Blonde Roots & Good Hair
We saw the movie Good Hair the other day, and I just finished reading Blonde Roots.
"Good Hair" is a very interesting documentary with more depth than might be expected. On one hand, it does a decent job of describing how the desire for "Good Hair" impacts the black community, with financial and emotional costs. But, I think that the movie also provokes good thought and discussion about areas such as:
* why does a group of people allow "others" to make money off them? In the case of black hair care products, it seems that most companies are owned by whites or asians. Similar things happen to gay people, or to just about any group. Why don't minority groups make a larger effort to have their dollars funneled back into their own community?
* why does the definition of beauty so often derive from unattainable standards? People suffer from anorexia in order to look slim, for example. Is there something about the human psyche that can only identify something as beautiful if it isn't attainable by normal people?
"Blonde Roots" is an alternative-world retelling of the slave trade. In this world, the "Aphrikans" enslaved the "Europanes". It would be a good book all by itself, but reading the book reminds you that much worse atrocities took place than the events in the book. Also, it's hard not to see the potential parallels in current society where certain groups are looked upon as "not human" and thus behavior regarding them doesn't follow "normal" bounds. How small is the step between "terrorists don't deserve any basic rights" to thinking of an entire group as somehow less human?
"Good Hair" is a very interesting documentary with more depth than might be expected. On one hand, it does a decent job of describing how the desire for "Good Hair" impacts the black community, with financial and emotional costs. But, I think that the movie also provokes good thought and discussion about areas such as:
* why does a group of people allow "others" to make money off them? In the case of black hair care products, it seems that most companies are owned by whites or asians. Similar things happen to gay people, or to just about any group. Why don't minority groups make a larger effort to have their dollars funneled back into their own community?
* why does the definition of beauty so often derive from unattainable standards? People suffer from anorexia in order to look slim, for example. Is there something about the human psyche that can only identify something as beautiful if it isn't attainable by normal people?
"Blonde Roots" is an alternative-world retelling of the slave trade. In this world, the "Aphrikans" enslaved the "Europanes". It would be a good book all by itself, but reading the book reminds you that much worse atrocities took place than the events in the book. Also, it's hard not to see the potential parallels in current society where certain groups are looked upon as "not human" and thus behavior regarding them doesn't follow "normal" bounds. How small is the step between "terrorists don't deserve any basic rights" to thinking of an entire group as somehow less human?