Hey, Little Girl, Don't You Know That Hairstyles Are Segregated?
White, blonde 12-year-old Mallory Merk liked box braids and posted a selfie of herself in them -- and was promptly blasted as racist, black culture-thieving and all sorts of other stuff.
I think she looks pretty. Looks like she has a wheat field growing out of her head.
From Opposing Views' Dominic Kelly:
"Yes, something as 'trivial' as a hairstyle can be triggering or upsetting," Jamilah Lemieux tweeted. "Let us have it. This goes to everyone, btw. It's feeling like psychological torture, esp against the backdrop of state-sanctioned murder and the #BlackLiveMatters movement. ...our bodies, our music, our fashion, our lips, our hair...everything about us is ripe for the picking by people WHO DO NOT TREAT US WELL. This is not happy cultural mixing where you bring the blonde and I bring the braids, because you hate me and tell me as much all the time."Still, others defended the young girl's hairstyle.
"Black women saying white women can't get braids while they're running around with blonde hair," a user pointed out.
Great point.
Guess what: America is a place where the world's cultures come together into probably the most diverse place on the planet. Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas (although most of it is Chinese like Taco Bell is Mexican). Black people go to Passover seders. And a friend in the music business who knows and loves American musical history describes American music as unique -- an amalgam of "the Jews and the Blues." (He talked to me about how Gershwin went down and lived in the South to create "Porgy and Bess.")
You really have to laugh at a woman who talks about a 12-year-old's hairstyle as "feeling like psychological torture."
This is what people do when they live in the freest country on the planet and, in lieu of identity through accomplishment, really need a hobby.
For the record, I love some black women's hairdos -- especially the braids. I wouldn't get them but only because I'd look like crap in them with my big white head showing through.
UPDATE -- RELATED: Via Rap-Up, Azealia Banks slams Iggy Azealea and T.I. for appropriating black culture (and said so as tears!! rolled down her face):
As tears rolled down her face, she explained how white America and capitalism have robbed her of her identity. "At the very fu**in' least, ya'll owe me the right to my fu**in' identity. And to not exploit that shit. That's all we're holding onto, like hip-hop and rap. And Bill Cosby, and whatever the f**k it is. Ya'll putting that on TV for the youth to fu**in' see."She called T.I. a "coon" for promoting Iggy and blasted his wife Tiny. "You out here trying to promote this white bitch. They got your wife on VH1 and that bitch can't fu**in' read. You're a fu**in' shoe shinin' coon. How dare you."
She's never been in the same room as Iggy, who she once called "Igloo Australia," and she has no interest in ever speaking to her. "It's not interesting to me."
But she does like artists including Rae Sremmurd, DeJ Loaf, Big K.R.I.T., Young Father, and Manolo Rose.
Dominic Kelly lost me with the word "triggering." Unless you have a diagnosis of PTSD, or some such, "triggers" are not something you have.
And if white women aren't allowed to get box braids, then perhaps black women should stop dyeing their hair blonde...cultural thieving, don'tcha know.
Patrick at January 27, 2015 12:37 AM
Oh, Jamilah. Get over yourself. But I guess if you couldn't blame a 12 year old for your latest episode...
DrCos at January 27, 2015 3:44 AM
There's a HUGE amount of arrogance in someone who believes that no one ever in the history of the world put their hair in braids except black women. Celts, for example, braided their hair elaborately. Men and women. This little girl looks adorable, and if we are really ever going to get past the horrors of our own history, no one should give half a shit if a black girl wears Shirley Temple curls and a white girl wears box braids.
(Of course, that's the problem right there. People who create these tempests in tea pots don't WANT us to stop caring about skin color.)
The Original Kit at January 27, 2015 5:44 AM
It takes a "special" kind of person to be upset at something that a 12-year old does.
charles at January 27, 2015 5:55 AM
And Eminem is stealing black music. Geez! The race-based assholes never shut up.
parabarbarian at January 27, 2015 6:17 AM
Most of the h8ters aren't old enough to remember Bo Derek sporting that look back in 1979.
Fortunately, I'm an old fart, and I do remember. What's next? high and tights belong to white men exclusively??
I R A Darth Aggie at January 27, 2015 6:23 AM
Do we know WHY this girl chose this style?
