Speaker 1: You're listening to waiting on reparations a production off I
Speaker 1: heart radio. Yeah, uh yeah, yeah, yeo. I want to
Speaker 1: rock right now. I'm Dope Knife and I got my style.
Speaker 1: I'm so nice name, like my smile. Don't touch my
Speaker 1: head because I got my crown. I'm not internationally known,
Speaker 1: but I ought to be. I know all about a
Speaker 1: Graham should follow me or I stayed down under like
Speaker 1: Wila Bees dope nice sh shot cut of autore. I'm
Speaker 1: creeping through the window. Cute and stupid baby girl. I'm
Speaker 1: a himbo. Mike. Just grow the dreads out, let the
Speaker 1: wind blow voice and beat the ship met to crescendo.
Speaker 1: Now i'd be rapping unil I'll be a ghana. I
Speaker 1: don't care. I'm doing what I wanna smoking on a
Speaker 1: bunch of marr. Wanna got about a truck you would
Speaker 1: think it was a farmer. Dopey people. I'm Dope Knife
Speaker 1: and we are waiting on reparations up rock. So how
Speaker 1: you doing. I'm great. I've been thriving. I've been on
Speaker 1: the ocation. We're on summer recess from the commission for
Speaker 1: about a month um and so I've just been chilling,
Speaker 1: super hard it took me like the first two weeks
Speaker 1: to even begin to relax, Like I was like constantly
Speaker 1: like I need to be checking my email and like
Speaker 1: just like bugging out every day or anything. No, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what I've slapped this taking like very
Speaker 1: long naps is the only thing I've done with this time.
Speaker 1: Um and general and actually, okay, let's so my second
Speaker 1: album was now done, so that's not that's not nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so use that little feature from our boy dumb knife there.
Speaker 1: Yeah so um so yeah, that's been like damning that
Speaker 1: to make sure it's ready for the world. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it's coming out or anything, but likes, the
Speaker 1: whole thing is, the whole thing is just like you
Speaker 1: definitely should spend as much time, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: put like thinking about putting it out as you spent
Speaker 1: into making it, so you're gonna totally yeah, it's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna come OUTTI next year. Um, but just like
Speaker 1: final tweaks because like it's funny because my first album
Speaker 1: literally like I got it like mixed and everything, and
Speaker 1: like they send it to me and I refused to
Speaker 1: listen to it for like a month and a half.
Speaker 1: They're like Hey, do you have any notes? And like
Speaker 1: I just couldn't. You know how you kind of hate
Speaker 1: the sound of your own voice, Yeah, especially the start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I res like I think I ultimately was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds great, and I like never even listened to
Speaker 1: like the final version of it. I was just like, sure,
Speaker 1: let's do it, because I just couldn't bring myself to
Speaker 1: But with this one, I'm actually really excited about it.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I think I'm actually really proud of it.
Speaker 1: So I've been listening to it, so I'm just to
Speaker 1: be minor tweaks here and there, but also just like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about you guys, So I'll stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that. But how you been, I've been a good Joe.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of doing the same thing. Like I recorded
Speaker 1: a bunch of songs like months ago. You guys might
Speaker 1: remember there was like a plane a few months ago.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I've been recording a bunch of ship.
Speaker 1: So I kind of went through all of that stuff
Speaker 1: and picked out like the best joints and then like
Speaker 1: I wrote like four more new ones. So I'm putting
Speaker 1: that together to put the final touches on my album
Speaker 1: to get ready, So I'm doing that and then um
Speaker 1: oh I'm opening for Afroman August eleven in Savannah, Victory,
Speaker 1: nor A. I'll definitely mention it more as the time
Speaker 1: gets Yeah, definitely bring your vis you know, bring yours.
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Does that? Does he have new music?
Speaker 1: Is he still making making music? You know? I don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: but I'm about to go brush up and like I'm
Speaker 1: only a casual out for Afroman fan to begin with.
Speaker 1: But like when they when they came to me with
Speaker 1: the you know, the pairing for it, like yeah, do
Speaker 1: you want to do this? I was like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: dope knife Afroman. That yeah, we've got the props. That's
Speaker 1: just like six bottles of visin up on the stage
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, amazing. Well let's dope. Let's dope. So
Speaker 1: what we got today? So today, in honor of Natural
Speaker 1: Crown Day, which is on July three, which was a
Speaker 1: day of action on social media, we're predominantly black woman.
Speaker 1: We're posting pictures of themselves the hashtag Crown Act to
Speaker 1: draw attention to a piece of federal legislation, uh, the
Speaker 1: Grown Act, which stands for creating a respectful and Oakland
Speaker 1: World for natural hair. Um, it's an act that is
Speaker 1: meant to prohibit discrimination based on a person's hair, texture
Speaker 1: or hairstyle. So in honor of of this day of
Speaker 1: action that happened recently, UM, we were gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about you know the importance of of of
Speaker 1: hair and with regards to our sense of racial identity discrimination.
Speaker 1: Folks have haste historically as a offshoot of racial discrimination,
Speaker 1: particularly you know, surrounding um hairstyles both natural and this
Speaker 1: one case we found where the girl got kicked at
Speaker 1: school for a weave. It's like, what do you want
Speaker 1: us to do? Natalie has side you don't like the
Speaker 1: natural hair, you don't, we haven't we I don't understand
Speaker 1: which what you want me to do? Um, and then
Speaker 1: touch on how this has been addressed in hip hop.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what we got going on today. So
Speaker 1: UM as a man, but you got I mean, like
Speaker 1: you can keep it, keep it pretty close, pretty tight
Speaker 1: over there. I don't know if you have any like
Speaker 1: personal reflections to share on the world of the world
Speaker 1: of hair, sir, but well, I mean, I definitely like
Speaker 1: for the last I should I don't know how many years,
Speaker 1: But to be honest with you, the more that I
Speaker 1: was getting serious about what I was trying to do,
Speaker 1: I just stopped paying attention to my hair and I
Speaker 1: was just went with whatever was the easiest, which is
Speaker 1: just shaving it like every three days or so. But
Speaker 1: when I was younger, I definitely did more interesting show.
Speaker 1: If you have any pictures we got a post session
Speaker 1: on Instagram, definitely, Yeah, I'm a grab one right now,
Speaker 1: alright butt yeah, but yeah. I mean, I guess this
Speaker 1: is gonna be somewhat of a uh, informative episod for
Speaker 1: me to hear about some of these things, because it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I've always considered anyone's being denied service for
Speaker 1: their hairstyle or something like that that's illegal and I
Speaker 1: think it's whacked and we probably need legislation if they're
Speaker 1: like discriminating against kids in schools and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But just just thinking back to working in service industry,
Speaker 1: I kind of understood in a sense because I had
Speaker 1: worked for different places that had different policies, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like some places I was bartending, and
Speaker 1: it's like it's all about, hey, we want people to
Speaker 1: come to this place for you, like whatever who you are,
Speaker 1: so whatever you have, that's gonna be like an identifier
Speaker 1: to you. Go ahead and rocket. So you got mad tattoos,
Speaker 1: you want to do whatever with your hair, go ahead
Speaker 1: and do it. But then I've worked at other spots
Speaker 1: where it's like, no, it's it's about the ambiance and
Speaker 1: the blah blah blah blah. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: If you have tattoos, cover them up, and if you're
Speaker 1: if you're if there's if your hair is doing anything
Speaker 1: that is attracting attention, check that ship. Sure they and
Speaker 1: you did. They want you to pretty much not exist exactly.
