joan, so much of your work about black women and politics, so much of our identity is right here in the top of our heads. absolutely. i think that the very question is black hair political gives us too limited analytical framework, because there are multiple conversations going on. right now, i think that the mainstream media s obsession with transitioning movement. when i think of transition, i think of people dying or i think of vampires. we re talking about moving from one state to another. for folks who don t know, the transitioning movement is this movement from using chemicals in your hair to not using them. your hair is so versatile. you don t need chemicals. i think black women s bodies are always in conversation with the larger society. black women s bodies are always in conversation with black men.
because the weave is not a good weave. that speaks to me of another kind of addiction. and a place where we haven t yet moved. another kind of pain that we re not comfortable addressing. and there is a lot of profit to be made from that. exactly. on the one hand, small business owners, overwhelming for african-american women, salon owners of one kind or another, but l oreal making millions, from african-american women s hair, and beauty supply stores, often immigrant workers owning that. a multiethnic sort of an international system that is in part supplying us. we ll talk more about black hair. this time we ll go into a little bit not only our history, not only the economics, but the aesthetics. what it looks like and we ll have a great moment in black hair. this country was built by working people.
it matters because u.s. a historical way how we look at each other. from slavery, it matters, how you wore your hair or if someone took it away from you, c.j. walker, cools mes up with the process to straighten your hair and black women pentecostal tell you not to straighten your hair, to black power when you want to wear an afro and your mother tells you you can t. hi, mom. when we see natural hair, it is very different, we re making a kind of statement even if we re not making a statement. a political statement to those on the outside and those on the interior it says we want to accept ourselves the way we are. yeah. for who we are. and it feels like no hair stale doesn t signify something to somebody. if you wear a relaxer that signifies something. the picture of the new york times cover. we remember this, right, from 2008 campaign, and excuse me,
this straight hair standard, we didn t create the straight hair standard, it s in our control to change that. and we re doing that by setting an example in the media with you here. you know, in these positions of power and leadership. on the other side of things, it s not political in that it s not a counter culture. we re cultural leaders. this is made up of women who are educated and affluent and tech savvy. we re not looking to rebel, it s more about practicality. there s immediate results for that. in your quality of life. so if goes from me trying to conform to a straight hair standard in your whole life revolving around your hair. if you want to start a new workout routine, go to the beach, the first thing you think about, what am i doing gg to do with my hair? it s awesome to have versatility and flexibility and hopefully natural hair movement will help
women achieve that. niccole, are you in the land of presentation of images. right. and by the way streetcar, extraordinary. anyone who comes anywhere new york should come see you in that play. is this just working out our owe emotions or something meaningful about as african-american women, are trying to think through our self-presentations? i think there are so many angles to analyze it, and that movie good hair, i think tracy thoms, a fellow actress, she said it best, very simply, it s amazing that it s considered revolutionary to wear my hair the way it grows out of my head. and i never forgot that, this is just the way it grows out of my head. this is the beginning. this is my is ness. just how it is. for me, i can also consider that, but i also my hair