The Tyra Show Today

[Kurlee]

There is a difference. White people were not villified for centuries because of their beak noses. They don't have that history behind it. It did not affect the quality of their life and their chances of surviv al hundreds of years ago. Beak noses do not have the negative stigma of nappy hair. White people were not called poor, animals, dirty, savages or unkempt because they have beak noses. They were not supposed to be ashamed of their noses or told to keep them covered. It is not the same.

The girl with the TWA's hair did not look unkempt and uncombed. That is how a TWA looks. She even had a little curl pattern. Her hair was styled with product. But the way the mother carried the whole situation was stupid. How about I use your logic here - so if nappy hair is an undesirable trait just like say a beak nose, would it have been okay for the girl's mother to not introduce her to someone because she didn't like her nose? Since they're the same and all. Or would she not introduce her daughter to somebody because she was fat? Too dark skinned? Dyed her hair blonde? How ridiculous does that sound? Where do we draw the line?

Do you mean Rachel True? The same Rachel True that got teased for her hair being big, wild, frizzy and unkempt? They even made fun of her hair in the script on Half and Half. It was usually Big Dee Dee. She would fall into the same category of people whose hair you deem unacceptable. I understand why a lot of people were upset about the show (I wasn't. I don't think Tyra did a bad job there just wasn't enough time to cover everything.) mainly because they thought she picked the most ignorant people to put on the panel to air our dirty laundry. But after reading your comments it just goes to show us that people like that still exist out here in this world. It is 2009. We need to get out of that slave mentality line of thinking. Black is beautiful and we need to stop subscribing to everybody else's standard of beauty and create and follow our own - whatever that may be. Relaxed or natural. Long or short. There is room foer more than one option. One doesn't have to be good/right and the other automatically bad/wrong.

how does the saying go? If you don't know ur history, you are destined to repeat it. I don't think many understand the historical context of the whol skin colour/hair thing. People say it is not that serious. IT IS THAT serious and until more people understand their history beyond the generic MLK, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, all these issues will continue to be a problem.

 

[glamazon386]

hum. good points you've made. i understand much better now. and i do agree with you. plus on half n half they did make fun of her hair and i did not like that. her and essence's hair were both very beautiful. i just loved rachel's hair better. thanks for the explanation. you are right. we have our own version of beauty just like any other race. it is time to begin accepting embracing and celebrating that. no neither is wrong or right. each is just an expression of what that individual likes and prefers. hope i didn't offend. if so please forgive my ignorance.

It's cool. I think everybody just doesn't understand everything that goes into this discussion. So for people to brush it off and say it's just hair, it doesn't matter. I don't think they're looking at the bigger picture. They don't understand why "going natural" itself is such a big deal. If it wasn't, why would they have books, forums, youtube videos, etc. devoted to it? Or even just black hair growth in general. That's why I honestly felt like Tyra only scratched the surface. You can't cover it all in 1 hr.

To the Half and Half comment - Essence's hair is curly too but not as bushy as Rachels. I always thought that if they let Essence wear her hair curly it would make them look more like sisters but if you think about it, their hair style were a apart of their characters on the show. Dee Dee would not have worn her hair curly like that. It wouldn't have been deemed acceptable in her world.