Erin Aubry Kaplan, Salon, February 3, 2009
Are we moving toward a “black hair” moment?
{snip}
Consider: Michelle [Obama]’s hairdresser, Johnny Wright, just signed a development deal for his own beauty reality show. Chris Rock recently went to Sundance to screen his documentary “A Good Hair Day,” a look at the enormous but mostly unexamined industry and culture of black hair care. “[Black women’s] hair costs more than anything they wear,” Rock recently said in a Salon interview. “It’s like the No. 2, 3 expense of their whole life.” Meanwhile, in a recent discussion on MSNBC, black Princeton prof Melissa Harris-Lacewell agreed with Rachel Maddow that an Obama administration meant white people would be more emboldened to ask black people about previously taboo issues, like how they do their hair (Harris-Lacewell admitted she wasn’t looking forward to that). The interest is encouraging to a point. And like all white scrutiny of any aspect of black life, it also feels like voyeurism, to a point. The gray area is just one of many reminders that bridging the racial divide, like black hair itself, is going to be complicated.
But first, let’s take a look at Michelle. Her hair represents the highest aspirations and also the limitations of a certain black style. It’s always immaculately done, straight and shiny. On Inauguration Day, it complemented her cheekbones; it riffled gracefully in the frigid wind. Nothing wrong there at all. And that’s potentially the problem: Nothing’s wrong. It’s perfect. {snip} I wonder whether such a young, high-profile black woman who gets her hair straightened or relaxed as a matter of course will occasionally let it be something different: unstraightened, less straightened, or anything that doesn’t bounce, lie flat or swing like a pageboy. In other words, a do that suggests her ethnicity rather than softens it.
I know firsthand how complex these choices of style and identity can be: I’m a black woman with curly hair, but it’s not curly enough to be considered kinky (aka nappy) and typically black. Yet my blackness dictates perceptions and expectations about my hair; non-black people assume I have a relaxer or a weave and are always curious about what I’ve had “done.” I’ve had very little in the way of chemical or heat straightening in my life, but I didn’t escape black hair rituals altogether: Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to wear my hair “natural” or “out” because that was simply too ethnic. {snip}
A hair change shouldn’t be a radical notion; every beauty magazine I’ve ever read trumpets makeovers every month. But black images—indeed, the very idea of beauty—are still inherently political, mirrors of our national mood about race and ancient tensions between reality and what we prefer to see. Hair is a particularly good mirror. A reality check: In this alleged new era of racial enlightenment, how would we see Michelle if she switched to braids, twists, curls or dreads, if she looked more like the black person she is? {snip}
Hair is a very complicated piece of that model, historically speaking, as brutal a demarcation of worthiness as skin color. Hair texture and skin color work in tandem: The darker you are, the harder you have to offset it with “good” hair in order to be considered attractive or acceptable. If Michelle weren’t dark-skinned with classic black features, she might not be so wedded to super-straight locks. Of course, this is also about class and station—most professional black women of a certain pay scale adopt the relaxed look as part of the overall look of success. And then there’s convenience. A good friend of mine pointed out that processed hair is often more convenient than unprocessed black hair, which requires quite a bit of maintenance and time. {snip}
{snip}
The way out of this tangle is, I believe, Sasha and Malia Obama. Throughout the campaign and the inaugural, they were regularly pressed and straightened for the public—“Sunday hair,” we used to call it. And like their mom, they look wonderful. Adorable. But the public also sees that in the girls’ everyday lives, they literally let their hair down with braids and cornrows and puffs and whatever else black girls wear. Now that they’re no longer groomed for the Corn Belt voters on the campaign trail, I see the Obama girls casually affirming the black mainstream in a way perhaps their parents can’t yet. {snip}
[Editor’s Note: Chris Rock’s comments on blacks’ hair can be read here.
Original article
(Posted on February 5, 2009)
Comments
“…white people would be more emboldened to ask black people about previously taboo issues, like how they do their hair (Harris-Lacewell admitted she wasn’t looking forward to that).”
