White People Black History: First Up Kathryn Stockett

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

As promised, for the month of February, in honor of Black History Month, The Meltingpot will be profiling White people who became famous or garnered some modicum of success by telling Black people's stories. To understand why I'm doing this, check out my last post. In the meantime, let's get to our first honoree, Ms. Kathryn Stockett.

With a degree in English and creative writing, almost a decade working in magazine publishing and marketing in New York City, and a childhood spent in the deep south, Stockett felt ready to write a novel about the complicated relationship between White southern women and their Black maids in 1960s Mississippi. The result was The Help, a book whose emotional core stems from the difficult lives of the Black protagonists in the story.

Stockett's Success: The Help has spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold over five million copies. The book was turned into a movie, grossed over $200 million at the box office and, as of this writing, has earned four Oscar nominations.

The Blacklash: Let's be clear, many Black people, myself included, enjoyed reading this book. Still, there was a significant number of Black people who found Stockett's usage of "Black vernacular" way off and insulting. They also felt her depiction of Black domestics to be simple and two dimensional. That could be because Stockett herself doesn't really have a deep connection with the Black community and admitted that she only interviewed one Black maid before writing the book. And then of course there was that law suit that was brought against the author by the maid who worked for Stockett's brother. The woman claimed Stockett 'stole' her life as the basis for one of the main characters in the book. If you read the woman's claims it does sound a bit fishy.

In conclusion, Kathryn Stockett wrote a wildly popular book about  a group of valiant Black American women who helped an unlucky White girl achieve her dreams of being a famous writer. Hmm....

Happy Friday.

Peace!

Are White Girls Better with Color?

Recently one of my cousins whispered a shameful confession. "I think from now on I'm going to look for a White girl to color my hair." My cousin wears her hair in a glorious display of natural curls, radiating the colors of sun, copper, sand and chocolate. She's only been coloring her naturally black hair for about a year now and has tried several different salons in Philadelphia and New York to find the person who can give her exactly what she wants. She's not a diva, but she has standards and needless to say she's been disappointed several times and once after a particularly bad coloring session refused to take off her hat for a week!

But now, she's seen the White, er, I mean light. While visiting her mother in Wisconsin, she went to a White hairstylist who did her color for her. And my cousin loved the results. Apparently this woman has been doing a brisk business for many Black women who want to experiment with color and aren't afraid to let a White woman do their hair. Now some people may wonder why would we be afraid to let White people style our hair if we would allow them to color it? That's a really long story that I dare not get into here in this blog post but suffice it to say, this White hairstylist actually told my cousin when she was done with the color, "I really don't know what to do with your hair now. Do you have any ideas?" My cousin did not hold it against her, knowing what she was getting into and happily went home, styled her own hair, loving the fantastic color with its subtle highlights and tints woven through.

So my cousin has come up with this theory that since White women have been playing with color for so long, and I mean really playing with it, whereas Black women tend to use color as a cover up for gray or a drastic change, (blond, pink, magenta), White hairstylist have a professional advantage over their Black sisters. But they still haven't gotten the styling thing down. So now my cousin is in search of a truly multicultural salon where she can get her hair colored by a White girl and styled by a sister.

Does this make sense to anyone else? Me being the laziest hair person ever, who considers the ponytail the most perfect invention of all times and spends very little time or money at the hair salon, finds this a very interesting theory. And it sounds valid. But I'd like some feedback from the Meltingpot village. And if you really do want to understand why all things hair related are elevated to higher levels of importance in the Black community, read my book, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (see the link at the right), and/or get ready to watch Chris Rock's latest documentary, Good Hair which just debuted at Sundance and won an audience award.

Have a Happy Weekend!

Peace & Hair Grease!

Do White People Like Sugar?

Yesterday I was out visiting with my neighbor. He happens to be a groovy, 30-something White guy whom I love to pieces. He had just arrived home and his little five-year old daughter came out to greet him. Her greeting sounded something like, "Hi Daddy, can you help me get my bike out of the garage?" His reply, "Hey, wait YOU DIDN'T GIVE DADDY ANY SUGAR."

I almost fell over. I didn't know White people asked for sugar! I definitely didn't know 30-something guys asked for sugar. I thought that was a "Black" thing. My neighbor is born and bred in Pennsylvania, so he can't even claim it as a southern throw back. He laughed when I told him that I was shocked that White folks asked their kids for sugar. And I immediately knew it was going on the Meltingpot. Here's just another way we're all just alike. Spreading sweetness all around.

So you know I gotta ask. Did you grow up with your aunties/grandad/daddy asking for sugar? How far off base was I thinking this was a Black thing?

Here's to a sweet weekend.

Peace!