I can't tell you how many times, while coaching young broadcast journalists, the issue of "hair" comes up. It is especially true when I speak with black women. I think white male news directors don't have a real idea what this issue means to black women or their notions of how their hair affects their self identity.
When I was a news director, our newsroom tried to use the same guideline for hair that we used for jewelry, glasses and makeup. Be who you are but don't distract from the message.
In his "Journal-isms" column, Richard Prince took a look earlier this week at the issue of "good hair" for black, on-air female journalists. The topic has made headlines recently because of comedian Chris Rock's new documentary, "
Good Hair," which started showing in select theaters last week.
Prince said there is a predisposition against corn rows and "natural" hair on TV news.
Prince's column included this related passage:
" 'For most of America, dreads are not seen as clean, not as professional, as something you can relate to,' Monica Pearson, an anchor at Atlanta's WSB-TV who has worn her hair in many styles, told Journal-isms. 'It's not fair,' she conceded, but she repeated this truism about viewers: 'If it is a distraction, they are not listening to you. Your job has to come first.'
"Black women who admire natural styles point to two role models: Michel Martin of National Public Radio, who wore a short Afro while a correspondent for ABC-TV's 'Nightline,' and veteran Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who covers Africa for NPR and other outlets and for many years was a correspondent for PBS' 'The News Hour.'
" 'At industry conferences,' Martin said, 'the young women tell me they cannot get jobs with natural hair, they cannot even get an interview. ... By the time I came in to the network I was a known quantity from the Sunday talk show circuit; it would have been very odd for me to change my hair. And I even asked my soon-to-be EP,' or executive producer, 'if my hair would be an issue because I told him during the interview process that I was not open to changing it. He said it never came up and everybody knew my look when they came looking for me.'"
For more background, watch this Washington Post video interview about Rock's "Good Hair" documentary or its other related video, "What Does Good Hair Mean to You?"
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