Once again, can someone let us white folk in on what topics and questions are permissible when interacting with blacks? Blacks are forever talking about ‘black hair’ but it’s consider impolite to ask blacks about their hair?
“I know firsthand how complex these choices of style and identity can be: I’m a black woman with curly hair, but it’s not curly enough to be considered kinky (aka nappy) and typically black.”
Good heavens, it’s hair! Are these people ashamed or embarrassed by their hair? Good grooming is both a sign of good health and good social habits. You wash it (or don’t). You cut it (or don’t). You comb or bush it (or don’t). You style it in some way (or you don’t).
Maybe blacks need to be a little less concerned about their hair and spend that time and energy on things that are important.
The only time I remember hair being an issue for whites was during the time of the Beatles when most men were sporting crew cuts. We moved on.
Mrs. Obama’s hairstyle, actually her whole look, comes directly from Oprah Winfrey. The straightened hair, that looks like it came off a doll, the frumpy suits and weird dresses have all been seen on the “other” great black hope from Chi-Town. Oprah’s main gig for years has been her sly “befriend whitey” outward appearance. It was the only way she was going to make it on TV. Had she shown up with an Angela Davis ‘fro and talked like a ghetto sista’, she would have been gone years ago. I see all of this in Mrs. Obama and more. The scary part is, I think she’s the brains of the operation. Brrack is just the figurehead.
During the late 1960’s and 1970’s Black women started wearing their hair in so-called “Afro’s”. This was to celebrate their Blackness. After a time Black women began straightened their hair and emulating White women with their hairstyles. It was as if they realized at some level that White people’s hair and the styles that White women had were superior to Blacks’ hair and these Afro styles, so they began to emulate them. I think that unconsciously all Blacks are innately envious of White people. They dislike White people simply because they’re White and they - Blacks - are not.
There is no question that Michelle Obama has White genes in her ancestry. You can tell by her facial structure, AND her hair. She doesn’t have to do much straightened of it. It appears that all successful and intelligent Blacks have at least some White ancestry.
Many years ago Blacks used to name their children with White names, like Peter, John, Joseph, Anthony, etc. The same with their girl children. Now - left to their own devices - they’ve come up with all kinds of names, as if to want to elevate their race via their naming of their children. Some examples are: Tanisha, Shaniqua, Lavisha, Keyshawn, Ternell etc. Names that no one 40 years ago ever heard of. Another Black habit is naming their children after White nobility or noted historical names like Cleopatra (Some Blacks will claim she was Black) Cassius (as in Cassius Clay), etc.
I’m surprised to see Salon magazine with a staff putting out articles. They’ve been on the edge of collapse for so long, I thought they had wen under already.
Well, hopefully, the end is near and we won’t have to put up with the biased liberal rag any longer.
“During the late 1960’s and 1970’s Black women started wearing their hair in so-called “Afro’s”. This was to celebrate their Blackness. After a time Black women began straightened their hair and emulating White women with their hairstyles. It was as if they realized at some level that White people’s hair and the styles that White women had were superior to Blacks’ hair and these Afro styles, so they began to emulate them.”
True. I think the straihtening combs should be outlawed. As a Black man, I find straight hair on a Black woman simply unattractive, not because I don’t like straight hair but I know that on a Black woman, it is fake. They look much more beautiful in braids, dreads, wirery inventions, short ‘fros, etc. Michelle Obama is just another wanna be. Look at her baby pictures. She should stop.
hagar,
If you think Michelle has the brains in the family maybe you should check out her masters thesis. It has been posted on line.
I once got in a fight with some Black kids in high school over an issue over “Black hair.” I was in my English class and I found a stray hair brush and asked the two Black girls in my class if it was theirs. They asked me why I thought it was theirs and I told them, “Well, there’s Black person’s hair in the brush.” They glared at me, but didn’t say a word. The next day as I was changing classes, one of the girls came up to me with a big Black guy and started yelling at me, “Whachu talkin bout Black person’s hair!” I told her to calm down and that it wasn’t a big deal, but she got belligerent and started shoving me. I tried to walk away but she kept screaming at me. Then I yelled back at her and that was the cue she was waiting for, because she immediately start swinging punches at my face so I shoved her back off of me and then of course the Black guy jumped in. We brawled for maybe thirty seconds before the vice-principle stepped in and broke it up. Not to my surprise, the vice-principle grabbed me by the arm to take me to the office, yet said nothing to the Black kids.