Speaker 1: And this is completely anecdotal, but like just in the
Speaker 1: particular place that I worked, it was like for the
Speaker 1: most part, it was really like the kids coming the
Speaker 1: white kids coming in with like aqua green and purple
Speaker 1: hair that they were like, no, you can't do that,
Speaker 1: but they left us at I mean, like black people
Speaker 1: who had dreads. I just told you that there like
Speaker 1: to tie it up so that it's not dangling and ship.
Speaker 1: But other than that, you know what I mean. But again,
Speaker 1: that's just one experience, and you know, like one thing.
Speaker 1: But obviously I've heard like the stories and and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. So I'm interested to hear more
Speaker 1: about this Crown Act. I mean, and on that. I
Speaker 1: think one area where, particularly with an employment it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's like easy, it's easy for employance together, it was
Speaker 1: a discrimination when they claim like issues of hygiene because
Speaker 1: they don't understand something like dreadlocks or something like an
Speaker 1: afro to them because of the way um um, you know,
Speaker 1: black folk folks have been perceived historically. It's just like
Speaker 1: inherently dirty sort of then transferred that like undertation projection
Speaker 1: onto your hair when they don't understand anything about like
Speaker 1: maintenance or this or that, and so like you know
Speaker 1: in and um in we I actually tried to bring
Speaker 1: forward or an amendment to a piece of legislation here
Speaker 1: in Athens to protect against hair discrimination in our non
Speaker 1: discrimination ordinance. And we're talking about like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's your natural hairstyle, um, if a white black whoever, like,
Speaker 1: they can't discriminate against it. It's like okay, but both
Speaker 1: me and this other white commissioner technically have her hair
Speaker 1: down right now. She's an old white lady with like long,
Speaker 1: you know, gray hair, and I got the afro out,
Speaker 1: Like if they tell me to put mine up because
Speaker 1: it's a sanitation issue, but they don't tell her to
Speaker 1: put it up. Like we're both wearing we're both wearing
Speaker 1: your hair natural, so like count and we had this
Speaker 1: long discussion about whether or not that counted as discrimination. Um,
Speaker 1: so just on that and what's your like? First of all,
Speaker 1: I mean, how long have you You've always rocked the
Speaker 1: giant afro since I've known you, But how long have
Speaker 1: you rocked it? In? What's you're like? Background? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: should totally give some background. Yeah, no, no, yeah, So
Speaker 1: I stopped straining my hair and I was think fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, so I've been wearing like this for about
Speaker 1: thirteen years now. Um, And like at the time, it
Speaker 1: was just purely like I fucking hated going to the salon,
Speaker 1: just like I hated sitting in a chair for hours
Speaker 1: and getting my scalp burned, and just like and like
Speaker 1: and straining my hair with a way to become invisible,
Speaker 1: like just to fit in to get to like keep
Speaker 1: it low key. It wasn't like I felt like it
Speaker 1: was an expression of who I was, nor did I
Speaker 1: really feel like an afro was nexpression when I was
Speaker 1: I was just looking sick of just you know, every
Speaker 1: month or whatever, getting all these chemicals and in my
Speaker 1: hair and all the ship and so to stop and
Speaker 1: just kind of like out of rebellion, like just fuck
Speaker 1: you guys, I don't do this anymore. But like I didn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of like the like you know, the
Speaker 1: ties of like natural hair and that's like symbolism within
Speaker 1: the civil rights movement or anything like that. People started
Speaker 1: telling I always like the name is, I don't know
Speaker 1: who funk that was? Um, Like I was just like
Speaker 1: it's kind of almost more of like a punk emo
Speaker 1: sort of thing. I was just like, look authority, bro. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily like a cultural identified No no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it was just like yeah, I mean, being an angsty
Speaker 1: little bit and just not wanting to deal with like yeah,
Speaker 1: it's in the like all this effort that put in
Speaker 1: I put into like disappearing at school, you know every day. Um,
Speaker 1: and then I just wanted to like this ever since,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I just don't. I mean, I I value salons.
Speaker 1: It's like the therapeutic environment, Like I understand what this
Speaker 1: place they hold in our culture, but like personally for me,
Speaker 1: it's just easier to not like worrying, Oh when am
Speaker 1: I kind of book my appointment and hey a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars and dada, I just like, you know, get up,
Speaker 1: watch it, brush it. It goes like this and then
Speaker 1: I just lived my life and I just don't think
Speaker 1: about it. I just don't care. But that freedom, that
Speaker 1: freedom to not care, the freedom to whether it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you can go to your job interview and
Speaker 1: your dreadlocks and not be worried about it. You can
Speaker 1: wear your hair natural and afro and not worry about it.
Speaker 1: You can where are we've and not worry about it
Speaker 1: like that that I think is at the essence of
Speaker 1: what this Act is meant to accomplish. That. But in
Speaker 1: terms of like freedom, you know, I mean I have
Speaker 1: I have like some other questions, but I guess we should, uh,
Speaker 1: we should let them out. What We're gonna get more
Speaker 1: in depth into the set everything after the jump. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if you know, and please stop me
Speaker 1: if we get into it. But so, how do they
Speaker 1: enforce it or what's the plan to like enforce it.
Speaker 1: So in my research on the Crown Act at the
Speaker 1: federal level, like they repeatedly say like, oh, the bill
Speaker 1: outlines um methods of enforcement. Um, if you give me
Speaker 1: a second, I will actually um the bill. Because here
Speaker 1: if if an employer, like, for example, if they're gonna
Speaker 1: discriminate against somebody who has dreadlots. But then like somebody
Speaker 1: can come in with like a mohawk, a white person
Speaker 1: come in with a mohawk and do an interview, and
Speaker 1: that's like a clear cut example, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: But what happens when there's not that clear cut example?
Speaker 1: And how do you like, I'm wondering, like, how do
Speaker 1: they determine when it's just yeah, it's interesting that it
Speaker 1: is specifically focused on hairstyles that are linked to racial
Speaker 1: or ethnic identity, and so it does not like if
Speaker 1: you get discriminated against some faces, up, I have pink hair,
Speaker 1: and then I actually then be something that we might
Speaker 1: discuss later. I wanted to talk a little bit about,
Speaker 1: you know how Shaky Richardson sort of inspired a lot
Speaker 1: of people with having a very unconventional per to no
Speaker 1: solemn general but like she had orange hair, that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily something that isn't like inherent to black culture or
Speaker 1: something that people seek out as like a black thing.
