Twittering the Glamour panel on "Women, Race & Beauty"

Here early, prime seat by door, reading Min Jin Lee as I wait.

Kicked out of prime seat by A/V guy; denied alternate seat by snotty redhead, "waiting for [her] friend."

Who is bitch kidding. Bitch has no friends.

Obtaining new seat on far side of room. Cute girl at end of row smiles. Much better.

Woman in African dress sits between me and cute girl, introduces herself: Nelly, from Ghana, works in public health.

Cute girl is author Veronica Chambers. Change cute girl to cute respected author.

Why is this starting late? Take opportunity to chat with Nelly and Veronica, re: writing, public health. Also, what's up with using the word "race"? Isn't that, like, racist?

Starting! Ed-in-chief Cindy Lieve introduces event:

"So, this white chick who no longer works here said afros were no good for work, so we're having this panel because oh my god, how gauche was that."

Farai Chideya takes the moderator's podium. Instant credibility.

Farai: Most black women have a 'hair moment,' where someone questions or insults their choice of hairstyle.

Audience, panel: Indeed.

Panelist Jami Floyd of CourtTV: Tell me about it. I had my natural poofy hair for years, but to get on TV, I had to straighten it. How do I explain this to my daughter, who hates her poofy hair?

Panelist and make-up artist Mally Roncal: Asian clients ask me to make their eyes rounder, some black women want their noses thinner. Sometimes entertainment execs want their clients whitened up a little. I get flack for wearing big hair and fake nails. You just gotta be you.

Panelist Vanessa Bush, Executive editor of Essence: If it's not Don Imus criticizing our hair, it's some other ignoramus. At Essence, we show all kinds of hair, because that's what our readers have.

Token white panelist Barbara Trepangier, author of a book about "well-meaning white people" and racism: White people are racist, and they need to admit it to themselves.

Panelist Daisy Hernandez of ColorLines: Yeah, that's not really a surprise to the rest of us. So, do you have any non-white chicks working at Glamour, or what? Also, Jami, what's up with your straightened hair?

Jami: Hey listen, I had to give up a piece of my self to get this job, and it sucks, but I do it, because I have bills to pay, and they are not letting me on Court TV with my 'fro on.

Audience member: But WHY would it matter how you wear your damn hair? Can we just say that it's because people are racist, and that's bullshit?

Jami: Look, white men are in charge. I said I was conflicted about it! Did I mention my mortgage?

Panelist Venus Opal Reese: People are stuck in history instead of living in today. It's about how you perceive their perceptions. Don't accept their bullshit interpretations, and you'll be free of them.

Vanessa: Again, ignorant people will say stupid shit about your hair. Try to regard it as an opportunity to teach them something new.

Panelist Lisa Price, founder of cosmetics company Carol's Daughter: I want to see more black women represented in major ad campaigns for everyday skin and hair care products. Niche stuff is great, but let's bust out of the niche.

Audience member: My white friends envy people of mixed ethnicity for being sexy and exotic. Do all white women wish they were non-white?

Me, to myself: I am embarrassed by your white friends.

White chick in crowd: First of all, you think YOUR hair is a problem, mine sucks. Second, white chicks get held to impossible beauty standards too. Like, what about ageism?

Audience member Ayana Bird, author of Hair Story: Black people are just as bad as white people, if not worse, when it comes to each others' hair.

Audience member Loretta Rucker, African-American Public Radio Consortium: Tell me about it. I wore my hair natural for forty years, but then I had to perm it so that I could work with the conservative black colleges.

Audience, panel (sings): Talkin' 'bout good and bad hair! Whether you're dark or you're fair! Go on and swear, see if I care, good and bad hair!

Audience member: So, when are we going to see magazines like Glamour acknowledge white privilege in beauty standards?

Farai: I think we have time for one more question.

My bladder: No, actually, I think we're done here.

Comments

[satia]

Gee. You really can find everything on youtube.

It is funny because I recently wrote in my journal about the good/bad hair thing because a woman was talking about how there is still this stigma, mothers straightening their daughter's hair, etc. She showed a picture of herself when she was young and then it dissolved to how she looks today. No longer gawky and awkward, she is beautiful with her self-admitted straight hair weave. Apparently neither she nor her producers et al saw the irony in this.

