From a young age, black kids are told their natural hair is unkempt, and often by white teachers. The view of what is neat hair, and isn’t neat hair is very subjective. This constant unconscious, and sometimes conscious bias is not helpful. It’s often used as disguised form of discrimination.
I’m not saying this is the case with the original poster and think it was a genuine mistake, but it’s something we probably need to move away from.
Eric Andre says he finds brushing his hair is too time consuming, when asked about it by Larry King. https://youtu.be/7XR4Ml8FijM (11:45)
This question by Larry to Eric about his hair is mentioned in Eric’s interview with Talib Kweli. https://youtu.be/irzhJ4mLMF0 (28:36)
If you’re an Eric Andre fan, these are both must-watch interviews.
Yeah, if you don’t comb (not really brush as a brush wouldn’t detangle) afro-textured hair of that length, it will clump up like that. And afro-textured hair isn’t meant to be combed or brushed daily. The less it’s manipulated the healthier it is as frequent manipulation can cause breakage. That’s why you’ll see some people with afro-textured hair keep their hair in braids or twists or locs if they want to look more what is considered “presentable” while also protecting their hair from breakage. These are called protective styles. Braiding and twisting takes time though that Eric Andre probably doesn’t want to spend and locs are kinda permanent. If his hairstlye works best for his lifestyle, I think that’s good. It’s better for people to see the different ways afro-textured hair can exist in its natural state because I think such exposure without ridicule can lead to further acceptance.
Edit: Thank you for sharing those interview links!
Bruh. It’s a skit. Eric intentionally made his hair messy as part of the “unhinged” character
No, no, they’re right. I mistook a black actor with textured hair for a lighter skinned actor who’s hair was made to stand up as an intentional part of the scene. It’s easier to tell the racial aspect I overlooked in some of the other sources people gave.
Maybe he changed it a bit for the scene, maybe he didn’t, but regardless, wasn’t my best call to word it like that. This one’s on me.
I have no idea. I don’t know what it is. The point I made is still valid though. I don’t think it adds anything, and it does have concerning implications.
Edit: Additional context:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/25/black-pupils-excluded-hair-discrimination-equality-act https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/63399563
If the character was darker-skinned, I would’ve used textured hair, 100%. (Edit: I think I got confused by the lighting in this scend, I thought he had lighter brown hair and lighter skin. In the other interviews, it’s clear it’s naturally textured hair.) Given what I could tell from the character, I wasn’t sure if it was non-textured or curly hair made intentionally messy for the sake of the skit, curly hair blowing in the wind with poor image quality, or the person’s natural hair type. Especially given the fact that he was trying to get into somewhere that seemed closed, my guess from context clues was that he might not have had time to brush his hair.
I’m not sure which side is correct, or if it’s appropriate to use “afro-textured hair” on a person who’s natural hair type may or may not be textured. So for the sake of simplicity, I just removed that part of the transcription.
Didn’t mean any harm with it, sorry for the confusion! Personally I’ve always found textured hair a both fascinating and gorgeous with what it can do, so had I known, I wouldn’t have put it. (I was also writing it while on hold with the doctor’s office, evidenced by how I wrote “engaged” instead of “Engadget” in another transcription haha. So it was also rushed.)
Hey. I absolutely don’t believe there was anything intended by this, and was likely an innocent mistake. I just spotted it and thought it was worth raising.
I reiterate again that what you’re doing in terms of accessibility is epic, so keep up the great work!
Thank you for being open to feedback.