Speaker 1: But because she is a black woman, it might be
Speaker 1: looked upon differently than if she was a white woman. Um.
Speaker 1: There's interesting implications there. But with regards to enforcement, UM,
Speaker 1: the federal the federal bill says that if you're discriminated
Speaker 1: against her federally assisted program, so like if you are
Speaker 1: if you are participant in public housing or any other
Speaker 1: sort of UM, I don't know, wicked snap programs like that,
Speaker 1: and someone tries to deny you on the basis of
Speaker 1: you know, your dreads look gross or something. UM, they
Speaker 1: say it should be enforced by the same means as
Speaker 1: if um, it was a part of the Similar Rights
Speaker 1: Act of nineteen sixty four. So there's like a precedence
Speaker 1: said from state to state assuming UM, yeah, probably very
Speaker 1: state to say it says, you know, to say, within
Speaker 1: the same jurisdiction as would be in for if it
Speaker 1: were a part of the Civil Rights Act. Um. But
Speaker 1: what was gonna say, Um, So yeah, same thing with
Speaker 1: like housing programs. UM. You know, it would be UM
Speaker 1: enforced with the same measures as would any other infraction
Speaker 1: under the Fair Housing Acts. And so it sort of
Speaker 1: tucks it into um, some of these other pieces of
Speaker 1: legislation that already exists in terms of existing enforcement mechanisms
Speaker 1: rather than like piloting yeah yeah, and interesting, the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, um actually did um,
Speaker 1: it did protect I mean it prohibited prohibited discrimination based
Speaker 1: on race, but only protected against discrimination against Afros specifically.
Speaker 1: I guess it's like the fucking stereotypical well that was.
Speaker 1: That was like as as much as the imagination went
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, you know, like they see the yeah with
Speaker 1: the Caesar or afro, Yeah exactly, and so some of
Speaker 1: the more some of the protective hairstyles like locks, twists, trades, um.
Speaker 1: And I guess I mean we could get into this
Speaker 1: a little back and forth about like whether like we'ves
Speaker 1: count because this what is this one example? Or this
Speaker 1: girl I mean she had like she had extensions, let's say,
Speaker 1: so they were meant to look like natural hair, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't her natural hair. And even so, I mean
Speaker 1: I guess that one to see a picture. I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole thing, the whole thing is the whole premise.
Speaker 1: I just whatever it is that we you know, end
Speaker 1: up getting into, I just want my position is the
Speaker 1: whole premise of it is whack. Somebody's hairstyle isn't determinative,
Speaker 1: determinative who they are as a person, you know something
Speaker 1: about their personality, or what type of worker they are,
Speaker 1: what type of student they're going to be, all of
Speaker 1: that ship. So wait, wait, do you want to just
Speaker 1: you want just get started. I'm sure we can. Being
Speaker 1: his fault, yeah, we're kind of jumping all around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's just let's get into it, and then let's
Speaker 1: get into where this bill comes from. So the spill
Speaker 1: or these bills rather the federal one, and then there's
Speaker 1: various versions that have been passed the state and municipal level.
Speaker 1: Go to stores of discrimination against black people with dreadlocks,
Speaker 1: twist natural hair, or even shockingly weaves. Um. A study
Speaker 1: connected by Dove found that black women are more likely
Speaker 1: to change their hair their natural hair to conform with
Speaker 1: social norms or expectations at work, and the black women
Speaker 1: are one point five times more likely to be sent
Speaker 1: home from the workplace because of their hair. Um. I
Speaker 1: definitely got told, particularly when I was so yo, look
Speaker 1: check the ship out. This is kind of wild, and
Speaker 1: I kind of find it a little suspect, But like
Speaker 1: I think I'm down. So Dove is like the leader
Speaker 1: of this political coalition of the National Urban League, Color
Speaker 1: of Change, Western Center on Lawn Poverty to like pass
Speaker 1: the Crown Act. Like they are championing the passage of
Speaker 1: the Crown ex federally. Um. If you go to the
Speaker 1: Crown Act website, they give you information on there's like
Speaker 1: model legislation, there's sun a petition, There's that gives you
Speaker 1: a link to the mail your senator. There's other resources.
Speaker 1: So like they're like, it's like, I personally have never
Speaker 1: seen a corporation like lead the charge on passing legislation
Speaker 1: like this before. It's kind of like creepy and girls
Speaker 1: some I just did. I just did a Google search
Speaker 1: for Dove hair study and like a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: about the Crown Act that's coming up. Yeah. They yeah,
Speaker 1: they did research into both perceptions and changes and attitude
Speaker 1: or like the things that people have actually done, as
Speaker 1: well as like fears that people have about discrimination in
Speaker 1: their right places. I don't see what insidious motivation there
Speaker 1: could be, So I mean it seems like yeah, and
Speaker 1: any good thing. Yeah. I mean, like I feel like
Speaker 1: you very frequently with like you know, corporate diversity initiatives, etcetera.
Speaker 1: You see them give money to organizations to do this
Speaker 1: kind of work. But process is more common than I realized.
Speaker 1: I just don't funk with corporations that much, So I
Speaker 1: didn't didn't dune at me that they do this kind
Speaker 1: of all the time. But from what i've a good
Speaker 1: amount of this stuff is actually dated back in a minute,
Speaker 1: yes before. Yeah, they were here before the George Floyd ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so it's like they've been at it. And from
Speaker 1: what I can tell from their social media presence around
Speaker 1: the campaign, it's not like, you know, like by Dove,
Speaker 1: you know, like they're not promoting themselves. They just happened
Speaker 1: to be a partner in this word, which I just
Speaker 1: find really interesting. But anyway, so they did they they
Speaker 1: did a study, um, you know around uh, you know,
Speaker 1: behavioral changes that black women often have to make or
Speaker 1: feel they have to make in order to fit in
Speaker 1: in the workplaces, and then actual punitive action that's been
Speaker 1: taken against black women, you know, black women being sent
Speaker 1: home from work more often. UM. I definitely felt pressure
Speaker 1: when I was going to become a teacher, Like I
Speaker 1: got people telling It's like who told me, like you can't,
Speaker 1: you can't, we can't be a teacher and looked like that.
