Actress Jada Pinkett Smith attends the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.The preschooler with that loaded question was 3-year-old Lola Rock, daughter of actor-comedian Chris Rock. Rock’s desire to positively affirm Lola’s locks and explore the politics and preferences of those with coily, African-textured styles resulted in the 2009 documentary .
I remember watching the documentary back then and finding it enjoyable, even as it omitted the context and background of how slaveowners slandered and stereotyped our crowns to begin with. Given his deliberate focus on the often-sensitive subject of Black folks’ hair, I had to wonder about what desensitized Rock enough to believe it was fine to single out the hairstyle of actress Jada Pinkett Smith, and to crack jokes about her at last Sunday’s Academy Awards.
This is not meant as a justification or analysis of the slap that Will Smith, best actor nominee for and husband to Jada, delivered to Rock onstage after his joke . I don’t know where Smith was mentally, nor do I condone his behavior. I just remember Jada rolling her eyes at being the punchline, which seems to happen all too often when it comes to Black women and our appearance, especially our skin tones and our hair.
When it comes to beauty, despite our inventiveness dating back thousands of years — creating moisturizers from animal fat, cosmetics from plants and braiding/sculpting techniques that assembled our hair into works of art — colonization and imperialism sought to rebrand Eurocentric features as the beauty standard to emulate and ours as what to avoid.
Get over it people. It’s the Oscars for God’s sake. Where celebrities roast each other and make fun & rude jokes at the disadvantaged. They want that. It’s why they hired Chris Rock. It’s a Don Rickles tradition. Hair, illness, race, gender are all open season for comedians.
Criminal battery should be the result of a joke! 🤡show
Literally the stupidest headline that is 😂
It’s no one’s fault she looks like a female version of the rock 😂 tell her ahh to grow hair or wear a wig
Omg who comes up with these goofy ass headlines
IS SHE A WOMAN? ASK THE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE IF SHE IS A WOMAN. SHE CAN'T ANSWER THAT.
There are no sacred cows, including black women's hair or utter lack of it. Deal with it.
why do you bring race into this? you are just spreading division. this is just another example of corporate wokeness, and even the casuals are sick of it.
No one’s hair should be a punch line
Freedom of Speech is legal. Putting your hands on another man is illegal. 🎤.
🤣
But she doesn’t have any hair so it doesn’t apply here
Get over yourself. The world would be a hell of a lot better off of people stopped taking themselves so seriously