[Chris Lee]

Bought "School Daze" coupla weeks ago, a surprisingly good movie. We are still in the "midst" of historical movement. To reduce things to "binaries" like black and white is inconsistent with contemporary cultural studies. Things are moving in a direction of a sophisticated "cosmopolitan" buffet. You can pick out "excellences" and "deficiencies" from every culture. The issue is a discerning and empowered subjectivity.

[RyanB]

It doesn't seem like this meeting accomplished much, does it?

[Chris Lee]

European "looks" are the standard in Western Countries. You know, the "House" makes the rules

[Janet Wolfman]

re: Bad Hair Day Just remember we are still primates with big (relatively)brains. We are competitive heirarchical etc. Women with different kinds of hair will be increasingly acceptable only when they become more economicly viable. So wuilll gays and conjoined twins. It's white middle class wasps who are running the world my friends. Either join them or start your own magazine. The guys on the Mayflower weren't ruuning here for religious freedom, they were running for new markets and products. So there you have it

[Chris Lee]

MILLS: When you came out after that first term, you spent about a year on the outside before your second conviction. And during that time, as you revealed in “Soul on Ice,” you set about raping white women as a principle of black rebellion.

CLEAVER: I wrote this in prison. And I wrote this because I was trying to describe my own feelings, my own attitudes, and the attitudes of a lot of black men. At that time, this was something that was not really written about, talked about. It was kind of scandalous. There was a lot of denial in blacks who had these feelings.

MILLS: What feelings? Sexual attraction to white women?

CLEAVER: People used to deny that. The whole phenomenon was raging at that time because this whole black consciousness thing was coming in, interracial relationships were rising.

One of the old bugaboos of race relations in America has been black rape. It has been a big problem down through history and continues to be a problem. For my own part, I think there is often a lot of denial in that. But I think the facts will support a case that there is quite a bit of black rape.

[Chris Lee]

If you haven't seen Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins and the Whitney, please do. I highly recommend it.

[Janet Wolfman]

ELDRIDGE CLEAVER WAS A SCHMUCK I was there girls and boys. Oh you guilty white people. Let's guilt trip all those white women into having sex with black men and then let's make them pregnant and walk out and they can go on welfare. Jerry Springer is now reping the benfits of Eldridge Cleaver and Leroy Jones and their philosophy. I'm 64 years old kids and I was there.

[Chris Lee]

Take it easy. Obviously this topic strikes a nerve as Janet's review of the event illustrates. Don't go projecting. Nobody is advocating Cleaver's point of view.

[satia]

Janet who?

Did you mean Janice or were you talking about someone/something else?

Wow. I'm confused.

I remember a lot too. I remember my friend Sabrina whose mother joined the Nation of Islam and would not allow Sabrina to associate with me any longer.

A year later Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on my birthday.

I thought we were supposed to have moved forward but really I feel so stuck. Am I alone in the morass?

See, J, you can't talk about anything without stirring up drama. You have a gift, I tell you! A gift!

[chris lee]

Janice..sorry...:)

[Janet Wolfman]

Hi Guys Sorry if I offended anyone. I'm old I'm passionate. I'm the mother of one of Janice's high school friends. I was there I think it's important to know where you've been and not make assumptions about the way it is now. I was at an event the other night full of nice intellectual gen Xers. They were so trendy, so conservative, so quiet, so polite. Twenty years ago or so you guys were skipping sachool and dropping acid in the park and driving your mothers crazy. Not that you should drive anyone crazy now. But keep looking around you and get to know what's going on. I am still older than yo and always will be. SO LISTEN

[Chris Lee]

It's all good. I am older than you think probably. Again, it's a powerful discussion, quite possibly touching on the central and essential emotional issues of our culture.

[ania]

Dear Janice,

I've been reading for a long time, I missed your posts while you were taking a step (or a few steps) back (though I did appreciate your periodic schedules of upcoming events), and am glad that you're writing your life again. And, I'm glad that you're doing it in a way that feels right to you.

I love your meeting/symposium/party/reading rundowns. I always have.

With gratitude to you for sharing parts of your work, and parts of yourself.

....