Good hair

For other uses, see Good hair (disambiguation).

Good hair is a phrase used within the African-American community to generally describe African-American hair (or the hair texture belonging to those of other ethnicities who fit the same description) that most closely resembles the hair of non-Black people (straight or curly), especially those images of hair popularly presented in society, and as contrasted with the appearance of natural Afro-textured hair.

Its usage has such a potent history within the African-American community that Chris Rock created a documentary entitled Good Hair, which made a wider audience more aware of the importance of the term within the Black community. Its circulation within the Black community in North America has an unspecified origin, predating Rock's documentary. Depending on the context, "good hair" can connote and evoke both communal laughter and pain. Therefore, the phrase requires a more nuanced explanation for its complicated usages.

Usage and scholarship

Although many hair stylists or beauticians would define "good hair" to mean "healthy hair", the phrase is rarely used in this manner within informal African-American circles. Instead it is used metaphorically to characterize beauty and acceptance. These standards vary for African-American men and women.

Usage and the African-American woman

Sandra Bartky, author of Femininity and Domination, asserts that "females learn early in life that they will be evaluated primarily by their appearances".

African-American scholar Patricia Hill Collins agrees with Bartky, yet Collins makes a clear distinction between White and Black American women: "With the binary thinking that underpins intersecting oppressions, blue-eyed, blond, thin White women could not be considered beautiful without the Other — Black women with African features of dark skin, broad noses, full lips, and kinky hair." She emphasizes how ingrained this mentality has become within the African-American community by quoting a common African-American children's rhyme: "Now, if you're white you're all right, If you're brown, stick around, But if you're black, Git back! Git back! Git back!"[1]

Usage in literature

Literary scholars such as Toni Morrison have cast a lens on African-American customs by discussing these controversial ideals and practices common to Black people in the U.S. In her novel The Bluest Eye, Morrison addresses the challenges within the African-American community to interpret beauty, within and outside popular images portrayed in society. Pecola Breedlove, one of the most troubled characters in the novel, searches for beauty through the only socially accepted method. Valerie Smith concedes: "...the Breedlove family, especially Pecola, is destroyed because the dominant society allows only one standard of beauty and virtue."

Other usages

Possible origins

Often, African-Americans have felt that women with a lighter complexion and softer, more subdued curl patterns are given partiality over women who have darker complexions and kinky hair, a phenomenon known as colorism. Those who participate in existing discriminatory practices, such as favoring persons with lighter skin tones or more European-style hair textures, become a part of this system.

Many scholars attribute this mindset to be the residual effects of slavery in the United States. Anthropologist Audrey Smedley traces how "the creation and reification of race as a new form of social stratification with all its cultural integument... involved the differentiation of blacks as distinct beings, a magnification of the social distance between blacks and whites, and the formulation in the white mind of a stereotype" which created a grandiose iconic image of Black people in a derogoratory manner. Smedley continues, "once reified, that is crystallized and rendered as substantive reality, the folk idea of race assumed an identity and autonomy of its own, [confirming that] ideas and ideologies, when institutionalized in people's minds, often develop a fluidity and refractivity that allow them to persist even drastically altered situations."[2] To that end, the usage of "good hair" as a determiner is still evident in today's society.

Usage in film

This worldview has been reiterated throughout the history of film. Imitation of Life is one iconic film that depicts the social sanctioning of intra-racial tension. In Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel on which the film is based, there is a troubled character, Peola, who is often classified as a tragic mulatto. Unlike Morrison's troubled, dark-skinned, kinky-haired character, Peola is fair-skinned, with straighter hair than her African-American mother. In fact, Peola's complexity centers around her grappling with her biracial identities, until she chooses to identify with her White heritage, a choice that is not without consequence. However, Peola and Pecola share a desire to move beyond the established societal positions for the African-American women.

Other prominent images

There are other images that perpetuate the binary of European hair types as being "good" and African hair types as being understood as inherently "bad," more widely understood as nappy or kinky hair. In the 19th century, black face minstrel shows became a popular form of entertainment. During this time, White actors would paint their faces black and lips red, fluff up or spike their hair, and make other noticeable changes to their physical bodies to create a caricature of the appearance of actual African-Americans, then use their altered appearance to make generalizations about African-Americans' perceived behavior, demeanor and intelligence.

Usage and resistance in African-American music

India.Arie, Jill Scott, Kehinde Spencer, and other artists have resisted adopting many of the images used to represent them and the content of their lyrics. Arie's "I Am Not My Hair", from her third studio released album Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, however, speaks specifically to the usage of "good hair" as it is understood within the African-American community and in broader contexts.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Collins, Patricia Hill (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 89.
  2. ↑ Smedley, Audrey (2007). Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (3rd ed.). UP of Chicago. p. 225.
  3. ↑ India.Arie (songwriter) (2006). "I Am Not My Hair". Retrieved 27 June 2011.

Other sources

See also

External links

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