Speaker 1: It's like straight up not like it like not like
Speaker 1: job interviews. But when I was like consulting with people
Speaker 1: in the profession, like most time honestly almostly got it
Speaker 1: from like white guys. But um, but they were like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna work. And then it don't even it did,
Speaker 1: but that but that alone, when you do you think
Speaker 1: they were telling you? Do you think they were telling
Speaker 1: you in terms of like what they thought or what
Speaker 1: they thought the reaction was going to be exactly so um,
Speaker 1: not necessarily on the basis of anything they had seen
Speaker 1: with regards to workplace policy and probably their own racism. Um,
Speaker 1: but even hearing that, like that's enough to this way
Speaker 1: someone like M and I was looking into a little
Speaker 1: bit later in the episode, like maybe I want to
Speaker 1: apply for that job or like oh there's nobody they'll
Speaker 1: let me work there, you know, look you know, or
Speaker 1: or enough to change your style like with a legit
Speaker 1: change the way you look because it scared of what
Speaker 1: might happen. It sucks, But it's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's just other things that it's like that same sort
Speaker 1: of thing applies to like for example, it's no secret
Speaker 1: I smoke, you know what I mean. And I've always
Speaker 1: had to navigate from jobs that drug tests. It's always
Speaker 1: been like a man, that job would be cool, but
Speaker 1: I'm weighing it out, and it's like, it's not really
Speaker 1: worth me changing my style, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: get to go work there. But if I personally know
Speaker 1: that if I was in a situation to where I
Speaker 1: had to have that job where my choices were more limited, hey,
Speaker 1: I might have to stop smoking in order to pay
Speaker 1: the light bill, and that's a decision I have to make.
Speaker 1: It's like, from a cultural aspect, it sucks because that
Speaker 1: shouldn't even be the case, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: It should not be the case. No, Yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: interesting with that. Um like that both of these things,
Speaker 1: both hairstyles and um consumption habits, could be seen as
Speaker 1: a lifestyle choice, whereas like protective hairstyles for like black hair,
Speaker 1: it's not really a choice like if you to keep
Speaker 1: your hair healthy, if you're trying to like grow it out,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to prevent breakage, etcetera. Like you kind
Speaker 1: of if you kind of gotta do it, and that's
Speaker 1: no offense. You can like you said, you can stop
Speaker 1: smoking if you really had to, but like you kind
Speaker 1: of got aware, like your braids, you know, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna keep your hair out exactly. I mean, I just don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people from out the culture don't don't stand that. And
Speaker 1: so like employers like, well, why don't you choose to
Speaker 1: cut your dreadlocks off to work here? Like it's not
Speaker 1: that big deals Like actually, I mean but both of
Speaker 1: these I would say they're in the same category of
Speaker 1: like knows that's actually a big deal, Like this is
Speaker 1: my you know, yeah, lifestyle choices should not be impediments
Speaker 1: to your because it doesn't. You definitely got to do
Speaker 1: some some work like culturally, But I mean, I think
Speaker 1: we're like a generation away again, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: it's just like tattoos, you know, when I when I
Speaker 1: first it's crazy to think that. It's like when I
Speaker 1: first got into the like job market as like a
Speaker 1: young adult, like oh manner right, I'm looking for a job,
Speaker 1: it was still a thing of oh man, you've got
Speaker 1: that tattoo on your forearm. I know, yeah that up
Speaker 1: like that was still the thing. So it's not even
Speaker 1: ancient history. But I've watched in the last fifteen years
Speaker 1: that it's every job that I go to there's people
Speaker 1: with full sleeves and tattoos on their neck and stuff,
Speaker 1: and no one really cares. But again, I'm in Savannah.
Speaker 1: But things like you know, the Crown Act even happening.
Speaker 1: I think those moved the pendulum of that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But on the topic of like, oh you, why don't
Speaker 1: you just cut your druads off? I mean there's famous examples. Recently,
Speaker 1: omen by the name of Chastity Jones got into a
Speaker 1: ten year legal battle after she says an employer at
Speaker 1: a call center in Alabama took back her job offer
Speaker 1: because she refused to cut her dreadlocks, which like working
Speaker 1: in a call like working in a call center, are
Speaker 1: you fucking like if ever when you find dining like
Speaker 1: I already can't like really excuse it, but like I
Speaker 1: sort of understand where you're coming from, understanding and barely yeah, um,
Speaker 1: but did a call center you literally not even see
Speaker 1: anyone face to face? Yeah, ten years she fought with
Speaker 1: them over their rescinded job offer in that regard, and
Speaker 1: then we see it frequently in schools as well. Black
Speaker 1: students are disciplined at a rate four times higher of
Speaker 1: any other racial or ethnic group, and research has found
Speaker 1: that seventy of these suspensions are discretionary and that many
Speaker 1: of them actually stemmed from dress code violations, which in
Speaker 1: turn can include unapproved hairstyles. So um. Another one example
Speaker 1: in eighteen UM, a Louisiana sixth grade greater was kicked
Speaker 1: off school grounds because her um, like her bread extensions
Speaker 1: violated school policy. Um. You know the her elementary school
Speaker 1: uh head of policy that states that only that students
Speaker 1: can only wear their natural hair, which is kind of
Speaker 1: like a reverse of what we have been talking about
Speaker 1: regards to this act. They said in a statement that
Speaker 1: they offered her family an opportunity to comply with the
Speaker 1: uniform and dress policy, but her family chose to withdraw
Speaker 1: the student. The student was not as suspended or six spelled,
Speaker 1: which I don't really think it's how much better because
Speaker 1: it's like they would have suspended her probably for violation
Speaker 1: of this policy. Your family chose to not put her
Speaker 1: through that and sept her out of school. Um. But again,
Speaker 1: you know, extensions like if you're growing your hair out, um,
Speaker 1: and you know it's not quite yet the link you're
Speaker 1: trying to get it at but do you want to
Speaker 1: emulate a more natural hairstyle like braids, you know, just
Speaker 1: get you just get brainds, brake extensions, UM, like a
Speaker 1: private school or something like that. Yeah, it was like
Speaker 1: it was like a private Christian school or something. Um.
Speaker 1: And so another example a little somewhat you know, I
Speaker 1: think it pushes the limits of what we understand this
Speaker 1: act to do. But um, ultimately, yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: does protect against discrimination against hairstyles that are associated with
Speaker 1: your racial or ethnic group. That included if you have
Speaker 1: if you have um extensions that emulate like a black
Speaker 1: hairstyle or you know, are you know, affiliated with black culture,
Speaker 1: That too, I think is encompassed in the protections that
Speaker 1: this bill would offer. Well, I mean, dress codes definitely
Speaker 1: historically have been used to you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like on to covertly discriminate against ethnic groups and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So oh for sure, the whole framework of
Speaker 1: professionalism is a like classis and white supremacist concept. I think,
Speaker 1: like just like what we deemed professional is is based
Speaker 1: on like white middle class, upper middle class like you know,
Speaker 1: Western norms, um, that don't actually have anything to do
Speaker 1: as you said earlier, with your ability to enact the
Speaker 1: functions of the job professionally. What do you think about
Speaker 1: what I said earlier about like how we're most likely
Speaker 1: like a generation away. I agree, I agree. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think with the passage of acts like these that
Speaker 1: then allow us to break down the cultural barriers and
Speaker 1: open opportunities for those those um for that cultural education,
Speaker 1: like oh, once people start working together with folks of
Speaker 1: different who have different hairstyles and come to learn more
Speaker 1: about the maintenance, the history, the functionality, like why these
Speaker 1: things are this way. It's not dirty, it's it's this
Speaker 1: way on purpose, and this is how you know it works.
