Academic

?Good Hair?

By Ann Bartow

Read about Chris Rock’s new documentary by this name here, at the NYT. Below is an excerpt:

While loaded with the 43-year-old actor-comedian’s wisecracking humor, ”Good Hair” also raises serious questions about identity and equality among black women who feel they need long, straight, silky hair to fit into white society.

”It’s this whole thing about approval. That approval is not simply, `I want white people to love me.’ It’s like, `I need a job. I want to move forward, and if I have a hairstyle that is somewhat intimidating, that’s going to stop me from moving forward,”’ said Nelson George, executive producer of ”Good Hair.”

The photo is from here, the Sundance site about “Good Hair.”

On a related note, the Angry Black Woman has a long and informative post about hair here.

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).