That was the way it was at my ultra-liberal high school. There were maybe thirty Black kids out of 900 students and the administration let them run amok in the school, constantly fighting and yelling in the hallways. I didn’t get in trouble for that incident because as soon as we got to the office, I accused the vice-principle of racial bias and told her she could expect a lawsuit if I was to be punished and the other kids not. That was all that needed to be said to get her to back off. I’m sure the Black kids used that same line on her all the time.
Awakened:
CLEOPATRA WAS BLACK!
During the late 1960’s and 1970’s Black women started wearing their hair in so-called “Afro’s”. This was to celebrate their Blackness. After a time Black women began straightened their hair and emulating White women with their hairstyles. It was as if they realized at some level that White people’s hair and the styles that White women had were superior to Blacks’ hair and these Afro styles, so they began to emulate them. I think that unconsciously all Blacks are innately envious of White people. They dislike White people simply because they’re White and they - Blacks - are not.
This is AMERICA we all bite off of each other styles. It’s normal for someone to see something another ethnic group is doing emulate it. White kids in the most upper class neighborhoods sag their pants, dance black, listen to black music, wear do rags, dress black, talk black, act black, sit with the posture of a black, hang around blacks every oppurtunity they get (except the ones from the ghetto of course).
GROW UP SIR!
Wow. Blacks sure have a BIZARRE style of writing. I can always tell when a black is writing something.
”..indeed the very idea of beauty - are still inherently political”…
NO IT ISN’T. If you are a beautiful woman, then well, you are a beautiful woman. I would NEVER go out with, or be intimate with anyone not of my racial background, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t admit there are many very pretty Asian women out there. It costs me nothing to admit this. It is extremely rare that I would find a black women even borderline attractive. This view is not a “political judgement”. It is just based on visual appeal (or not).
I have been saying for years now that Blacks are the “victims” of their own paranoid schizophrenia. They resent and are almost pathologically jealous of Whites(whether they admit it or not) and demand parity with us in all things. At the same time, they labor ceaselessly to differentiate themselves, to retain their “Blackness” and to, at least symbolically, reject Whiteness at every turn. Obviously, they cannot have it both ways…or can they? Enter the schizophrenic nature of being Black in America. They don’t wish to have to talk White, dress White, or yes, wear their nappy hair “White” - but fully expect to be considered equal to Whites in every way. Begrudgingly, they have been, in many ways, “playing” White for decades to some success(thanks mostly to the “diversity” machine)…now they are ready to go back to Black. Like children, they really don’t know what they want - they just know they want what everyone else has or will throw a tantrum until they get it!
“The scary part is, I think she’s the brains of the operation. Brrack is just the figurehead.”
Is it me or does Michelle Obama look like a vampire from a 70’s blaxploitation film? Her deep set eyes, protruding brow, and massive jaw look strongly masculine. Her starved, overexercised husband on the other hand looks testosterone-free. Something tells me nothing much is happening in the President’s Bedroom.
“The only time I remember hair being an issue for Whites was during the time of the Beatle`s”-sbuffalonative
So whats wrong with her hair it looks good on her I like it. As for her mimicking white hair, this is AMERICA we all copy styles from other people. That’s no different from white kids who dress black, talk black, watch black movies/t.v. shows, act black, dance black, hang our blacks (not the ones from the ghetto of course), and have the posture of a black.
Posted by Lamont
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“White kids in the most upper class neighborhoods sag their pants, dance black, listen to black music, wear do rags, dress black, talk black, act black, sit with the posture of a black, hang around blacks every oppurtunity they get (except the ones from the ghetto of course). “
Well, it’s all been discussed here before. Anyone who reads Amren will understand what’s behind it.