And... isn't this on the slippery slope of sexualizing a 12-year-old girl's life, something hotly protested on this blog?
Radwaste at January 27, 2015 6:27 AM
she explained how white America and capitalism have robbed her of her identity
What is that old saying? "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? I guess that was something said by some Dead White Guy, so it doesn't count.
Sorry, I haven't got the time to even offer advice to someone so fragile and frail. They're beyond hope, and should probably just find a bottle of vicodin and wash it down with a bottle of vodka and shuffle off this mortal coil.
Or grow a spine.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 27, 2015 6:28 AM
In a world where studying and speaking proper English is looked down on as acting white, this doesn't surprise me.
Joe j at January 27, 2015 6:49 AM
Guess what: America is a place where the world's cultures come together
Ha-ha! Good joke. Tell that to Al Notsosharpton, Jesse Jerkson, Coward Holder or Warren Bill de Blasio Wilhelm.
Stinky the Clown at January 27, 2015 6:52 AM
When I lived in Philly, a couple of black girls I knew asked me to let them braid my hair. They didn't get a chance to work on long natural hair very often. I loved the way it looked, and so did they. Then again, that was in the dark ages before cultural appropriation became a household phrase. I mean ten years ago.
Beth Cartwright at January 27, 2015 7:16 AM
So Dominic Kelly can be oppressed by a 12-year-old girl? Wow, that was easy. Listen to me now: Y'all minorities better behave, or I will make you watch Shirley Temple movies! So there!
One subspecies of human that I used to reserve a particular hatred for was music critics that were genre purists. For some reason, there were a bunch of them around in the late '70s and early '80s. And they were oh-so-precious about the particular micro-genre that was the only thing they ever listened to. And only a few artists in that genre were sufficiently pure and virginal to be worth praise. Those who corrupted it were heaped scorn upon by the critic, but his worst ire was reserved for musicians from other types of music who dared to borrow from his pet genre. More than once did I read one of these clowns suggesting, in all seriousness, that such should be suppressed by the government. How tight does your ass have to be to think like that?
(I'll say here that I have no beef with musical preservationists, provided that they don't have any beef with me. Without them, a lot of great forms of music would be lost. But my view of preservation is that it doesn't exist just to maintain things from the past, per se; preservation keeps doors open so that older things can be re-examined and mined for good ideas that were missed the first time.)
Cousin Dave at January 27, 2015 7:37 AM
Oh, and it's ironic to see Bill Cosby being defended in this manner, considering that the "black leadership" has spent the last three decades branding him as a race traitor.
Cousin Dave at January 27, 2015 7:38 AM
Anyone hear about the ongoing meltdown in the rest of the world? Anyone?
This is what people have chosen to get worked up over, a twelve-year-old's hairstyle?
Conan the Grammarian at January 27, 2015 8:14 AM
I follow hip hop and the criticism of Iggy Azalea is well founded. Nobody in the rap industry likes her because she can't rap and her whole persona is manufactured. She raps in a Southern black accent despite being Australian, uses questionable lyrics in a song about being a slave master, posts racists twitter rants about Hispanics and blacks and got butt implants. You know you are not liked when easy going Snopp makes fun of you.
The problem is that Azalea Banks can rap very very well but she is a racist and has an extremely shitty career trajectory. Her songs are amazing but nobody likes her either and generally just ignores her. So when she criticizes Iggy it comes off as incredibly jealous and off-putting and drowns out the legitimate criticisms of Iggy.
Secondly T.I. (Iggy's mentor) is an ex-con who thinks America is the only racist country in the world because people are attacking Iggy. That doesn't help their case. His wife got dye injections in her eyes to make them blue so again...doesn't help their case.
There are a lot of white rappers that get accepted quite well. Eminem (despite the commenters post above) doesn't get accused of stealing black music. His persona is white trash from Detroit. There is a white rapper from Alabama whose also pretty famous, can't remember his name, and was going to be a heavy metal artist but due to the fact he lived in a rural Southern white town he never got to experience rap until someone gave him a mix tape. He is well accepted and raps in a Southern accent. Macklemore had some difficulties at the beginning of his career, he acknowledged many of the things that were said were legitimate and now is also well accepted.
Ppen at January 27, 2015 8:37 AM
"White America" has been listening to rap and hip hop and singing rap and hip hop since before she was born.
