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<br>         ADS-L Digest - 22 Jun 1998 to 23 Jun 1998             98-06-24 00:00:34
<br>There are 5 messages totalling 141 lines in this issue.
<br>
<br>Topics of the day:
<br>
<br>  1. potato -- process
<br>  2. US copyright news (2)
<br>  3. Twenty-Three Skidoo
<br>  4. Dark L
<br>
<br>----------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
<br>Date:    Tue, 23 Jun 1998 02:38:40 -0500
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh <t20mxs1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORN.CSO.NIU.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: potato -- process
<br>
<br>Yongwei Gao wrote:
<br>>
<br>> Hi,
<br>>
<br>> Has anybody there seen them before:
<br>
<br>> process      The Rev. Al Sharpton stood at the pulpit of Friendship
<br>> Baptist Church in deepest Harlem, shimmering in his white brocade
<br>> preacher s gown, his  process  swept back magnificently from his
<br>> forehead, looking for all the world like a cross between James Brown and
<br>> the Archangel Gabriel. (6/2/94 WP D1)
<br>>
<br>> Wish you a nice day!
<br>>
<br>> Yongwei Gao
<br>
<br>Process: U.S. African-American, going back as far as I can remember
<br>(meaning back to the late 1930s).  "Process" is a hairdo that is, or
<br>appears to be, the result of some chemical hair-straightening process.
<br>Tightly-curled, or "frizzy", or "nappy", or "kinky" hair often is taken
<br>as a symbol of "Africanity" -- that is, an externally visible sign that
<br>is sometimes used to identify individuals as African-Americans.  The
<br>tight curls are themselves the mechanical result of the  cross-sectional
<br>shape of the individual hairs on the head.  In many circles, it is
<br>fashionable to do whatever has to be done to make hair appear to be
<br>straight and lying flat to the head.  One treament that was widely used
<br>in the past was to soak the hair in a strong alkali solution -- lye,
<br>that is. "Processing" hair in this way is also called "conking",
<br>possibly derived  from the slang word "conk", meaning "head".
<br>
<br>Notice that I did not say that tightly curled, frizzy, or nappy hair is
<br>a racial characteristic of African-Americans.  I know people who
<br>identify themselves, and are identified by others, as African-Americans
<br>who have naturally smooth hair, and  others who have hair that is gently
<br>waved.  I also know African-Americans with very dark black hair, others
<br>with middle-of-the-road brown hair, and still others whose hair is
<br>naturally blond or dark red or carrot-red.  There are also plenty of
<br>people in the world who have hair that is as tightly curled as
<br>stereotypical "African" hair, but who have no known historical
<br>connection to Africa whatsoever.  (Try taking a look at the full range
<br>of hair shapes of many people born in Papua-New Guinea, for example.)
<br>
<br>One of my old students, whose appearance was very close to
<br>stereotypically "black", used to have fun showing the silliness of
<br>segregationists in the 1950s and early 1960s.  She would dress in a
<br>sari, place a red dot in the middle of her forehead, and go to highly
<br>segregated first-class hotels and restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama.
<br>She had no  trouble being served in such places, even though she made no
<br>claim to be from South Asia, made reservations in her own (commonly
<br>English) name, and spoke in her normal (educated Alabaman) accent.  In
<br>the world of segregation, her alien costume made her "white" despite her
<br>appearance.
<br>
<br>In the end, being African-American is a statement about social
<br>participation and the
<br>perception of group identification.  Physical appearance may, or may
<br>not, be taken as a symbol of African-American identity, but there is no
<br>kind of physical appearance that precludes full participation in
<br>African-American culture as a member of the group.
<br>Nonetheless, there are many African-Americans who think it stylish to
<br>get their hair straightened into a "process" -- or to wear wigs that
<br>give the same appearance without the need to go through the
<br>sometimes-painful business of getting a process.  (Contrast "process"
<br>with "dreadlocks" and "afros" and "corn-rows" for alternative ways of
<br>thinking about what looks good in a hairdo.)
<br>
<br>--  mike salovesh                               <salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu>
<br>    anthropology department
<br>    northern illinois university                     PEACE !!!
<br>