Now showing in a theater near you.... maybe an all black one?

Friday, I got home from work early and had the pleasure of watching a little Oprah. These days, I am not really a fan of Oprah - seems like she's all about herself and less about the show now. That's beside the point though. Chris Rock was on the show that day promoting his new documentary, Good Hair. This is a movie about black women and what great lengths they go to to make their hair look good. What amused me about the Oprah show, was the older black women in the audience that were offended by this documentary about black women's hair, made by a black man. A woman actually said it would be ok if the movie was only shown in all black theaters. Are these really out there?? Even Chris Rock's face fell when she said that. She was actually offended that he was giving away black women's "hair secrets". These secrets being perms, weave, wigs, etc....

Come on. As a 33 (almost 34) year old woman, living in the year 2009, I already know all the things that black women do to their hair to make it look good. I also know that if I was black, I would do the same things to get good hair. As a white woman, i have decent hair. But not all white women do. We all do stuff to our hair to improve it, highlights, full color, perms, even extensions (also known as weave in the black community).

I just wonder if this woman would feel better about things if say, Adam Sandler, made a documentary about white women getting their hair done. It would not be nearly as exciting. The reason being, black women's hair goes through total transformation - this is what makes it so entertaining. It's like that show Extreme Makeover - it draws people in. Not to see how bad it was at first, but to see how it ends - how great it turns out!! It's not a bad thing and it certainly is not a racial thing.

Another woman in the audience closer to my age thought that this documentary would only give the white women in her office ammunition to make fun of her. Give me a break! I mean, give us white women some credit. We are not stupid about the things that you do to your hair and if you think that someone will start making jokes about your hair after seeing this, they are already making jokes about your hair now. That is a personal fault.

ok, I am almost done with this little rant. When is the world going to move past the black and white issue? There will always be stereotyping, we know that. But this is such a small thing that some people are getting way too worked up about. I mean it's only hair, for God's sake!! And it's Chris Rock. Everybody loves Chris Rock. I am going to sit my happy white butt down in the middle of that theater and see the movie this week. And when I laugh, I hope no one will be offended.