A Reflection on the Black Hair

INSTRUCTIONS:

Read the text below and think of the reason/s why some black women feel the need to keep their hair straight. After that, relate the text and your reflections to the video which follows in order to answer the subsequent questions.

1. Have most black women straightened their hair to hide their black identity? Explain it.
2. Is the act of straightening the hair a way to keep racism going on and to accept oppression? Explain it.
3. Are the black and white women who straighten their hair reinforcing the European idea of standard beauty? Explain it.
4. What is the role of mass media in the deconstruction of all kinds of prejudice and discrimination? How do you see it in the Brazilian soap-opera "Viver a Vida"?


Straightening our black hair is more than a style preference

Glenor Roberts

Hannah Pool suggested that when an African woman straightens her hair it is simply a "hair choice", and has nothing to do with self-hatred or shame about her ethnicity (Going straight, 18 September).

I am a 52-year-old Caribbean-born African woman who understands that, as an elder, what I do and how I represent myself can influence younger people. I have always worn my hair naturally – now in Nubian locks – and I like my hair. I work with young people who are desperate to see positive images of themselves in order to build a strong identity.

Pool quotes soul singer Beverley Knights, who says about her straightened hair that she would find it "insulting, degrading and malevolent" if it was thought she was in some way ashamed of her ethnicity. Of course, it is OK to choose to have your hair that way. I would only ask: what about the millions of black kids watching, wishing to emulate your success, seeing the erosion of that aspect of your African-ness alongside the image of your success?

Pool acknowledges: "It's not just black women who wear weaves. But the big difference is that when white women pile on the extensions, no one accuses them of self-hatred, of trying to be something they are not." She also understands the "seduction" of straight hair. It would have been helpful therefore to ask those she interviewed about how they have constructed their self-image, and to explore the messages black people in the public eye could be communicating to others.

An African friend of mine already has her five-year-old wearing extensions, telling me that it looks "nicer". In my 11-year-old niece's school there is not one black girl who shows her natural hair.

Pool had her "straight-hair moment" and "didn't hate it; in fact … rather liked it … It even swished from side to side". It is true that for some people – as it did for Pool – wearing an afro might say "I'm confident enough to wear my hair as it comes". For many others, wearing hair naturally is also just about being quietly true to oneself.

For me, it's not that black is beautiful. It's that white is not the only thing that is beautiful. In her book Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self Recovery, bell hooks talked of a specific black child's desire for long, blond hair. The writer encouraged the mother to examine her own attitudes about skin colour, hair texture and how she had constructed her own body image.

All youngsters question issues of identity and look at themselves in new ways. As a member of a group targeted by racism, it is natural for black youngsters to examine and seek racial identity earlier than others. It is perhaps also natural for them to try to resist the stereotypes and establish new definitions and alternative images of themselves.

A black child's "hair choice" may not necessarily be rooted in shame and sadness; a woman's choice for straight hair is not necessarily a sign of internalised oppression. But when most women are doing it, it reinforces the idea to an observant youngster that straight is better. If the strong, positive and uncompromising images young people seek are missing, what choices do we suppose they will make?

Glenor Roberts is a parenting specialist working with children, young people and families.

THE POWER OF THE BODY

TEXT 1:

Owner of a distinctive, harsh voice (even if considering the conspicuous Armstrong mannerisms), Elza Soares is one of the most swinging samba singers. Having appeared in 1959 with the samba "Se Acaso Você Chegasse," Soares always had her artistic career complicated by her personal life, which certainly impeded her of enjoying a more widespread popularity. Having gotten married at 12 and having lost three children who died of hunger, she later became the wife of Garrincha, one of the most genial soccer players ever, and also a chronic alcoholic. The peak of her career was in the '60s, with albums like O Máximo em Samba (1967). In that decade she had several hits like "Boato," "Edmundo" (a version of "In the Mood"), "Beija-me," "Devagar Com a Louça," "Mulata Assanhada," "O Mundo Encantado de Monteiro Lobato," "Bahia de Todos os Deuses," "Palmas no Portão," and "Palhaçada." In the '70s, she still had success with "Salve a Mocidade" (1974), and "Malandro" (1977, this song launched Jorge Aragão as a composer). But it wasn't enough to prevent her from facing huge economical adversities and, at the same time, she was being systematically turned away by recording companies. Trying unsuccessfully to develop a career abroad, she returned to Brazil in 1994, poor and depressed. Finally, she was rediscovered in the '80s by the younger generations of Brazilian rockers (Os Titãs, Lobão) and MPB artists like Caetano Veloso, having been awarded with a Sharp Prize award as the Best Samba Singer of 1997. Her life was depicted in the musical Crioula, which had several songs written specially for her by Chico Buarque, Chico César, Nei Lopes, and others. In 2000, she was appointed Singer of the Millennium by London's BBC. Despite all the critical events of her life, Soares continues to challenge her destiny, performing shows in every venue available.