This is AMERICA we all bite off of each other styles. It’s normal for someone to see something another ethnic group is doing emulate it. White kids in the most upper class neighborhoods sag their pants, dance black, listen to black music, wear do rags, dress black, talk black, act black, sit with the posture of a black, hang around blacks every oppurtunity they get (except the ones from the ghetto of course).
No, only the brainwashed white kids, who’s parents have little, if any, concern for them, allow them to walk out of the house with their pants hanging under their boxers, much less wearing mammy style do-rags over their heads. My kid’s are not permitted to dress that way, and never will be.
The way that “Michelle my Bell” does her hair will soon prove to be the least of the issues that those with common sense will soon be having with this “First Lady”!
MoMo
Given all the whites who have adopted Black syles, music, clothes etc… It would be nothing wrong if she was doing such a thing.
CLEOPATRA WAS BLACK!
Wrong! Cleopatra was Greek!
Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to wear my hair “natural” or “out” because that was simply too ethnic.
Is she by any chance blaming whites now? I am well into my 40’s, and even when I was very small, back in the late 60’s, I can remember black men, and (women) both sporting afros. It was supposed to statement of black afrocentric pride. So while young whites were growing their hair down their backs, blacks were growing theirs outward in giant puffs. This trend continued on through most of the 70’s, until black women began pressing and perming their hair straight, or wearing weaves. I don’t recall whites suddenly telling them, they had to give up the Afro, and take on a more Eurocentric look. This is something they did on their own accord. I have no idea how old the writer is? I only know that blacks have been free to wear their hair how they wish for decades now. Whites could care less how Michelle Obama wears her hair, it is blacks like her, who are making an issue of it. Hair is a VERY BIG issue in the black community, but it is their issues, and one they can blame whites on.
Ms. OBama’s hair style is an absolutely standard, standard style that has been around since 1930. It’s called a chin length page boy. There are many variations, from the puffed up top of the sixties to the flat tops of the 40’s and the present day. Both Coretta King and Jackie Kennedy wore that style. So did Senator Feinstein and Speaker Pelosi during the Kennedy administration. They still wear the same hair style.
Billions of women wear that style. It is versatile. It is attractive. It suits almost all women no matter what kind of features she has, pointed chin, square chin, long nose, short nose, low forehead, high forehead.
It looks pretty good on her.
This reminds me of all the hullaballo about what clothes she will wear. She’s the wife of the President of the USA. She’s 44 years old. What do they expect her to do, wear some sort of Ming the Merciless outfits? The fashion and hair people should be glad she’s tall like a model and has an attractive face. They could have a brown skinned Eleanor Roosevelt on their hands.
Now that there is a black first family, the blacks want publicity. That’s all there is to it. The black hairdressers should shut up. They make a lot more money straightening hair and dealing with the drying effects of the straighenting process that they will ever make in Afros and braids.
Reply to Lamont:
Cleopatra was NOT black. Nor were the ancient Egyptians black. This is probably the biggest illusion blacks live with.
“I’m a black woman with curly hair, but it’s not curly enough to be considered kinky (aka nappy) and typically black.””
That’s what would happen if this woman were white.
It’s really out of bounds to talk about a 7 year old’s hair as some sort of racial political statement. I can remember nothing about Amy Carter’s long straight hair or Chelsea Clinton’s long curly hair.
“Awakened:
CLEOPATRA WAS BLACK!
Posted by Lamont at 11:05 PM on February 5
Hey moron, not onl was Cleopatra not black, she wasn’t even Egyptian. She was Macedonian Greek, a direct descendant of Alexander’the Great’s half brother who became ruler of Egypt around 385 BC.
The Greek conquerors cut a deal with the Egyptian priests. The Royal family would continue the custom or law whatever it was of marrying only their siblings, all Macedonian Greeks.
The Romans hated her, especially when she lived in Rome with Julius Cesear. They wrote a description of her. Nothing about her being black. They spoke of her premature gray hair that she had to dye. She was 27. They spoke of her enornmous nose, a white characteristic. They spoke of her pale, drab complexion that she had to use a lot of rouge on.
