The Elephant in the Room [Publishers Weekly]
Publishers, how ivory are thy towers? According to statistics—not to mention a quick glance around any trade show floor—pretty shockingly ivory, maybe along the lines of 98%. The number of publishing, editorial, art direction, sales and marketing professionals of color in our field is tiny, and that’s not good for anybody. This discrepancy between the real world and the publishing world limits the range of books published, the intellectual scope of discussion, and—for the bottom-liners among us—greatly stunts the potential market.
Sagging Pants: Fashion Trend or Prison Culture? [Marc Lamont Hill]
Over the past month, New York State Senator Eric Adams has drawn national headlines by unveiling the “Stop Sagging” campaign, a series of billboards and viral web videos that decry the hip-hop fashion trend of wearing pants below the waist. Although Senator Adams is the most visible opponent of sagging, he is far from alone. In states like Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, politicians have taken the anti-sagging movement to the next level by passing laws that criminalize the fashion trend by creating public decency ordinances.
The Mouths of Babes [The Atlantic.com]
My friend in San Francisco emailed a little story. He was watching World Cup with his daughter—Spain vs. Switzerland. The girl, a 9-year-old, asked her daddy a question: “How come there are African-Americans on the Swiss team?”
Yikes. How does a parent answer something like that? Does she think that only the United States has black people? Is she innocently asking why Americans are playing for the Swiss national squad? Is she using “African-American” reflexively, simply because she has never been taught another term for darker-skinned people?
Kinkosis [Racialicious]
How is a young, ethnic girl with curls supposed to feel good about her body if the images she’s being told are sexy are those of women who either have straightened hair, or are women with straight hair that has then been curled? Google “curly hair celebrities,” and most of them are straight-haired women who have gone through a curling iron. I’m sorry, but end-of-hair flips do not constitute curly. Beach waves are called waves for a reason. They don’t count either. In Hair Matters, Ingrid Banks wrote, “Certainly white women have concerns with their hair, but their concerns do not involve the actual alteration of hair texture to the extent that is an expression of their cultural consciousness (Banks, 38).” There are naturally curly celebrities out there, but looking back, the only ones I have never seen with straightened hair are Bernadette Peters and Howard Stern. I hate to say it, but Howard Stern is keeping it real here. Guys seem to have it easy here—all they have to do it cut their hair super-short. It the world of curly hair, it really does seem as if you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t. Even Michelle Obama straightens her hair, and Malcolm X tried, before he came to consciousness about it. In his autobiography, he writes on what he calls his “first really big step toward self-degradation:”
Ingrid Banks is wrong. What are the blow-out and Japanese perm if not an alteration of hair texture by white women? One winter of a mild straightener and blow-outs ruined my hair for a good 2 years. I have friends who are losing hair in chunks because of Japanese perms. Straight hair has long been considered the only truly acceptable hair in the U.S. While it is ok for straight-haired women to occasionally “curl it up”, those of us with naturally curly hair have always been told in one form or another that we need to “control” our hair. In the 60′s my mom literally ironed her hair. In the 80′s as a teen (yep, dating myself here) I was advised to get my curly hair permed. Look what Nicole Kidman has done to her beautiful curls. I haven’t really thought about the psychology of it, but I know it pisses me off. I’ve started growing my hair out again after years of keeping it super-short and “straight”, mainly because there’s somehow something “wrong” with curls. I’m in the dreaded “Q-tip” phase now, but I’ve gotten a huge, positive response from my (multi-ethnic curly/kinky-haired) boys. They love that my hair now looks like theirs. I’ll probably keep it long and natural from now on, because I want to model that pride for them.
@Christina, no, Ingrid is not wrong. White women’s hair drama doesn’t occur in the context of living in a society where the beauty standard reflects another race – the race that holds institutional power – and one’s decision to straighten her hair may be self-hatred or submission to a racist beauty standard.
http://www.derailingfordummies.com/#butbut
But That Happens To Me Too!
In attempting to communicate with you, the Marginalised Person™ may bring up examples of the sorts of daily manifestations of discrimination they face. Many of these examples seem trivial to Privileged People® but clearly reflect the way the Marginalised Person™ has been “othered” by society. “Othering” is a system of social markers that defines “Us” and “them”, neatly and conveniently categorising people into their appropriate places within society. It’s a way of defining a secured and positive position in the world by stigmatising “others”. In other words, it’s the process of dehumanising anyone different to the Chosen Privileged.
The Marginalised Person™ you’re dealing with has been subjected to this “othering”…
You must nod patiently as the Marginalised Person™ tries to gain your understanding of the many complicated and subtle ways this othering impacts their lives until they come across a point that seems particularly grating for them. Then you must say “oh, but I experience that too!”…
What this demonstrates is your total lack of understanding of what “othering” means in a practical sense. You’re ignoring the way your life is otherwise entirely immersed in a state of absolute privilege and revealing the fact you fail to comprehend the process of objectification and marginalising they go through all the time. When you are Privileged®, “similar” experiences simply do not happen on an equal footing because they do not otherwise reflect marginalisation. This obliviousness is highly insensitive and trivialising and will definitely cause them to grind their teeth!
But it’s also an important step in affirming your privilege: Privileged People® are accustomed, after all, to it being “all about them”. Not used to simply sitting back and listening to othered people‘s issues, Privileged People® like to be the centre of attention at all times. It reminds them that they are important. By doing this, you will feel good about yourself and send a crucial message to the Marginalised Person™ (yes you really can diminish their experience by making it all about you, all the time!).
Btw – I don’t agree with everything on the page I quoted, or even everything in this particular entry, but I think these particular excerpts might be helpful.