Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I Love My Hair Part II-- The Story Behind the Story

I'm a journalist at heart and behind every story, is another story. So, of course as soon as I saw the wonderful Sesame Street, "I love my hair" video, I wanted to know who had created it. I imagined a crusading Black woman trying to convince her well-meaning, but perhaps unaware colleagues just how intrinsic hair acceptance is for the self-esteem of little Black girls growing up in America. But boy was I wrong.

The hair hero in this story is actually the head writer at Sesame Street, who happens to be a White man with an adopted Ethiopian daughter. I don't need to tell the story, because he tells it so much better. You can read/watch the story here.

And while we're on the subject of videos featuring little Black girls who love their hair, what do you guys think of Willow Smith's (yes, the daughter of Will and Jada) new video/song, "Whip My Hair?" Haven't seen it yet, take a look below. The song is kind of annoying, but completely catchy, but I have to say I dig the energy of the video and I love all of the very cool, avant garde hairstyles. Obviously not the same audience as the Sesame Street Video, but I'd love my tween to see all the cool things Black hair can do, besides, of course, be whipped back and forth. Thoughts?




I'm going to be whipping my hair back and forth for the rest of the day.

Peace!

3 comments:

Teresa said...

So have you seen the mash-up of the two? Here's a link:

http://jezebel.com/5667752/watch-the-sesame-street-willow-smith-mashup

Professor Tharps said...

Teresa,

I sure did see it. My boys love this version best!!! Ha!

Anonymous said...

rock meets rap. as a parent i have opinions but will keep those to myself,mostly about the piercings and lip jewerly, but im glad her parents aren't telling them who they need to b, but i would have a few things to say to my daughter if it was willow, but she's not so like I said i will refrain. Colorful video tho-