TEXT 2:

There was once a day when black slave women that were put up on the auction block would have their blouses ripped open by their owners for prospective buyers to see the suppleness of their breasts. How interesting that now, although the auction block looks a bit different, women are ripping their own blouses open and selling themselves down the river. The raping and using of black women solely for sexual purposes during slavery ultimately led to the sexualization of black women in all forms of media. But as the pattern of history shows us, the representation of black people in media has a direct correlation with how we are viewed by society.

TEXT 3:

A Carne

(Elza Soares)

Composição: Seu Jorge, Marcelo Yuca e Wilson Capellette

A carne mais barata do mercado

é a carne negra (5x)

Que vai de graça pro presídio
E para debaixo de plástico
Que vai de graça pro subemprego
E pros hospitais psiquiátricos

A carne mais barata do mercado

é a carne negra (5x)

Que fez e faz história
Segurando esse país no braço
O cabra aqui não se sente revoltado
Porque o revólver já está engatilhado
E o vingador é lento
Mas muito bem intencionado
E esse país
Vai deixando todo mundo preto
E o cabelo esticado

Mas mesmo assim
Ainda guardo o direito
De algum antepassado da cor
Brigar sutilmente por respeito
Brigar bravamente por respeito
Brigar por justiça e por respeito
De algum antepassado da cor
Brigar, brigar, brigar

A carne mais barata do mercado

é a carne negra (5x)



INSTRUCTIONS:

After reading the three texts and watching the video above, try to relate their content with the purpose of discussing how the body is important to represent us socially, that is, politically.

(Focus on the image of Elza Soares)

Read the following considerations
about Capitalism

1) Capitalism is the destroyer of the self, and thus the destroyer of love; it values men not on their own self worth, but on the bankability of their labor. They have been “transformed into a commodity”, their life is an investment which must bring [back] the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions. This leaves the worker pervaded by the deep sense of insecurity, anxiety, and guilt. [Adapted]

2) Capitalism alienates human beings; it corrupts the individuals’ selfhood by allowing it to be governed by others. It injects the self full of desire and hope for a better tomorrow that unfortunately will never come. Love is a means of escape for people to vainly remove themselves from a society that enslaves the spirit. Without the self, without identity, without our own nature, true love is impossible because the relationship is not from, as Fromm puts it, “the center of [ones] existence.” (p. 86) This empty love is a direct result of the harmful effects that capitalism has on western society.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Based on these ideas of "Love in a Capitalist World" and all the discussions we had in class about "Life and Capitalism", including the one regarding the film American Beauty, write down a paragraph or an essay with the purpose of discussing the following question/s:

What/Where are human human values
in our materialistic world?

In our materialistic world, human values are based on money.

Very few people think in terms of humanity. Why does this happen?

On the importance of Education

INSTRUCTIONS:
Read the text and watch the videlo below and then relate their content to the text and all the discussions we had in class about the importance of education.

TEXT

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world".

VIDEO

Language and Power

Read the following part of a text written by bell Hooks and write A PARAGRAPH relating it to the classes we had about English Language and Globalization. Think of the concepts of oppression and freedom to write your text, ok?

“[…] I resist the idea of the 'oppressor’s language', certain that this construct has the potential to disempower those of us who are just learning to speak, who are just learning to claim language as a place where we make ourselves subject” (HOOKS, 1994, p. 168).