Between cornrows, braids, dreads, weaves, fros, and relaxants, white people find the world of black hair and black hair products fascinating and mysterious (though we’re afraid to ask about it for fear of getting beat up).  Thankfully Chris Rock has made Good Hair, a documentary that may finally illuminate things, a philanthropy on the level of the time Dave Chappelle finally told us what “Skeet skeet skeet” really meant.

When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl’s head! Director Jeff Stilson’s camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture. (Opens October 9th.) [via Sundance]

I’m excited to learn about the “what” of this movie, but I have a feeling the answer to “why” is going to be “Because the white devil taught you to hate yourself.”  It’s not so much that I disagree, it’s just that as the rare person with white skin and nappy hair, I’m pretty sure I took more crap for this growing up than either side and I’ll be damned if you think you’re going to take my persecution complex.  Awesome comments I got growing up:

  • “Why don’t you try shaving it all off and see if it grows back normal?”  (I did try that a couple times, actually)
  • “I think maybe you got f*cked up DNA.  That’s your new nickname, DNA.”
  • “Maybe it’s a vitamin deficiency.”

Yeah, so anyway, cry me a river, black folks.  I’ll take braids over being compared to Lyle Lovett or Art Garfunkel any day.