Lamont, check out this website for a picture of Cleopatra. She looks like the typical greek she was.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ancient-Silver-Coin-of-Cleopatra—Antiochos-VIII—-Copy_W0QQitemZ370151158752QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090128?IMSfp=TL090128176003r14559#ebayphotohosting
“Many years ago Blacks used to name their children with White names, like Peter, John, Joseph, Anthony, etc. The same with their girl children. Now - left to their own devices - they’ve come up with all kinds of names, as if to want to elevate their race via their naming of their children. Some examples are: Tanisha, Shaniqua, Lavisha, Keyshawn, Ternell etc. Names that no one 40 years ago ever heard of. Another Black habit is naming their children after White nobility or noted historical names like Cleopatra (Some Blacks will claim she was Black) Cassius (as in Cassius Clay), etc.
Posted by Awakened at 6:45 PM on February 5”
The last thing we need is for these people to become more assimilated in our society. Separation is the goal. If Michelle is proud of being black and she should be, she should walk around the White House in traditional African clothing sporting corn rows for that “raked” look.
Cleopatra (actually Cleopatra VII) was the last of the Ptolemies, the Macedonian-descended pharaohs who ruled Egypt beginning in 304 B.C. For several centuries before her rule, the pharaohs were Macedonian (Greek)and NOT of Egyptian origin. I have seen pictures of ancient coins bearing her likeness an she does NOT look black.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra
I see many Whites with cornrow hair braids and dreadlocks. There are more hair products on the market for Whites than for Blacks. Tons of them..But I wonder why it is such an issue for Blacks to take care of their hair?..Interesting..
No, only the brainwashed white kids, who’s parents have little, if any, concern for them, allow them to walk out of the house with their pants hanging under their boxers, much less wearing mammy style do-rags over their heads. My kid’s are not permitted to dress that way, and never will be.
Have you been to a public high school lately. The boys who dont dress that way have their hair spike with funny colors, wear make up, eye liner, and extremely tight faded torn pants. The girls dont dress any classier either.
“I see many Whites with cornrow hair braids and dreadlocks. There are more hair products on the market for Whites than for Blacks. Tons of them..But I wonder why it is such an issue for Blacks to take care of their hair?..Interesting..
Posted by Tolah at 7:38 PM on February 6”
No one is making an issue of it. I am merely pointing out that blacks are ashamed of their nappy hair and try to straighten it out or cover it with a wig. It’s because they prefer caucasian hair types over their own. This is not some rant, it is in fact, the truth. If White people have more hair care products it is because of the diversity of textures and colors found in the White population. With nappy hair you only have a few options, straighten it, cover it up, tease it out or smother it in grease and sculpt it like a lawn hedge. Please no more dishonest posts. Saying alot of White people have cornrows or dreadlocks is like saying your city is full of siamese twins.
Joe B, I think Michelle Obama looks scarily like James Brown.
Lamont, Not only was your post a real howler, but to add insult to injury you shouted it out and made a complete nincompoop of yourself. But in some ways I feel you are not entirely to blame, you’ve been mis-led by people who should know better. How do you feel about that? Does’nt it make you want to check up on those other facts about Black history they taught you?. Well you’ve learnt something here anyway so now at least you won’t make that error again.
To me as an outsider, it is very odvious that she is being styled to look very W.A.S.P.y especially with all of the inauguration images that were beamed all around the world.
And the big point(message) Hussien has to prove to world is that he (and thus all blacks) can be (act) white, so his image will not waver from the all cliched presidential images of old i.e. serious suit talking with walnut walls in background, preppy look when playing with kids (good father) whilst engaging in wholesome all American leisure activities bowling, baseball etc. Maybe he’ll get a little greyer and thus percieved as wiser by all the sheep and he’ll even dance like a white guy and son. We’ll see nothing ‘soulful’ from his manicured image.
