In just seven minutes, the award-winning documentary “Girl Like Me” tackles the controversial subject of self-hatred in the black community. What started as a school project for 16-year-old Kiri Davis quickly turned into an honest yet disturbing image that many black women (especially black teenage girls) harbor about their skin, hair and place in society.
This film was an integral part of the Science Museum of Minnesota’s special exhibit STIRPS: So We Are Different. Although the exhibition recently closed in St. Paul, the nationwide tour begins next year with the first stop in Detroit. The movies are also available on You Tube and a few other websites.
By leading two separate activities, Kiri is shown how in our society, beauty and whiteness are synonymous. First, they interviewed some high school girls a who talked openly about their skin and hair. The received message is that it is beautiful, long work straight hair and light skin. Straight hair, more common to “good hair” is what many blacks always try to achieve.
he has good hair if he naturally has straight and white hair. Since this is generally not the natural state of most black women, the chemical process is called “relaxation” to straighten your hair and make it look less kinky. Kinky hair has a negative tag associated with the server. They also talk about people they know who have tried to lighten their skin color by using a skin bleaching cream. Other studious people dark-skin cleverly point out that they don’t want to risk the dark genes in the gene pool.
Another element was equally pregnant. Kiri repeated the same experiment conducted 50 years ago, which was the landmark case in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education. In the original experiment, black school children were shown two dolls; one black and the other white. Children were asked which doll they would prefer to play with and which white doll they preferred too.
Kiri administered the same test to black preschoolers to see if the results would be different. Of the 21 children, 16 preferred the white doll to the black doll. Watching children answer questions is difficult to watch. The last girl’s answers to Kiri’s questions are very poignant.
Kiri: “Can you tell me the doll looks bad?”
Girl: takes away the black doll.
Kiri: “Why is it bad?”
Girl: “Because it’s black.”
Kiri: “Why do you think [the white doll] is a nice doll?”
Girl: “Because it’s white.”
Kiri: “Can you give me a doll like you.”
Girl: The black doll gives pain.
He talks about the movie when he was a teenager about why they believe that black people seem to have a negative black emotion. One girl comments, “We’re out of our culture…you don’t know where you’re from. It’s inducing anger in black women. They feel they have the right to deny any African roots.” Another girl speculates “part of you misses… We are at a loss because we are busy searching, while everyone else is always throwing out their ideas and what to believe.” The insight of these young women is very profound.
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As black, I am upset that the media outlet has chosen to portray only one form of beauty. Go to the magazine section of any grocery store and count how many actually show a black woman (besides “O” and Essence) on the cover. Every month, magazines such as Glamour, Cosmo, Allure, Bazaar, In Style, Marie Claire, Redbook, Selfie, Figure and so many more ask to feature a beautiful white woman on the cover. These warehouses are difficult to avoid; they are often at the checkout, which makes their message often and accurately conveyed to anyone waiting in line. If you are in some way like a woman on the roof, don’t even notice the uniformity of these covers; However, if you don’t, constantly viewing these images can start to erode your self-image.
Also, as a parent, I constantly look for books books that color (especially black children) in positive heroic roles. All parenting books with positive messages to help instill proper values in our children; This mission is more difficult when you have a child of color. As much as I’ve read The Magic Treehouse, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and The Chronicles of Spiderwick, I can’t help but wonder why publishers rarely distribute books with black kids having exciting and imaginative adventures.
It is not easy for me to believe that such books were not written; more likely, the editors were overlooked. Finding books with main characters for six like my having a son is an exciting adventure. looking for me I don’t often come up empty. A lack of such material can adversely affect a child’s self-image.
I can relate to the feelings all the kids express in this movie because I was moved in the same way growing up. When I was a little girl, I often wished I was white, and it wasn’t unusual for me to go around the house with a towel over my head, so I could pretend I had hair. Why? Because I received second messages (mostly from 70’s TV like The Partridge Family, Brady Bunch etc.); when white was not only beautiful, it was also fun.
There are no answers in the film; However, recognizing that this is a significant problem people are looking at ways to address this problem. One idea is to demand an end to the negative images the entertainment industry continually uses to portray blackness in movies, TV programs, and music. The entities corporates controlling the production of these negative images have no incentive to change things unless users start demanding better representation of all people (not to be used in these negative images).
Stereotypes hurt us all as a nation because they maintain fear and distrust of each other. Some guests try to stop the massive negative messages. Indian singer/songwriter. The song “I’m Not My Hair” is a wake up call to the black community to stop judging each other over something as superficial as hair and look beyond that to the person inside.
Besides forcing the tools to change, I believe another method can also help. Pubescent commented in the film that not knowing our roots has left us with an emptiness that prevents us from having a stronger sense of self-identity. One way to begin reconstructing our lost past is with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing. Last year, thanks to mtDNA testing, we traced my maternal line to the Temne Tribe in Sierra Leone.
Now being able to point to a piece of paper and know where I am from has given me a new sense of self that I can in turn instill in my children. MtDNA testing is a great equalizer and as more people get tested, the feeling of alienation eventually disappears.
These are just two ideas that can help eliminate the problems depicted in Davis’s film. I’m sure there are other possible solutions. For it is not what is done, but what is done. Otherwise, we will still be talking about the same problems fifty years from now.