Speaker 1: Then and um, yeah, I think like in a generation,
Speaker 1: people won't care anymore and we won't even probably won't
Speaker 1: even need the legislations just because from a cultural exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had to break the door down someplace. So so
Speaker 1: I guess let's getting to this other story right up.
Speaker 1: So a few months later, a wrestling officials told New
Speaker 1: Jersey high school athlete athlete Andrew Johnson, who'd have to
Speaker 1: cut his dreadlocks in order to compete. Johnson opted to
Speaker 1: cut his hair and compete. The video incident shows the
Speaker 1: trainer cutting his dreadlocks as people in the gymnasium watch.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing that so just so dehumanizing, so dehumanizing,
Speaker 1: because like everybody standing around watching you get your hair
Speaker 1: cut off in the middle of the school gym bro.
Speaker 1: Honestly though, actually it's really funny. In one article on
Speaker 1: this story that I found, um, the referee in question
Speaker 1: into that sixteen was accused of calling a black reference
Speaker 1: and then he got body slammed in the great there
Speaker 1: you go. So yeah, this guy probably wasn't like yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying there, because it just it's
Speaker 1: it's again, it's it's one of those things where it's like, man,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of that. That doesn't seem like a thing.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you just have him put his hair out
Speaker 1: if that was the issue at all? That I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't be like cut your hair more like right
Speaker 1: there in the middle of everybody, like nigger, we see you.
Speaker 1: It's on cameras. Ship like I know, yeah, like you're
Speaker 1: laying that ship on a little thick you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like the different forms of racism and
Speaker 1: ship you got like the oh, dear, I don't feel
Speaker 1: safe with that black guy in the neighborhood racism and
Speaker 1: then you got like that weirdo, we are the master
Speaker 1: race racism. That's like that sort of ship like cut
Speaker 1: your dreads now, I know. Yeah, but thankfully the the
Speaker 1: athlete he did, he did cut his hair, sadly, but
Speaker 1: he went on to win the match by takedown, which
Speaker 1: you honestly do love to see. And then the New
Speaker 1: Jersey Division of Civil Rights in the New Jersey State
Speaker 1: Interschalactic Athletic Association investigated an incident and bench the referee
Speaker 1: for the duration of the investigation. So okay, so at
Speaker 1: least I had a somewhat good ending to it. But
Speaker 1: sucks he had to cut his ship. But okay, So
Speaker 1: let's talk about Shikari Richardson speaking of athletes and hair.
Speaker 1: So her issue is like, you know, in all honesty,
Speaker 1: I haven't really heard too many you know, it's too
Speaker 1: much commentary about her hair. But again, I wasn't really
Speaker 1: following her until the whole thing with weed because me
Speaker 1: but but um, yeah, no, So I mean it's like,
Speaker 1: but it's like, obviously, the whether she wears her hair
Speaker 1: in the sport that she's in, you know, it obviously
Speaker 1: makes her stand out. The combination of the tattoo, she
Speaker 1: got the long nail, she got the orange hair. But yeah,
Speaker 1: those she happens to be dope, the fastest woman in
Speaker 1: the I say it to America. Yeah, so I have
Speaker 1: have people been talking about her hair like negatively or something? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I think I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people found it really inspiring that, you know, rather than
Speaker 1: like there's something about athleticism where it's like it's not
Speaker 1: about how you look, it's about what you do with
Speaker 1: your body. Um. And so the fact that she could
Speaker 1: combine both in a way like combining like aspects of
Speaker 1: personal style that ordinarily it would be seen as very
Speaker 1: ratchet like oh she got you know, law orange hair,
Speaker 1: she had these crazy nails, etcetera. But like, also she
Speaker 1: can fucking out run any of you bitches any day
Speaker 1: and highest hell probably at the same time. Um was
Speaker 1: like really, I think the stories like that really inspired
Speaker 1: people and be like, oh, you can be who you
Speaker 1: are and do do up ship at the same time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well the reason can the thing that makes
Speaker 1: me um, you know, it feeds into also why I
Speaker 1: think it's like we're a generation away from that is like,
Speaker 1: you know, I watched basketball a lot. And again it's
Speaker 1: like I was, I was watching basketball where like in
Speaker 1: the late nineties and ship, everybody's hair. Everybody was either
Speaker 1: bald headed or had a caesar or like a little fro,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a fro or something like that.
Speaker 1: But Alan Iverson was, you know, one of the first
Speaker 1: ones to come in and have the corn rows and
Speaker 1: the ship and he would get like different configurations of
Speaker 1: corn rows and the designs and ship. Yeah, but again
Speaker 1: he was feeding off of what Dennis Rodman did before him,
Speaker 1: who was coming in with a colorful hair when you know,
Speaker 1: and Dennis Rodman was doing it when really nobody nobody
Speaker 1: anything interesting. Nobody was rocking tattoos like that or anything
Speaker 1: like that. I think things like that trickled down and
Speaker 1: into society. I think I didn't do that, and that
Speaker 1: that like we've way into my personal ethos around like
Speaker 1: style and professionalism and like my job as elected official.
Speaker 1: Like I I mean, I'll like dress up if I
Speaker 1: have to, but like when I go to a community
Speaker 1: events and stuff I very frequently just like where would
Speaker 1: I wear, you know, saggy hoodies and just like stuff
Speaker 1: I wear a hip hop show because I think it's
Speaker 1: really important for the people I represent, especially the children
Speaker 1: in the in the district, to know that you can
Speaker 1: just like look how you look and how you feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: um and represent where you come from culturally, and also
Speaker 1: just kick ass that whatever you're trying to do, like
Speaker 1: rather than reinforce the notion that like, you can only
Speaker 1: be good at your job if you look a certain way,
Speaker 1: It's like, oh no, Like, actually, I spend more time
Speaker 1: focusing on legislation that makes the community better than I do, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, do is my we've good and like my
Speaker 1: heels on fleet and ship because that doesn't doesn't that
Speaker 1: doesn't impact anybody's life. Yeah, but it's all part of normalization.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of what you do, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's it's like rights, normalization is important
Speaker 1: ever going to get there and it might seem incremental,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it all compiles
Speaker 1: on and it all means something. It's like, it's important
Speaker 1: that there's a politician like you doing what you're doing
Speaker 1: because that, you know, how however big, that will you
Speaker 1: a point of reference years from now when the next
Speaker 1: person wants to get in there exactly and it was
Speaker 1: important for this where I'm going to do his things.