Part of the genius of the way Hussien has been marketed to the world is in the way they can put a different hat on him (or more so the whole family as a package) and present them to applease different groups. So look at the first family when Hussien talks to the NAACP, compared to when they meet fellow heads of state in Europe for instances.
Like the frog in the slowly heating water, change has to happen in small increments. If the Whitehouse went from pearl necklaces to corn rolls from the get go, there would have been a lot more noise. Instead the way this ‘progress’ is being rolled out/sold/marketed, has to be more gradual. We all need to feel reassured.
So yes Hussien beng elected doesn’t seem that bad, “hey guys don’t worry he’s really pretty white”. So blacks will have to be happy with his nomination because he is ‘as black as they are going to get’.
The GOP having a black to run the party I think to them just playing ‘catch up’, the next super candidate for all the people in the States will surely be a stately hispanic/black and half white hybrid female. Because only they can know how all of America really feels.
“The last thing we need is for these people to become more assimilated in our society. Separation is the goal. If Michelle is proud of being black and she should be, she should walk around the White House in traditional African clothing sporting corn rows for that “raked” look.
Posted by Anonymous at 4:58 PM on February 6”
Seeing as how the media is starting to portray the first three weeks of his presidency as a disaster, perhaps Obama should give his White liberal base the finger and start wearing baggy white linen suits and a mami style rag-doo. As the blacks say, let’s keep it real.
Have you been to a public high school lately. The boys who dont dress that way have their hair spike with funny colors, wear make up, eye liner, and extremely tight faded torn pants. The girls dont dress any classier either.
Since I have 2 teenagers with active social lives, and I have been by their school, so I do have a good idea of how they are dressing. At their school, the students aren’t allowed to wear their pants so loose they need a belt to stay up. Sure, there are still plenty of kid’s dressing hip hop, which I think is getting old anyway. But, I don’t know where you got the idea that the white boy’s, who haven’t entirely embraced black culture, are wearing spiked hair, eyeliner, and tight faded jeans? It actually sounds like you’re living in a time-warp from the 1980’s, when punk and new-wave were all the rage. In any case, when my boy’s dress in their usual casual manner, their clothes aren’t skin tight, but they aren’t falling off either. They love sports, so they favor wearing jersey’s and athletic gear. They neither look hip hop or punk. They look normal.
I see many Whites with cornrow hair braids and dreadlocks. There are more hair products on the market for Whites than for Blacks. Tons of them..But I wonder why it is such an issue for Blacks to take care of their hair?..Interesting..
The woman who wrote the article is black. So, you can’t say it is whites who are taking her to task on her hair. And BTW, only a tiny fraction of whites wear dreadlocks, and about the only white person I have ever seen look good in corn row braids was Bo Derek, and that was over 25 years ago! It is definitely an exaggeration to imply just as many whites wear their hair in black styles, as blacks do emulate white hair trends.
Richard:
Please! The media is not potraying Obama’s presidency as a disaster! If anything, they are praising him for “standing up tough” to the supposedly sinsiter republicans!
Lamont: [regarding Cleopatra] …”you’ve been mis-led by people who should know better. Does’nt it make you want to check up on those other facts about Black history they taught you?. Well you’ve learnt something here anyway, so now at least you won’t make that error again.”
There’s a fragile line between reality and fantasy. Often they prefer the latter. Whatever makes you feel good. It’s “feel good” history.
“I see many Whites with cornrow hair braids and dreadlocks.”
I have seen SOME whites with cornrows or dreadlocks. But they are very few. Thank goodness! Frankly, I think they look horrible! They’re disgusting! They make me almost physically ill. I could not eat in a restaurant with someone like that in front of me. I would not sit in a plane with someone like that beside me.
The only exception, as you say, was Bo Derek. But she would look good in (or out of) anything! In point of fact she looked good, not because of the cornrows, but DESPITE them. And I couldn’t even imagine her with dreadlocks. Perish the thought!
I see many Whites with cornrow hair braids and dreadlocks. There are more hair products on the market for Whites than for Blacks. Tons of them..But I wonder why it is such an issue for Blacks to take care of their hair?..Interesting..
