“Good Hair” Sparks Controversy

Chris Rock’s new film, Good Hair, is a documentary on the attitudes that black Americans, mostly female, have about their hair. A common source of insecurity in the black community comes from their hair because American entertainment caters mostly towards white people and what we find attractive. This is a fact. All over the world, because white people the most political power, white people are seen as the definition of beauty and attractiveness.

What does this mean? Simply that white people are defined by white people as the norm and because of their political power, other races will always be seen as “other.”

I’ve read a few blog postings about Good Hair and I’ve seen the outrage. Some of the more common complaints:

A woman should make this documentary, not a man.

I don’t think it matters who makes the documentary, only that it is made. I watched Tyra Banks talk about her experiences with hair and it broke my heart when she had young children – as young as 5 years old – talk about how they wish they had hair like Hannah Montana and how they hate their hair. Should women be the only people to talk about this though? Men are effected too, though not as much. I remember while watching Malcom X, there is a scene where we see, I believe Denzel Washington (it’s been a long time, it might not have been Malcom in the scene, I don’t remember), sitting in a barber shop and talking about wanting straight hair because he believed women would like him more and he is told that trying to deny his blackness by dressing, acting and changing his appearance to be more “acceptable” to whites is a downfall of the black community. I think the more views we have on such a topic, the better we can understand the current situation. If a woman wants to make such a film, I encourage her to do so. Maybe Wanda Sykes would like to tackle the subject but this particular film was made by a man and is providing the male perspective, with hopes of discussing the situation at large.

Chris Rock is just trying to exploit the situation for his career.

I don’t think so. This is purely speculation so, obviously, we can disagree but the way I see it, Chris Rock could make a film about anything and people will see it. He surely isn’t as popular as Angelina Jolie, but he does have box office appeal. Documentaries have been gaining some popularity recently, with Michael Moore’s work, Bill Mahr’s Religilous and others but I honestly believe Chris Rock is trying to start a genuine conversation and look, it’s working. We’re talking about the issue right now. Chris Rock is a comedian and he uses laughter as a way of getting a reaction out of people. Is he going to make money off of this? Maybe, but it’s risky. Most white viewers probably won’t watch it. They won’t understand it.  Even those that dig his comedy, even those that loved his earlier work (I loved CB4) because we did not have those experiences.