Beastie Boys, born 1981. Licensed to Ill, 1986.
Vanilla Ice forced on us 1989, Ice Ice Baby, 1989.
Azelia Banks, born 1991, forced on us 2014
In the 80s, it was no secret that one of the largest audiences for rap music was white boys listening to it, getting high, in their Dad's 1974 Ford Comet in the high school parking lot. And 20 something white men chilling to NWA and later Public Enemy fightin the power on the way to their programming jobs.
In the name of racial harmony across the US, I will help fund a kickstarted time machine if Banks wants to stop Vanilla Ice. But no touching the Beastie Boys.
jerry at January 27, 2015 8:51 AM
Perhaps Iggy is a trans-...
https://www.google.com/search?q=transnigga&source=lnms&tbm=isch
jerry at January 27, 2015 8:54 AM
When 50 cent got accused of supporting racial appropriation:
i.imgur.com/n2j97dQ.jpg
His twitter is absolutely the funniest thing on the planet.
Ppen at January 27, 2015 9:04 AM
"And... isn't this on the slippery slope of sexualizing a 12-year-old girl's life, something hotly protested on this blog?"
@radwaste -- you think braids are "sexualizing"? Really?
That's beyond bizarre.
Gail at January 27, 2015 9:44 AM
Goes back even further. "White America" was a big factor in Motown's success.
Elvis Presley freely admitted copying black blues musicians. So did the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Beatles, and several other "white" acts.
Almost the entirety of modern "white" popular culture is indebted in some way to "black" culture.
And that goes way back. African slaves brought cooking techniques and recipes with them to American, livening up what had been until then a pretty dull food palate in the American South.
Over the centuries, America has begged, borrowed, and stolen most of its language, cuisine, and culture from every immigrant group that fought, swam, or clawed its way to our shores.
Conan the Grammarian at January 27, 2015 9:59 AM
Kelly needs to stop appropriating Celtic culture. It is very triggering when blacks steal hair and actions that Celts have practices for hundreds of years. If you want to paint yourself blue, wear a skirt, put on some braids, and start stabbing people too bad. Only true Celts should be allowed.
Also, if braids are all you have left maybe you need to go get something more.
Ben at January 27, 2015 10:41 AM
Wait a minute. This makes me rethink the movie 10 and Bo Derek's true motivation in that movie.
]]http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BoDerek.jpg
gooseegg at January 27, 2015 11:31 AM
As long as I can still eat pulled pork BBQ and collard greens I DON'T CARE!
And, if they are really really scared about being on the street w/a cop instead of being in their black neighborhood w/da hood rolling around then I don't believe we can have a conversation about anything.
Bob in Texas at January 27, 2015 11:32 AM
She looks cute! And I'm happy to leave them their cultural things (I've no use for saggy pants or cornrows personally-unless we're talking actual African culture, which varies widely and these haters probably know nothing of), but that means black women have to stop dying their hair, straightening their hair, adding weaves to attempt to get long hair like we grow, and stop wearing business casual attire, yoga pants, and cardigan sets.
momof4 at January 27, 2015 12:11 PM
So this intellectual ninny supports segregation. Good to know.
Asshat.
MonicaP at January 27, 2015 12:20 PM
""Yes, something as 'trivial' as a hairstyle can be triggering or upsetting," Jamilah Lemieux tweeted. "Let us have it. This goes to everyone, btw. It's feeling like psychological torture,"
This is Jamilah's imitation of the standard fragile, dainty, permanently outraged little white college girl.
Talk about cultural thievery!
Here's a perspective on the psychomechanics of this:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/reasonable-doubt-who-died-and-made-zerlina-maxwell-red-queen/
Jim at January 27, 2015 1:05 PM
That's it? That's their biggest problem?
Sweet. America really is a great place to live!
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 27, 2015 3:44 PM
White girls rock that hairdo better than any racist black woman ever did. And Miss Mallory Merk looks really cute.
Ken R at January 27, 2015 4:15 PM
So is Michelle Obama appropriating white women's hair? My body, my choice,
KateC at January 27, 2015 6:33 PM
"@radwaste -- you think braids are "sexualizing"? Really? That's beyond bizarre."
I guess you don't live anywhere this is done.
