Not Necessarily the News Pt. 2

for the segment, go here.

Dear Fox News Chicago,

I should begin by saying that I don't consistently watch your 9pm newscast. But the gf was subjecting me to American Idol, and during the commercial break, we saw the trailer for your piece on "ethnic hair." It worked; we were intrigued enough -- or perhaps too lazy; I couldn't find the remote -- to stick around and see the "report." I should also add, with full disclosure, that although my BMI would solidly place me in the overweight category, my boxing/jogging/yoga regiment along with my afro do not make me part of the demographic of which you were talking. The BMI can also get the bozack. But that's neither here nor there. The point is, I suppose, that there must have been some magnetic tango happening between our melanin and your teaser. Yeah, it worked. We both were like, "What's up with Robin Robinson's hair?" Whatever.

Listen, I know your writers/producers/whoever probably patted each other on the back for this one. I can imagine the problem posed during a meeting: In this technological age, this era of the black president how do we reach a more diverse audience? It's not enough that we have a black co-anchor. ABC7 has Asians, and Latinos. And frankly, Jeff Goldblatt's ill-conceived joke about Robin Robinson looking like Michelle Obama really hurt our ratings. [I made that up.] I can also see the pitch/solution a couple of meetings later: How about we do a story on black women and obesity? We can get Robin Robinson to do something to her hair that's totally incomprehensible to white people, have her work out in an expensive health club, and at the end of the segment have our viewers vote on whether or not they like Robin's new 'do! Or maybe some of those NewNew Negroes you (may) have working for you sipped a bit too much special punch at one of those First Friday events and thought this shit up. (Same team! Same Team!**)

However the story came about, it was a really poor idea. The problem with this whole entire segment was its myopic and reductive reasoning, and the overall lack of desire to really uncover the hidden truths between black women, hair and health.

Robinson's perpetual use of the term "ethnic hair" is prime evidence of this. Robin Robinson, stop voluntarily othering yourself. The white guy next to you will do it and think nothing of it. (Yes, he will LITERALLY think nothing of it.) Every time I heard the words "ethnic hair" come from her lips, I got closer and closer to abandoning pacifism. Ideas like "ethnic hair" exist purely because the white power brokers decided to devalue all that wasn't white, and we, in turn, believed and internalized it. And now we say things like, "straight hair looks more professional," and that being able to hold a curl is one of the few "advantages" of "our" hair. Instead of interrogating corporate, American culture, this segment continued to perpetuate the idea that obsession with straight was hair initially and has always been an idea of the racialized other, and not some bullshit standard set by white folks to justify disenfranchisement. I tell you one thing, if all the Negresses in HR (because that's where we work) showed up tomorrow with Afros, they wouldn't dare fire everybody.

That is not to say that black women aren't on one when it comes to hair. Then again, if I paid $80 for a touch-up and another $50 every two weeks to keep my shit up, I'd be on one, too. I don't know how many times I've heard a black woman tell me she likes my hair, but that she just "can't" do that. But that doesn't mean that you, Fox News Chicago, can cue a black doctor and cite a study to prove that hair is helping black women stay fat. 65% of Americans are overweight. Not all of them are black women. What's white people's excuse? Surely it isn't something as simplistic. If we addressed obesity among people of color the way we interrogate white people's problems, we might actually have to think about things like: where black people live, and if those neighborhoods are safe enough for exercise, and what kinds of restaurants and grocery stores are around, and if they can afford to shop at the Whole Foods in the rapidly gentrifying neighboring community, and if they have more than one job, and free childcare. We'd have to ask, you know, if we were really interested in why black women are overweight, if they could afford a $175/month gym membership to the posh East Bank Club -- where you sent Robinson for this story -- so they could get their hair done after working out. We have to ask, you know, real shit like that.

We'd have to ask how hairstyle and obesity are really connected. Not as cause and effect, but as the products of white supremacy and all the crappy aspects of black culture that are influenced by it. We'd have to ask about class. Not all of us are models, and retired executives. We'd have to ask why black people, no matter what the time period, always seem to be dying a lot earlier than other folks. (You might consider the emergence of the black insurance industry as a starting point.) But most of all, we'd have to stop waiting and asking for judgment, from our bosses, from our viewers, from ourselves.

So, I guess what I'm really saying is though I didn't expect a story like, "How Racism Makes Black People Fat" on your broadcast, what you actually produced was worse than my already low expectations. It was bad tv. Thoroughly unentertaining. Next time, could you at least interview one, maybe two overweight black women? I mean, seriously, can you at least find one, and let her say -- on camera -- "I don't work out because I sweat in my head."? That'd be great.

Thanks,
sm.