Speaker 1: So Alan, I received this thing, and it was important
Speaker 1: for you carry to do her thing telling us from now,
Speaker 1: the whole US team be looking to you know, authentic
Speaker 1: at hell whatever that means to them, that without question,
Speaker 1: because they're like, no, I'm focused on being the fastest
Speaker 1: motherfucker out here, and I'm not focused on what y'all
Speaker 1: think folks to look like. Or I'm out here trying
Speaker 1: to win some motherfucking basketball. I do not care if
Speaker 1: y'all think the designs of my corn rows are like
Speaker 1: goofy or whatever. It's a beautiful thing. But um, let's
Speaker 1: move on to discuss some um state level versions of
Speaker 1: the legislation which I've been adapted adopted. I think thirteen
Speaker 1: states at this point, California, New Jersey, New York, California.
Speaker 1: I said that twice. Uh, California, California, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Maryland, Connecticut,
Speaker 1: in New Mexico, Delaware, and Nebraska. Some of these are
Speaker 1: kind of struck me as surprising, Like Nebraska. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, I don't know you all had black people
Speaker 1: in Nebraska. Well, I mean, it's like I would imagine
Speaker 1: the black people in Nebraska probably feel, oh they're feeling it.
Speaker 1: Oh they need, oh they need They're like, please protect us,
Speaker 1: please yeah. Um. And then several of the states have
Speaker 1: similar bills in the works, I mean as the valleys
Speaker 1: as well as well of taking it upon themselves to
Speaker 1: pass ordinances banning hair discrimination in the absence of state action. UM.
Speaker 1: One such place, UM Louisball, Kentucky, which I think passed
Speaker 1: UM Crown Act legislation earlier this year. UM in part
Speaker 1: due to a hip hop song produced by some middle
Speaker 1: schoolers who we had the pleasure of speaking to you
Speaker 1: a few months back. UM. They called themselves the Prodigies,
Speaker 1: and they had a song called Crown and a TikTok
Speaker 1: challenge that went with it, where UM they encouraged viewers
Speaker 1: UM and content creators to show off all the various
Speaker 1: hairstyles they like to rock. UM and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna be proud of it. And the lyrics to
Speaker 1: talk about my curls, motswist, moltops, my braids. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: actually playing a little bit of it. UM. I think
Speaker 1: that a second. So in March, congresswoman in Yanna Pressley
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts seven District, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey twelve,
Speaker 1: Barbara Lee of California thirteen, Alan Alan Omar of Minnesota,
Speaker 1: OH five, and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin o for announced
Speaker 1: reintroduction of Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,
Speaker 1: which is a Crown Act in the House of Representatives,
Speaker 1: simultaneously releasing a letter since Vice President Kamala Harris urging
Speaker 1: her to use the platform is the first black woman
Speaker 1: to hold that office, to help ensure the bill reaches
Speaker 1: the President's desks in Congress. Senator Corey Booker of Democratic
Speaker 1: New Jersey y'all know him, also announced reintroduction of the
Speaker 1: Crown Acting Senate. So the chrome passed to the House
Speaker 1: this last year, but it's still wait a wait to
Speaker 1: vote in the Senate. So, you know, shout outs Senator
Speaker 1: Booker for trying to bring that to the floor. What
Speaker 1: do you think the chances are? I mean, we all
Speaker 1: know that it's we're not it's not exactly the I
Speaker 1: think that things like they make fucking June team thought
Speaker 1: that they had vote against making Juneteenth the holiday. Bro
Speaker 1: Like they like they don't care about they're gonna believe
Speaker 1: it happens. I think this, I think I think issues
Speaker 1: like this is Unfortunately it's it's exactly what, you know,
Speaker 1: the sort of fight that they would want. I think
Speaker 1: the Republicans would want because this is, this is critical
Speaker 1: race theory, this is wokenness, this is you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It's like pretty much that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: their thing is to try to define everything that involves
Speaker 1: being a decent human being as woke pre cisely. Um
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll see where it goes from here. It's
Speaker 1: been reintroduced. I don't know how many times I guess,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's been up for discussion two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen and so they reintroduced it, you know, every
Speaker 1: House session. Um so they brought it back. We'll see.
Speaker 1: But you know, they get infrastructure to deal with voting rights.
Speaker 1: Someone I wouldn't be I wouldn't be super mad if
Speaker 1: they don't get to this to like December, Let's take
Speaker 1: a little bit and listen to you talking with the
Speaker 1: Young Prodigy about their TikTok challenge. We are here with
Speaker 1: the Young Prodigies, a rap group out of Louisville, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And rather than trying to have me give an introduction
Speaker 1: to y'all, because I think you know it's really powerful
Speaker 1: to give the youth their own voice. I wanted to
Speaker 1: see if you wanted to introduce yourselves, tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about who you are and where this project
Speaker 1: came from. So Keyshawn, if you would uh give us
Speaker 1: a little intro onto the who the young products are?
Speaker 1: My name is Keyshawn ak looky the newest member that
Speaker 1: you real young produgies. What a prod of gy is
Speaker 1: is a holly telling to chill or a young person
Speaker 1: gifted with exceptional abilities. And like, we all have our
Speaker 1: own different styles and we all are very good at writing, performing,
Speaker 1: just speaking about injustice situations and changing the world with
Speaker 1: our voice and bropping. Um. My name is Andrea, but
Speaker 1: I go by name Greezy um, and I'm like the
Speaker 1: second oldest young produg and I'm fourteen. Um. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: comes dry a k a juju like basketball and baseball
Speaker 1: and I gotta WB the boys Academy. What's up, y'all?
Speaker 1: My name your nay at Ka Driman Bill because I'm
Speaker 1: always dripping, you know what I'm saying, And I am
Speaker 1: the youngest member of the Real Young Prodigies. But I've
Speaker 1: been in this group since kindergarten. I really would have
Speaker 1: been in it since preschool, but I was a little
Speaker 1: bit too young. My name is okay A Ray okay Um,
Speaker 1: I'm the second youngest of the Real Young page Um.
Speaker 1: I'm a living years it turned twelve one month, um,
Speaker 1: a book, two Great Day's Academy and I live. And
Speaker 1: I'm a young entreprene in my life. And my mom
Speaker 1: of my boat called Boat by Room. My name is Divine.
Speaker 1: My rap name is Connie. I've been in the Young
Speaker 1: Products the longest, so the oldest member from fifteen. I've
Speaker 1: been in the Young Pridges for seven years. All right,
Speaker 1: So thank you all so much for giving an intro
Speaker 1: into who you all are individually. Divine, while we have
Speaker 1: you here as the oldest and longest standing member of
Speaker 1: the really Young Producties, because you talk talking to us
Speaker 1: a little bit about where this project came from. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: the Young Prodigies, it was like, I'm pretty sure nobody
Speaker 1: affected to go like as far as it did, or
Speaker 1: get um as serious as it did. It started as
Speaker 1: more of a project, like an actual school project. When
Speaker 1: I was in like fourth grade at Wheelie Eleventtory and
Speaker 1: Nini was my teacher for my writing class, and she
Speaker 1: wanted us to do a project for something that we
Speaker 1: had coming up called Phillis Sweet Wee Day. And she
Speaker 1: asked us who wanted to make a rap for the
Speaker 1: for the day. So I was the only girl on
Speaker 1: the carpet. It was like me and like four or
Speaker 1: five other boys, and I killed it. Like we wrote
Speaker 1: a song called Phillis Sweep Love Words. Um. From there
Speaker 1: we started taking it more seriously. People I've came and
Speaker 1: going in the group. We started doing more performances. Um.
