Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Maybe I'm Old

I ran across this article about FUBU moving into Thailand. The statement that jumped out at me was:

Quote:
When American blacks wrap their heads in du-rags, they’re using the cloth to keep their springy hair under control – when Thai hip-hop fans wear du-rags, it’s a fashion statement.

Ok. Maybe it's just me, but this strikes me as just plain wrong.
Bakc in the day when Black men konked their hair they put on scarves to keep the straighted hair in place much as black women did. Back when I was growing up, the rage was to have waves in your hair. It was a part of that "good hair" and "light skin" thing that swept through black communtities in the late 70 and early to late 80's. One got a caesar haircut (real short for those not old enough to know) and then got a nice stiff brush and brushed you hair religiously all day and put on a stocking cap, litterally one of your mommas stockings, on your head when you slept. Later a silk Doo-rag was purchased at the local corner store, along with the deadly Quarter Waters.

This was before Michael Jordan made it cool to rock a bald head so either you had natural waves or your parents up and spent cash on you to get your hair processed. I remember a kid in my Junior High school who had processed waves. I was extremely jealous of the man as my hair, at the time refused to do anything bu "nap up." The one thing that conscientious parents did was forbid thier children to leave the house with any kind of rag on their head. indeed those days are all but gone as now a days kids (and some grown people) go out of doors with these things on thier head and nary a one has waves. Worse yet,most times the doo-rag is sported under a baseball hat. So exactly what is the point? If the Rag was to supposed to control hair, then the hat or doo-rag alone would suffice. Thus we find that the doo-rag as currently sported by AA youth is realy a fashion statement like all the rest of Hip Hop gear.

But that's not the worst of the article. We find that the "blackness" emulated by these Thai kids is that which they see on MTV. Having seen what typical "black" is on TV, That is a very scary idea to think that is what they see as the "best"of black culture. I guess that if I make a trip over there I should expect some fool to call me his nigga and think he's being nice.

Links:
http://nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=18&id=106177&usrsess=1