Comments on: Bad Boy’s newest talks about getting started and being mixed…

By: J

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:43:34 +0000

I and mixed half black half white and my hair is a mess. and all i want is cute curles but all i get is a frizzy mess and it is ugly and makes me fell bad bout myself. And i kinda with i was lighter and had straighter hair. Cassie is really lucky.n i dnt care wot ppl think.

By: mtevc

mtevc — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:56:21 +0000

after listening to the lyrics of her new song, i would say self esteem isn’t high on her list…it’s more the do whatever to get ahead thing…but then again, she’s really young, and you would hope she would have better counsel to help her make better choices (mom and dad…let’s holler at them)…her voice is lame and the song is lame…what are we selling here??? the same old…but in a too young form

By: Lyonside

Lyonside — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 11:32:25 +0000

And on the lighter side, check out this site:

http://naturallycurly2.com/home/index.php?PHPSESSID=69e5996a9afb50c39dc580d68172555b

The site promotes curly hair of a variety of people and ethnicities.

This is the best part: the webauthors strike back at media comments downing curly hair.
http://naturallycurly2.com/curlcolumns/articles.php?type=shame

By: Lyonside

Lyonside — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 11:28:03 +0000

LMG:

Because “hair” is a volotile issue when it comes to the perception of African-descent hair in America.

If a European-American with curly/frizzy hair bitches about it, I’d say fine, reach for the Pantene.

But the history of African-American hair and how people have “dealt” with it is directly tied to denial/eradication of cultural roots (no pun intended), assimilation, degradation, beauty myths, and conformity.

African-Americans have been told for 300 years that second only to skin, their natural hair brands them as “other,” makes them stand out, makes them subhuman, makes them ugly… it feeds into the ugly racist stories of jungles, beast-like traits, etc….

To counter this, to conform, to blend, to be “successful” (i.e. to look more European), chemicals and hot metal has been historically (and currently) applied. There are still people to talk about “good” and “bad” hair, and some people are branded as having one or the other by well meaning family members AT BIRTH.

Now, backtracking a bit, if someone is aware of that history, and still WANTS a certain look, processes, styled, permed, whatever, then I say, go for it. Some people just feel that they look better in certain ways, and I’m not going to stop them or say that they’re Uncle Tomming it or any such thing. But you HAVE to be aware of the social and political implications of hair and the drama it has caused.

Damn, hair texture has been used to determine who IS or who ISN’T a race. Eugenics had a field day with hair texture. Ignoring history doesn’t make it vanish.

What exactly is a fright? What exactly is a “mess?” See, those are loaded words - what, is poker-straight hair the only ideal?

There are ways to tame frizz (I know personally), without going straight. And regardless of what the particular girl in this article meant, it still falls into the “black hair bad, asian or european hair good” paradigm, which is offensive.

By: little mixed girl

little mixed girl — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 19:43:46 +0000

why are ppl jumping on her about the hair comment?
it sounds like what she said: her hair was wild and now she’s got it under control.
if she had long hair, and it was frizzy, curly, whatever then it was probably hard for her to know how to take care of it. and maybe it looked a fright.
she figured out what to do, and now everything’s chill.

damn ppl. i don’t know anyone that’d want to have their hair look a mess.

By: brad

brad — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 00:30:42 +0000

“Real”? Being mixed isn’t about being white looking. It’s about being of two or more “racial/ethnic” backgrounds. I think Mixed Media Watch has covered mixed folks who “look” white: Wentworth Miller, Keanu Reeves, or Mariah Carey, for instance. However, why should this site limit itself to just that segment of mixed people? A lot of mixed folks don’t look white or have Caucasian ancestry. Should someone who is Native American and black, or Chinese and South Asian, or South Asian and black not be represented? Are their struggles or lives less valuable because they lack Caucasian DNA?

Charlette, if you want more stories on mixed-race people who look more Caucasian, why not send them to Carmen and Jen? They’re very respectful and concerned about all mixed-race issues.

By: eva

eva — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 00:11:46 +0000

I was going to say the same thing to gatamala, i have seen some of her postings and they have not necessarily shown a clear and well thought out pattern of reasoning.

By: Merq

Merq — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:11:16 +0000

gatamala:

No. If you look at Charlette’s posting history, she’s always spewed illogical, ignorant nonsense.

By: the joy princess

the joy princess — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 19:48:02 +0000

We might also want to tell Cassie that she needs to start focusing on looking around for a new label. Who still signs to Bad Boy in 2006? Hasn’t she seen what happens to careers over there?

By: gatamala

gatamala — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:29:08 +0000

good point Lyonside

Charlette - you’ve been on MMW long enough to know better. I suspect someone is using “Charlette” or “her” computer.