yovargas wrote:It's pretty weird to me to think how politicized people's hair has been/can be. Like, why do you care?
The movie Skin was set in Apartheid S.Africa. There's a scene where a girl was taken before essentially a 'racial review board' to determine if she was White (y'know, like her parents!) or if she was "Colored". One of the 'tests' they did was put a pen in her hair and ask her to shake her head to see if the pen would fall out.
Seriously, I think most white people just do not get how politicized we've made hair to be because "our" hair was always "correct". Unless it was red. A whole other prejudice there.
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
The other root to it, and possibly the one driving the sentiment behind Voronwë's song, was the one that I've never explicitly heard stated in the West. It *was* when I was growing up in the Soviet Union. It's, "Boys, you are our future soldiers." You are supposed to look the part.
So boys weren't allowed to have their hair touch the collar. That was not a problem for my future husband, who has the kind of very curly hair that grows up instead of hanging down. I have a photo of him looking like Angela Davis.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's. Hair was never an issue here, but then my school was very progressive and I never wore a uniform to any school I attended. There are schools in Ireland with uniforms, dress code and dictates on hair, but they tend to be fee paying schools who are trying to project themselves as superior.
[OT]Al, have you ever performed the musical "Hair" or have any interest in doing so?[/OT]
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I only got about 15 minutes into the movie (a rerun on TV, long after the Broadway show) and had to change channels. It was THAT bad!
Back to the subject of hair...my Jewish friend has told me there is indeed such a thing as a Jewish 'fro (Afro). The things I've learned from her...
Gabe Kaplan, from his Welcome Back, Kotter days (before he lost most of his hair) immediately comes to mind. And, of course, a certain much loved and respected person who posts on this board...
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
I think I'm going to put this here. It's not exactly cultural appropriation, but it is similar, and perhaps worse. I am referring to the bizarre Jussie Smollett story. Some weeks ago, it was reported that actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of a racist, homophobic attack by men shouting MAGA slogans. Now it turns out that Smollett himself has been charged with staging a false attack apparently allegedly because he was dissatisfied with salary on the show Empire (whatever that is). As Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, Smollett " took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career." I can't even express how offensive I find that, if it is true (and the evidence appears to be solid that it is).
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
In the current hyper-charged, hyper-partisan environment that kind of thing plays so very very well. And that is in danger of becoming a real problem. I hope that his behavior, if the evidence indeed supports the new claim, is treated with the same seriousness we treat actual racist behavior. ( Same as how I hope any liars in, say, MeToo cases, gets real consequences for their behavior ). We cannot have this kind of behavior, the topic is too serious.
Of course, the modern rapid news-outrage cycle contributes to this environment too.
River wrote:He pretty much screwed everyone who falls victim to a hate crime from this point on.
And that is the real problem. People that do things like that hurt those who are real victims of crime/discrimination/sexual assault.
An interesting twist on the subject of cultural appropriation: recently Arianna Grande (whom I don't follow, so forgive me if I don't get this right) got a new tattoo on her hand. She has been learning Japanese and wanted a tattoo in Japanese for one of her new songs, '7 Rings'. She had asked her Japanese instructor before getting the tattoo but evidently, the translation went wrong and it reads something more akin to 'small Japanese BBQ grill'. There was an uproar and shaming on American social media about cultural appropriation, but the Japanese were puzzled and don't understand the outrage. At all.
We have had 4 Japanese exchange students and my daughter spent a summer in Japan. From my experiences, the Japanese are THRILLED when anyone appreciates their culture enough to attempt to learn more or embrace their culture. They are ecstatic if you've taken the time to learn how to use chopsticks. They love (speaking in general) that the world has embraced anime/manga/parts of their culture. Those (Japanese) whose comments I read were confused. They were wondering if the horrible, horrible 'English' (and probably French) translations they have on Japanese products everywhere are considered offensive cultural appropriation. They consider imitation to be flattering. I found this to be an interesting point of view.
I read that Smollett staged the attack because a threatening letter he received did not get enough attention. I guess that's a better reason than salary, but still, very poor judgment (if true). I wonder if he even weighed the risk of being found out.
Avatar photo by Richard Lykes, used with permission.
This is only my opinion based on very few facts, but also an understanding of how hurting people sometimes act.
I think what he did was see all the ways in which black people are hurt by racism in this society. He saw the way people like him are treated, no matter if they’re TV stars or 14 yr old children playing, or a family just trying to enjoy an afternoon BBQ.
He saw that and got angry. He got angry because of all the times he knows he’s been treated worse just because he was black.
And whether he got the idea from somewhere, or whether it came up over drinks when everything bad seems like a good idea, or whether it was just all that frustration and anger finally boiling over - he decided that why not, for once, let racism work in his favor?
Why not finally benefit from this thing that causes so much hurt?
Why not get a little of his own back at last?
So he decided to try to stage an event in which he thought by using all that racism out there, and all that push-back against it, maybe he could finally get a leg-up.
That’s what I think happened. He isn’t ill, he probably doesn’t think of himself as dishonest or as having hurt others. He just wanted to use it to his benefit for once.
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
