the smaller cosmeticians. So the Moore approach to documentary interviews spiced with humorous visual touches that bring the points on target is in Rock's lens, an appropriate technique and not mimicry.

Some of the comments made by the people being interviewed - and the audience's responses; I saw the film at Magic Johnson's in Harlem - were so hilarious that Chris should have given more space between certain segments so that the audience didn’t miss the next one.

WHAT PERFORMERS SOMETIMES SAY WITH THEIR HAIR

           

It's hard to find fault with anything the elegant Duke Ellington did!
                     

Can't see nothing wrong with Brother Bob either!
In GOOD HAIR Rock's research goes into the hair industry’s exploitation of blacks’ dissatisfactions with their natural hair; while making up 12% of the US population, blacks purchase 85% of hair product sales; white companies like Revlon took over black companies such as Dark And Lovely; and the source of the majority of hair weaves: India, where a temple takes the hair shaved off of Indian women for religious purposes is sold to entrepreneurs who make weaves and wigs that are sold to black hair salons. Rock in one funny segment tried to sell African hair to hair dealers, who refused with strongly deragatory responses as to why they wouldn’t and can’t sell it.

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTIONS
           

Madam C. J. Walker, before and after. Probably no one changed the Black Hair aesthetic more than her.
                     

Besides his music, Michael Jackson is iconic for the degree an individual might change themselves.


But what are at the roots of the bad/good hair syndrome? Historically, Rock's main focus was essentially on the current period; for the past he inserted old film clips of women wearing pressed hair, a pickaninny with an exaggerated apparatus for hair curlers, but little historical discussion earlier than James Brown's influence on Reverand Al Sharpton's hairstyle. Let's look at hair history the way THE HOLLER! sees it:

During the first decade of the 20th Century, Madam C.J. Walker, whose loss of hair led her to develop hair care products that made her the first woman who was a self-made millionaire. Thus beginning with her, the hair care and styling of people of African descent was used for social and economic purposes on a large scale. It should be noted that she was not the first person to use chemicals in this way, but the business that she created during the gilded age made it more than a small-time local enterprise.

MURRAY'S HAIR POMADE
           

Murray's For Obama - The Presidential Edition - Pomade For Change.
                     

A Murray's promotion using Joe Louis's popularity during the 30s.


From that time on, Konks, Marcels, Murray's Hair Pomade and other stifling goops and oily paste jobs were used by performers and regular folks until the Afro came along in the early 60s. One must also add Malcolm X's visit to Mecca and his return to the states sporting a goatee that helped to usher in a new look that liberated folks from the destructive and self-denegrating styling methods that folks were into. It seemed that we were on our way to asserting ourselves socially and cosmetically, right? Image-wise, what reflected a change in direction? Superfly! After that film, with the gangster look and long processed locks, the 'Fro and "Black is Beautiful" was a kink in a big weave.




Did Superfly help to bring on the end of the Afro's popularity?




DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

Last August The New York Times published on its website a mixed media presentation, Tresses of Choice , photos and audios of nine African American women with different hairstyles and philosophies about them.



Focusing on the hair and now of a kinky reality

It might be said that Rock didn't imphasize enough the alternatives to weaves, relaxers, and self-hatred. For example, there was one scene of a group of high school girls with one of them wearing dreads, the others with relaxed hair. They were asked if they would hire someone wearing dreads or an Afro. The "Relaxers" all said they'd have second thoughts, that someone wearing a Natural would not look professional, wouldn't fit in. The young "Natural" lady seemed to be at a loss for words, and that scene left this viewer with wanting some kind of response from either her or from Rock's presentation, and I felt for her obvious discomfort. What kind of response could Rock have given? He could have showed how African or "kinky" hair can come in varieties of sculpted looks that are not just "African", but futuristic. There were only two women interviewed in the film who felt comfortable with a natural look. This may be due to his wanting to explore the dynamics of the Un-Natural thang, but as a result he didn't offer more alternatives that would have been informative and helpful for those looking for them.

I dug the film and like I say, I'm glad he made it. I think what's important in this discussion is not whether someone's hairstyle is pressed, natural, bald, or weaved, since "it's all good"; rather, what is the feeling that one has about themselves and others who may or may not style their hair the same way. As Chris says towards the end, it's not what's on the head but what's in it that should be looked at.



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