Jada Pinkett Smith
The fallout for “Slap” continues at this year’s Oscars. Last week, Will Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after the Academy issued a statement condemning Smith’s actions. There are innumerable media stories about “Thappad”, including an episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient. The “joke,” however, has received less attention.
“Jada, I love you. GI Gen 2 can’t wait to see you,” is what The Rock said to Jada Pinkett Smith and the Oscar night audience before Smith got up and slapped him.
GI Jane is a 1997 fantasy drama starring Demi Moore about the first lady training in the United States Navy SEALs. Moore’s “feminine” character, Jane O’Neill, is chosen by a female politician to attempt to make a point in her fight against the sexism inherent in the military. To “keep hanging”, O’Neill “dissociates himself from any trace of femininity” and shaves his head.
Although a shaved head represents nothing but a style choice for a woman, Pinkett Smith’s shaved head is also prone to alopecia. In 2021, he shared a video on Instagram and told about this disease.
Regardless of the reasons for Pinkett Smith’s hairstyle, The Rock’s joke was just another blow to a black woman’s hair.
We black women have learned to love our hair, despite a wider culture that has, historically, not accepted its diversity. In fact, black women have been fighting for the court system for 40 years to get protection from child discrimination.
Alopecia disproportionately affects black women
In my 2019 book, Beauty in a Box, I examined dermatological research on hair loss. Two US studies from 2009 and 2017 found that central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA) is often underdiagnosed; Some estimates suggest that 17 percent of black women have this condition.
Some of the reasons Black women are more disproportionately affected by the CCCA are tight braiding hairstyles, prolonged use of hair weaves, lace-front wigs, and chemical relaxers.
While The Rock may not have known about Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, in his 2009 documentary Good Hair, he talked to black women about their hair, specifically chemical relaxers. Good Hair was a successful film for Rock, but that doesn’t mean he moved on from the project.
Black Child Discrimination and Crown Act
Glamor’s September 2020 cover story was dedicated to six black women who faced discrimination at work because of their hair.
The feature explained how much curly, “kinky” or voluminous hair meant to black women.
For example, a messy topknot on a white woman is considered chic, while a black woman with natural hair such as big afro or locs would be considered uncomfy and could lead to a workplace reprimand.
On March 18, 2022, the US House of Representatives passed the Crown Act banning child discrimination at private places of work, federal programs, and public accommodations.
CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.
A 2019 Dove study found that black women were 80 percent more likely to feel pressured to change their hairstyles to fit in the office.
Black women were also 83 percent more likely than other women to be assessed on the basis of their appearance.
The Crown Act is not yet an official law. Despite President Joe Biden expressing strong support for the bill, it may not have enough votes to pass.
Rogers vs American Airlines
In 1981, American Airlines fired ticket agent Renee Rogers for wearing cornrows. She filed a discrimination lawsuit challenging the airline’s policy that prohibited employees from wearing braided hair altogether, claiming that such a policy violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and She was discriminated against as a woman and also as a black man.
Legal scholar Paulette Cladwell explained how and why the US Federal District Court in New York rejected Rogers’ claim that the style gave rise to his African heritage.
The court said her hairstyle was the result of watching the 1979 film 10, which starred Bo Derek, who is seen wearing a long braid with beads on the ends.
This became known as the “Bo Derek Defense”. Rogers v. American Airlines was a landmark case because it set a precedent that allowed black women to be shot at the base of their hair.
In 2016, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS) for having fired Chastity Jones, a black woman, because she broke her hair. was worn in the folk.
The lawsuit had much in common with Rogers v. American Airlines. Jones’ lawyers also argued that his dismissal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
The Court of Appeals ruled that CMS’s “race-neutral grooming policy” was not discriminatory because the hairstyles are “culturally associated with race,” but they are not “immutable physical characteristics.”
The court ruled that a hairstyle may be closely associated with one’s culture, but because it is variable, it is not protected under the law and an employer is within its rights to use it as a reason to refuse employment. Can do.
Hair has also come under discussion at the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson because the legal profession has often discouraged natural hairdos. In 2007, at a “dos and don’ts” fashion event at a New York law firm, an editor for Glamor called Lox “really terrible.”
Why aren’t black hair jokes funny?
When black women are in a legal and cultural battle for the right to wear their hair, the jokes about our hair are not funny. The straight hair standard of beauty has been said to be toxic not only to black women but to women in general, due to the way it values white, Western beauty ideals.
One could argue that public figures should be open to criticism. For example, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, often appears with his hair up, which is ridiculed by the media.
The difference is that there is no threat to his livelihood. As long as black women can wear their hair down without risk of ridicule, reprimand or termination, a joke targeting black hair is no laughing matter.