Speaker 1: After the day that we performed, we figured out our name,
Speaker 1: which is the Prodigy. Now we like performed locally and
Speaker 1: like it's just a growing a lot of sense day.
Speaker 1: So talking about talking a little about inspiration behind y'all
Speaker 1: hit and um what y'all are advocating for, what y'all
Speaker 1: calling for. But it all started when we all was
Speaker 1: in a Rodney session. The big kids were doing third
Speaker 1: thing with their new songs that's really coming out. I
Speaker 1: don't know when, but um so basically me Renee and
Speaker 1: ms Naren or ak Needi um. So we so we
Speaker 1: started brand storing what we love about himself. And then
Speaker 1: we started and we all said our hair, so that
Speaker 1: really get integration, that's really going into the chronic. And
Speaker 1: I look think it that the Crown I Will really
Speaker 1: helped us. And we're really trying to get the chronic
Speaker 1: passed into move with Kakstucky and also we're trying to
Speaker 1: get Ayana Pressley who saw the Chronic and WASHINGTDC. So
Speaker 1: we so we so become produced, but we got people
Speaker 1: protect and watch tv T and yeah, and I'll started
Speaker 1: and when I heard well, UM's and the stud which
Speaker 1: we all over here, we all own there that we
Speaker 1: all love who filed the Cronac. That's how we get
Speaker 1: That's how we all get started. And then me May
Speaker 1: started doing all these reshirts about the Pronic and we
Speaker 1: see how everybody gets discriminated by their air and I
Speaker 1: was like way by textures, by skin color, and I
Speaker 1: was really frustrating about that, and so we start to
Speaker 1: get ad So the Crown Act is basically letting you
Speaker 1: be free on walking around on that you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get fired or you're not gonna get suspended for the
Speaker 1: hair that you're in or the skin that you're in
Speaker 1: and a lot of people, actually Caucasian people have gotten
Speaker 1: a notice that you can't do this if your hair
Speaker 1: is this way. So like they come wear Mulich if
Speaker 1: they played baseball, So it's kind of like the same
Speaker 1: with us. We can't. They have butler that had a
Speaker 1: list of what we couldn't wear, and as you could tell,
Speaker 1: it is all black hair. We should be proud of
Speaker 1: our hair. That's how I'm gonna say that, Like, there's
Speaker 1: no reason that we should have to do different things
Speaker 1: to our hair just to make somebody else happy. Up,
Speaker 1: We're happy with the way our hair look. That it
Speaker 1: shouldn't matter to anybody else. People should up left and
Speaker 1: not put people down about their hair. Crown stands for
Speaker 1: creating a respectful and open world for natural hair, so
Speaker 1: making it to wear Black men and women feel comfortable
Speaker 1: wearing their natural hair and cannot be discriminated against wearing
Speaker 1: their natural hair and a school environment or in the workplace,
Speaker 1: in slighting in general. Let make sure you subscribe to
Speaker 1: our YouTube and lack our videos and comment and share
Speaker 1: uh and you can find us on YouTube at the
Speaker 1: real young part of Juice, I just wanted we wanted
Speaker 1: to say thank you. It's our honored. The heavy the
Speaker 1: honor is all mine. I really appreciate time and y'all's advocacy.
Speaker 1: You're very inspiring and you're gonna inspire thousands of people.
Speaker 1: All right, those dope little dope kids, would you what
Speaker 1: was your impression of them? Yeah? So, I mean they're
Speaker 1: from my hometown. Um, I'm really excited to see like
Speaker 1: the way they you know, the way they progress is theyell,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of them are in middle school or
Speaker 1: early high school, but they've already made a lot of waves,
Speaker 1: um politically with you know, they're still in reparations. Have
Speaker 1: I shown you that? Did we talk about that? We did?
Speaker 1: I think we maybe on our Reparations episode while ago
Speaker 1: a while ago. If you haven't seen, if you haven't
Speaker 1: seen the music video for Reparations, it's fucking bananas. It
Speaker 1: is bananas. Um. And then yeah, with their advocacy through
Speaker 1: this TikTok challenge, raising awareness about the Crown Act um
Speaker 1: and using performances as like an opportunity to bring people
Speaker 1: together for you know, direct action to lobby their legislators there,
Speaker 1: they were actually successful in passing a version of the
Speaker 1: Crown Act in Louisville, Kentucky UM and then also went
Speaker 1: and they performed and like lobbied at the state capitol
Speaker 1: to get the state law passed. And so it's like
Speaker 1: it's really dopef what they're doing for young people, for
Speaker 1: you know, people this young, and an example of how
Speaker 1: hip hop can be used to social awareness about you know,
Speaker 1: like I feel like very popular themes are you know,
Speaker 1: police brutality, massive carceration, but like very specific pieces of
Speaker 1: policy like banning hair discrimination. You know, I think the
Speaker 1: fact they're already deviating from some of those, um those
Speaker 1: like core themes in hip hop and focused on like
Speaker 1: more niche public policy, Like I think that holds a
Speaker 1: lot of promise for their future, both as advocates and artists.
Speaker 1: Just to like have a very distinct lane of like
Speaker 1: should they talk about It's pretty close, that's what's up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you love to see the youth doing doing that ship.
Speaker 1: You love to see it. It's in a dope way.
Speaker 1: Our next song up for discussion is in they Aris
Speaker 1: I Am Not My Hair featuring a con um. I
Speaker 1: think that I mean addition to there's two things about
Speaker 1: the song that I think, well, should we just ahead,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Yeah, let's check it out real quick.