Do you?
Do you even know why hair styling is done?
Because I can drive you just a few miles and show you teens and even pre-teens braided, acrylic-nailed and Spandexed into a tiny clone of their (always single) mother. You can find them in the local dollar store and the nearest WalMart. This look takes time and effort to establish and maintain. Locally, at least, fathers don't let their tiny girls do that.
Radwaste at January 27, 2015 7:53 PM
I love the way girls decorate themselves: all the colorful, creative things they do with their hair and their makeup, and the colors they paint on their fingernails and toes; their bright, flamboyant clothes, and all the different kinds and colors of shoes chosen solely for aesthetic value; their handbags and accessories, and the costume jewelry and ornaments they dangle from their ears and wrists and necks and ankles. I love the cheerful sound of their voices when they're happy and having fun. I love to hear girls sing. And there are few things more enchanting than a beautiful girl dancing.
Look at the upper left hand corner of this web page. Is she not delightful?
Every girl, young or old, is an artist... and she is her own walking, talking, living, breathing work of art!
God bless girls!
Ken R at January 27, 2015 10:27 PM
I like you Ken R
Ppen at January 28, 2015 8:02 AM
@radwaste --
If little girls are spandexed and wearing fake nails and makeup, or sexy slogans on their clothes, yes, they're being sexualized. But it's not the braids. If they had their hair hanging straight down their backs, or in curls, but were dressed that way, they'd still be sexualized. But if this little girl were wearing little girl-appropriate clothes, she would not look "sexy".
Lots of sleazy women with too much makeup wear their hair curly, or long and straight down their backs. Does that make those hair styles "too sexy" for a little girl?
FYI, that hairstyle has been worn by various cultures for thousands of years. And here in NYC, you'll see plenty of women (and small black girls) who are not in the least sleazy looking rocking that look.
Seriously? I think it's weird and a bit disturbing that you think this little girl looks sexy rather than cute.
Gail at January 28, 2015 2:24 PM
Also @radwaste -- I laughed out loud at your sneering "I guess you don't live anywhere this is done." I live in NYC. Trust me, there's NOTHING that isn't done here.
Unless you live in a similarly culturally diverse area (not to mention travel as much as I do -- 32 countries and counting, and most of the states), I'm betting I could tell you a few things about styles in various places and what meaning/lack thereof they have.
Gail at January 28, 2015 2:29 PM
Well, since no one else picked up on this... Jamaliah wrote: "...everything about us is ripe for the picking by people WHO DO NOT TREAT US WELL."
So, you're suggesting that all white people do not treat black people well (assuming that black people is who was meant by "us").
Patrick at January 28, 2015 3:51 PM
"Seriously? I think it's weird and a bit disturbing that you think this little girl looks sexy rather than cute."
Projection. What I have related is what is done in the projects around here. Please read my first post again, out loud if necessary.
We - you - are living in a society where a man who takes a picture of this very preteen at the park is assumed to be a sex offender, despite the plain fact that a picture is not a person, and that person was in public.
Again: what is the purpose of this hairstyle?
BTW: Congratulations on your experience with depravity. Better luck next time at the attempt to assume authority.
Radwaste at January 29, 2015 1:28 PM
@Radwaste, perhaps I am having reading comprehension difficulties, because I'll be damned if I know what the fuck you're talking about in your last comment.
We're talking about a girl's hairstyle, not about men taking pictures of strange little girls and being presumed to be sex offenders.
Wherever you live, apparently only whores rock this hairstyle. Where I live, and in many other places, this isn't true at all. You attempted first to dismiss me by claiming that I had no experience of the kinds of women that wore this hairstyle, and since that wasn't the case, you changed the subject to something that has fuck-all to do with the little girl's hairstyle.
Or that's how it looks from my perspective. Anyone else reading this exchange between Radwaste and me care to clarify his point for me, if he has one?
By the way -- not that I think it has any relevance at all to this girl's hairstyle, but since you inexplicably raise it -- why would some strange man want to take a picture of an unknown preteen girl in the park? Unless she happened to accidentally step in the frame? If I were the parent of a pre-teen girl, and some strange man were snapping pictures of her, I admit I'd be disturbed, wonder about his motivations, and get my girl away from him.
Gail at January 29, 2015 2:21 PM
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