The Academy Awards gave the best animated short award to “Hair Love,” an animated story about a black father doing his young daughter’s hair on a day when she wanted a special hairdo, and the dad has no idea how to actually style her hair.
This storyline and win are significant on so many levels. The animated short is a touching engagement between father and daughter. The father is not skilled or experienced in fixing a little girl’s hair – and “Hair Love” has some fun animation of the liveliness of the daughter’s African American curly hair giving it a character and personality all its own.
The film is especially poignant because black fathers are rarely depicted in loving, caring, fatherly roles, such as this one, let alone a dad fixing his little girl’s hair. An ad that I’ve long loved is one produced by the AdCouncil where an older woman sitting insider her home hears some voices from outside.
The camera switches to the outside where an African American man appears to be cheerleading. As the scene opens we see his daughter in a cheerleading outfit holding her pom poms and he is practicing her cheers with her.
https://youtu.be/N8YczeG0PJs
The “Hair Love” film’s director, Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL player, said during his acceptance speech that they wanted to “normalize black hair” through this film.
During the acceptance speech Cherry talks about the CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” a movement to protect against discrimination against hairstyles or hair texture.
It’s a topic brought to light recently by Texas student DeAndre Arnold, who was suspended and told he couldn’t participate in the school’s graduation ceremonies because of his hair, his dreadlocks. The school district said its objection to the teenager’s hair is not the style, but the length and that it falls below the T-shirt collar length limit.
The Texas school district said it has had the hair length policy in place for decades, according to a report in the New York Times. That the policy has been in place for that long may signal that some updating is necessary. How does this young man’s hair length have an effect on what he does or his potential in the future? What does his hair have to do with anything that would be reason enough to ban him from his graduation ceremonies?
I related to this topic on a couple different levels. When I was in elementary school I was part of the “safety squad,” who would help students cross the street safely, and remind them to not run in the halls, and such. As a reward for our efforts the school offered to take us to see a movie during school hours – we would be excused for anything we missed during that time. We were told to wear our “best clothes” and given a time and place to meet where the bus would pick us up to go to the movie theatre.
I showed up wearing my “best,” which may not have been everybody’s best because I grew up the proverbial poor girl in a rich neighborhood. But it wasn’t even the quality of what I was wearing. It was the fact that I was wearing slacks, not a dress or skirt. The time period is 1971-1972, and it was still not quite acceptable for girls to only wear pants. As a girl with four older brothers I was a bit of a tomboy and didn’t own a dress or a skirt.
I was told that if I didn’t change my clothes and wear a dress or a skirt that I would not be allowed to get on the bus and go see the movie. I explained that I didn’t own a dress or a skirt. My friends who wanted me to join them said I could borrow something, they just wanted me to join them.
I didn’t understand then, and I still don’t understand now why that should be an issue. I refused to change my clothes. I was not allowed to see the movie. And I still don’t regret it.
I support DeAndre Arnold, his locks, his heritage, his independence, and his rights.
New York Times, DeAndre Arnold and his dreadlocks:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/us/DeAndre-Arnold-dreadlocks.html
Matthew Cherry wins Oscar: http://wgntv.com/2020/02/10/chicago-native-matthew-cherry-wins-oscar-for-best-animated-short-hair-love/
Cherry on the CROWN act
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/09/entertainment/crown-act-oscars-trnd/index.html
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