by Catherine King
In the days after I posted Just 'Fro Stories, Dr. Neal Lester of Arizona State University, one of the exhibition's writers and organizers, sent me a couple of emails, and I responded. Our disappointing correspondence is reproduced below, with my conclusions, after some quotes from the relevant parts of my review.
[From my review]
The organizers of HairStories begin by attempting to foist off on the targeted audience (white, middle-class) the assumption that black Americans have been cosmetically deprived:
Since slavery, African-American hair has been central to multitudes of racist notions that devalue and diminish the legitimacy of African-Americans in the New World. (Dr. Neal A. Lester, page 33)
[snip]
Dr. Lester, SMoCA's consulting scholar, quotes hair-care specialist Pamela Ferrell on Neal Cohan's NPR show in late November 2001, two months after we had our hearts torn out:
Ferrell challenged a guest who insisted that the hair issue as it related to African-Americans was not the same [as it was for whites]. She reminded [!] the audience of an ongoing effort on the part of racist white America to devalue and discriminate against African-Americans on the basis of hair differences:
More Ferrell: "It's so interesting to hear the conversation and people talk about the Taliban controlling people in terms of their hair and not being able to cut it. And it's interesting how Americans act so concerned about people being oppressed when we know America is the world leader in oppression and discrimination . . ."[my emphasis]
She doesn't acknowledge -- she is too cowardly to admit -- that she would never have been allowed to have her own business or practice cosmetology in Taliban Afghanistan. I wouldn't go to Pamela Ferrell's beauty salon if it were the last one on earth. But Dr. Lester -- whose precious princess Jasmine can drop into any beauty salon she wants to -- signs off on this anti-American horseshit, explaining to us how:
Ferrell shows that hair seamlessly weaves the personal and the political, the private and the public and the past and present in the lives of African Americans.
The great scholar has just pronounced two sentences of bullshit a "seamless weaving." But doesn't this indicate extremely low standards of debate, discourse, and proof? We all know America oppresses the whole wide world, case closed. Scales have fallen from eyes with a wave of Ferrell's verbal wand.
Wait a minute . . . Was it the clearly black racist, Anti-American Pam Ferrell declaring an ongoing effort on the part of racist white America to devalue and discriminate against African-Americans on the basis of hair differences? -- or was that Arizona State University professor Dr. Neal Lester talking? It's clear that he is at least in 100% agreement if not the author of that statement.
[end of review excerpts]
I posted the first part of the essay last Sunday night, December 14th, then sent out email announcements, including one to Dr. Lester at the university.
The following begins the e-mail exchange with Dr. Lester:
Dr. Lester:
Just posted on The Tears of Things, the first part of a review of
Hairstories by Catherine King:
"Just 'Fro Stories: How SMoCA and New Times Jump In Da Guilted Frame;
or, Don't Blame Your Bad Black Hair Days on My White Skin."
Sincerely,
Jerome du Bois, for Catherine King
Monday morning, December 15th, I got this e-mail response from Dr. Lester:
Thanks for sharing. Please share with Ms. King my delight that she saw
the exhibit and had such an engaging and informed response to it. I can
hardly wait to see the other parts of her response.
Cheers!
Three days later, December 18th, I received a second unsolicited e-mail from him, about a short comment I had written about his hair:
Please feel free to share this observation with Ms. King. Thanks.
And 3" BELOW THE SHOULDER does indeed constitute a cascade. She
obviously didn't read it very carefully and thought you meant 3" from
the scalp.
It was time to address Dr. Lester directly, as long as I had him on the line. The subject? The questions I posed in my review (see above), not his hair. Straightforward. So on December 19th, I sent him the following email:
Dr. Lester,
At first, when I read your second e-mail, I almost thought, this is some intern playing a joke. The response was so immature (well, I thought you were just being immature but I think Jerome thinks that you are trying to dis me). Because I posed really serious questions about super big issues, even putting myself out there wanting to engage in "the essential discussion about Race that must at some time no longer be avoided."
But you only wanted to talk about yout hair. And how long it was. So even if that was or wasn’t an intern trying playing a joke on me, I still pose the same questions. I put myself out there.
Also, just in case this is Dr. Neal Lester, because the pompous voice certainly does match that in your "scholarly contribution" to HairStories, I read your article, believe me, and I got that your lionllike mane ‘cascades 3” (!) below your shoulders.’
And, I didn’t want to brag, but it must be said, MINE IS LONGER...
And again, most importantly, if this really is you, Dr. Neal Lester, was that you or Pam Ferrell asserting
"an ongoing effort on the part of racist white America to devalue and discriminate against African-Americans on the basis of hair differences"
and do you agree with her
"we know America is the world leader in oppression and discrimination."
Because, if so, I’m asking you to stand by those words and initiate that discussion with me, right now.
Sincerely,
Catherine King
Yesterday, December 21st, I sent the following email to him:
Dr. Lester:
Following up on my previous email:
I'm serious about getting answers to my questions: Which statements are yours, which are Pam Ferrell's, and do you agree with her?
After all, you say in your essay that "African-Americans en masse . . . have not dealt with the 'hair issue' in such a way as to prompt honest and sometimes painful self-examination."
Kerry James Marshall also makes a point, after making a point about the big issues, about "a less dramatic story that also needs to be represented: I mean the day-to-day ambivalence of black people about participating fully in the American dream."
Unless I receive a reply by tonight, tomorrow morning I'll be posting our recent correspondence, including this email, with my addtional comments on your apparent unwillingness to stand by your words.
Sincerely,
Catherine King
Now it's Monday morning, December 22nd, and I haven't heard from Neal Lester. I guess he covered the subject that was most important to him -- his hair.
Standing behind his words, or clarifying his position, is apparently not important to him. Well, he's cozy, what does he have to worry about? He's got tenure, and a full professor's salary at a taxpayer-sponsored university, so he can spout any kind of anti-American horse manure he wants, and just move on. And people like Susan Krane and Ted Decker smile and bow and agree with him, apparently.
Posted by Jerome at December 22, 2003 08:11 AM | TrackBack