Speaker 1: We're not going to get no job lets one, no
Speaker 1: dread love, Yeah, dope, I do remember that track. No
Speaker 1: Ayre had some bangers back in the day. I hope
Speaker 1: she's thriving. She's we're both Savannah College of Art and
Speaker 1: Design alumnia. Yeah, she's sad back in the day. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. So the song is kind of like about
Speaker 1: reclaiming your identity and realizing that you're more than the
Speaker 1: shell that makes you up, I guess. But at the
Speaker 1: beginning she has like at least that's what I took
Speaker 1: away from it, especially with the hook. But the thing
Speaker 1: she does have a a you know, a good string
Speaker 1: of lyrics where she's talking about how she was her
Speaker 1: hair was like the source of ridicule. But then, you know,
Speaker 1: actually got older and around eighteen she just started you know,
Speaker 1: going natural and kind of getting more very very distinct
Speaker 1: chronology of events of just like when she she got older,
Speaker 1: it was dreads. This year it was this, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that sort of thing I did that. I mean, it
Speaker 1: sounds kind of like maybe like might hit a little
Speaker 1: bit close to home for you, it does. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have some rap lyrics about like my own trajectory,
Speaker 1: like when I was you know, fifteen, stop straightening, what
Speaker 1: that decision meant for me, etcetera. Um, But the thing
Speaker 1: about this song, really, like in the statement I am
Speaker 1: not my hair that I finally interesting, is that like, yes,
Speaker 1: you are not your hair. You are what you choose
Speaker 1: to do with, like your talents, your mind, your body. Um,
Speaker 1: if that's you know, you're able to run fast or
Speaker 1: dribble great or time management or whatever, dad da da da,
Speaker 1: Like you are those things and people should value those
Speaker 1: things over what they see immediately about you. But I
Speaker 1: feel like they can also be pretext for someone to say, oh,
Speaker 1: if you're not your hair, then why is it a
Speaker 1: big deal if you cut it to come work for me?
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you how do you feel about
Speaker 1: how do you feel about that? That paradox? And so
Speaker 1: I feel like it's like it's somewhat of a problematic
Speaker 1: statement because it's like, no, you are, It's okay that
Speaker 1: you are your hair too, Like they're like these things
Speaker 1: can need to coexist because yes, people should see your
Speaker 1: the value you bring to your workplace or your school
Speaker 1: or your church or your team, um, beyond what you
Speaker 1: look like. But if what you look like is important
Speaker 1: to you, like it's okay to claim I am my
Speaker 1: hair too, like I am I am my afro, I
Speaker 1: am my dreads, like this is something that's really important
Speaker 1: to me that I'm proud of and that I claim.
Speaker 1: Um as, yeah, I feel like it is kind of
Speaker 1: like it it Uh, there was a paradox underlying that
Speaker 1: statement that seems very not oh yeah, I'm not my hair,
Speaker 1: but it's actually can be used as ammo. But another
Speaker 1: thing I think is interesting about this song as a
Speaker 1: Coon touches on a really really like powerful point um
Speaker 1: about the relationship between policing of hairstyle and like economic marginalization,
Speaker 1: cultural marginalization with like deeper impacts. He says, corporate wouldn't
Speaker 1: hire no dreadlocks. Then I thought about my dogs from
Speaker 1: the block kind of understand what they chose to steal
Speaker 1: and rob. So like people like from getting pushed out
Speaker 1: of schools for adherence to like hip hop or you know,
Speaker 1: you know, black hairstyle, black manners of dress, of speech,
Speaker 1: etcetera push out from the workplace, as you know, then
Speaker 1: following as fault, you know, following from that, some man
Speaker 1: people are socialized into assuming or you know, normalizing, and
Speaker 1: then it's a part of it's not maybe not the
Speaker 1: biggest part of but it does kind of form this
Speaker 1: overall like uh framework or I guess you could say,
Speaker 1: in which people choose not to be participating mainstream culture,
Speaker 1: like if I got to cut my dreadlocks off to
Speaker 1: go work at the poultry plant or go work in
Speaker 1: corporate or I fear that they might, why don't, Why
Speaker 1: don't why not just like sell drugs instead or become
Speaker 1: a rapper and stuff that can authentically be myself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's those like those little things that happened throughout society
Speaker 1: that just make it harder for you to do stuff
Speaker 1: that exactly, it might not be the biggest form of discrimination,
Speaker 1: but it is. It is a form of discrimination, and
Speaker 1: its still all these layers together, and then suddenly it's like, well,
Speaker 1: no fucking wonder people hanging on the block selling crack. Exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like if you're it's like a you're like, it's
Speaker 1: like if you're living in a lesson ideal situation and
Speaker 1: your neighborhood is this, and the school system was this,
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, you can't this job
Speaker 1: wants you to exactly. You're like, that's the straw that
Speaker 1: breaks the camel's back. We're like, nah, I ain't doing it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I think, I mean, and then I had
Speaker 1: this like thing about famous hair and hip hop. We
Speaker 1: can skip over. I think, let's just go to this one.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so we talked a little bit about both
Speaker 1: how hip hop has been used for advocacy around the
Speaker 1: Crown Act, why it's needed, and I'm kind of outlined
Speaker 1: by um a con in the ire. But then there's
Speaker 1: this therapeutic nature of like embracing your hair that we
Speaker 1: didn't really get into this episode that I think it's
Speaker 1: laid out really well in Mario's braid my Hair, which
Speaker 1: I love back my dad love so that it's such
Speaker 1: a smooth Yeah, I must play a little bit when
Speaker 1: we were talking about like, oh, I'm not my hair
Speaker 1: or am I my hair a little bit earlier with
Speaker 1: reference to in the Ari, I mean, it's not just
Speaker 1: like the way I look when I go out in
Speaker 1: the world. It's also like these cultural, these ritual that
Speaker 1: are that deeply tied to Black culture that go with
Speaker 1: go with the way your hair looks. So like the
Speaker 1: act of getting your hair braided, the act of going
Speaker 1: to the swan, the act of going to the barbershop,
Speaker 1: or you know, having your like you know, your wash
Speaker 1: day or whatever. That are like very you know, inherent
Speaker 1: to who you are and who your community is. That
Speaker 1: I think he touches on here that make it so
Speaker 1: that look, no, I am my hair. I am I
Speaker 1: you know, do the shade butter, you know, I get
Speaker 1: the I have the bonnet in the satin pillow a night,
Speaker 1: so it stays nice and soft like all these things
Speaker 1: that I do around my hair also me. And that's
Speaker 1: cool too, and that's why I embrace it that. I
Speaker 1: think it's really kind of cool about this song. In
Speaker 1: a little wider context, well ship, it makes me want
Speaker 1: to wrap about wrap about my hair kind of I
Speaker 1: kind of feel angry and definitely want to wrap about
Speaker 1: my hair. You want, Okay, let's do it, yo, Joe.
Speaker 1: Can we get a beat? Oh oh ghetto satin bout
Speaker 1: the hell? Yeah rock some little back rays go back
Speaker 1: there we call a little hot top fain. I felt
Speaker 1: like just ben't looking like a head of BROCOLI maybe
Speaker 1: like a money I could put The way your locks
Speaker 1: were don't really matter however you want to Startlet you
Speaker 1: could be a doctor, you could be a pilot. Let
Speaker 1: you ever, if you're trying to get to my letter
Speaker 1: dribbling the circle round it suckles like I'm a simple
Speaker 1: when I had stopped, when this judgeon frowned, Remember these bars,
Speaker 1: let them play like a soundtrack. Steva back down because
Speaker 1: you ought to be proud that we ain't taking ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're passing the crown. Next it's Lingle Frank, guys, and
Speaker 1: we are waiting on reparations. See you guys next week,
Speaker 1: waiting on reparations of the production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, check out the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.