There are numerous black hair shops, through-out the country, which are loaded with hair shampoos, conditioners, human hair, glue etc… All made for the needs of blacks and their hair care. While it might true, that in most stores the hair products are less likely aimed at black hair care. It can’t really be said that they are aimed exclusively at whites. Most hair products, used by white people, are also used by most Hispanics, Asians, Indians and so on. Quite honestly, black hair is uniquely different from other races, and therefore requireS special treatment that non-black hair does not! That’s not racist, it is simply reality. The products being sold in most stores are being aimed at the largest consumer group, which is non-black, though not necessarily white.
CLEOPATRA WAS NOT BLACK!
I’d like to thank Lamont for his/her great comment which is by far the most ignorant one on AmRen ever.
Ancient Egyptians weren’t black, they still aren’t, by the way Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian but of Greek descent.
Peace to all. It is my Opinion that any man’s or race’s greatest enemy is his own negligence. As whites and as a white, regardless of the black behavior, in raping of white women or any other non social behavior, my greatest disgust by far is the self betraying that whites do to themselves by imitating and mixing with blacks,(intimately) and by not respecting their own heritage and wearing it with inner and outer dignity. As the black man did the greater evil in the slave trade, by vending his own race to any purchaser,…the white man(those who imitates blacks) has the greater blame in betraying his own dignity by imitating a racial style unnatural to him. So as I see it both blacks and whites have injured themselves more than they’ve been injured by the other, though sadly, both have wronged the other also.
Willaim Cutting:
Cleopatra was Black.
Secondly, if you think that Lamont is a femele name you are the one who is MOST ignorant.
CLEOPATRA WAS BLACK!
Posted by Lamont
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Posted by voter at 12:12 PM on February 6
Here is the proof!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1095043/Sorry-Liz-THIS-real-face-Cleopatra.html
Lamont must be right, since he typed the sentence making the claim twice.
You made my point. Cleopatra was black!\
Thank you.
Here is the proof!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1095043/Sorry-Liz-THIS-real-face-Cleopatra.html
Posted by Anonymous at 3:35 AM on February 9
Proof? I hardly think so! It is impossible to use computer imagery to get an exact rendering of what Cleopatra would look like to day, since there is no mummy or skull to build the image off of. This so-called Egyptologist even admits herself, that she came about this image by looking at coins, busts, and murals, which do not match watch she created.
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/cleopatra.jpg
http://u21museums.unimelb.edu.au/museumcollections/glasgow/images/Cleopatra-Coin_t.jpg
And, quite frankly the image is strange. I can honestly say, I have never in my life, seen a black woman with features like that, or even a mixed race black person for that matter.
I also have to laugh how they start it off by saying Sorry Elizabeth Taylor. In her younger days, Taylor was once considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. I doubt anyone ever believed Cleopatra was as one-tenth as beautiful and glamourus as Hollywood potrayed her.
But tell us please, where in the world, they would they find a woman that looks like the new version of her? As I already said, I have never seen any black woman who looked like that. And doubt they could ever find an actress who did. She looks unnatural and her features unmatural to her supposedly black race. But that is because Cleopatra was Greek, not black!
“Here is the proof! “
As I pointed out in a more detailed post, not printed, Cleopatra’s family was Macedonian (Greek). She was the product of nine generations of brother-sister marriages, spanning three centuries, designed to keep the royal blood pure - an ancient custom of the Egyptian pharoahs which her family adopted. Her ancestry is not historical conjecture. We know her entire geneology in precise detail.
We know a lot about Cleopatra because she lived in Rome for some years and was married to (or involved with) several great Romans. The Roman historians and writers (as well as the Greeks) wrote a lot about her. She also had several children by these Romans, at least one of whom (Cleopatra Selena) went on to become a queen in her own right.
Authoritative biographies state that Cleopatra had not one drop of Egyptian blood. But even if she did, Egyptians were not “black” anyway… neither ancient nor modern.
That computer-generated image is just politically correct fantasy, not history, designed to please a certain element.
