April 12, 2007
Paula Zahn
CNN News
Dear Ms. Zahn:
The other evening, while discussing the remarks of talk show host Don Imus, you mentioned that an Atlanta based talk show host, Neal Boortz, had made similar comments about Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. My wife and I live in Georgia's 4th Congressional District, and we are grateful that someone finally put Boortz's comments in a negative light. His dialogue went as follows:
BOORTZ: For instance, or for goodness sakes, jump in and I'm gonna say--I'm gonna start out with something controversial. I saw Cynthia McKinney's new hair-do. Have you seen it, Belinda?
SKELTON: No.
BOORTZ: She looks like a ghetto slut.
SKELTON: Well, how is it?
BOORTZ: It's just--it's hideous.
SKELTON: Is it braided? Or--
BOORTZ: No, it's not braided. It just flies away from her head in every conceivable direction. It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. It's just hideous. To me, that hairstyle just shows contempt for--no, it's not an Afro. I mean, no, it just shows contempt for the position that she holds and the body that she serves in. And, I'm sorry, there's just no other way to--it's just hideous and horrible looking--
MARSHALL: It looks better than the braids she was wearing.
BOORTZ: No, the braids had some dignity. They had some class.
MARSHALL: The braids had dignity?
BOORTZ: They had more class than this thing.
MARSHALL: This says, you know, kinda 2000s, you know, stepping up to the plate. Contemporary look, you know.
BOORTZ: She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence.
At the time that this dialogue took place, no one would step forward to denounce Boortz, since the media had demonized Congresswoman McKinney so effectively in their attempt to prevent her from raising pertinent issues in the public domain.
This was a shame, because my wife and I moved to the 4th Congressional District in 1996 from Detroit, Michigan, intentionally to be in McKinney's district. As former residents of Detroit's 14th Congressional District, we had been served by John Conyers, Jr., who was a colleague, friend, and neighbor, and McKinney's politics mirrored his.
During our years here in Georgia, we have found McKinney to be hard working and committed to serving the needs of her district and constituency. She did not dwell on her hairstyle, as many black women find that hairstyle can demand too much attention and be very distracting to the work at hand.
The issue here, of course, is hair. God--if you believe in God--gave black people hair that could withstand the climatic conditions of the African continent. The follicles are configured differently than that of European hair, but it is not "coarse." In fact, it is very fragile, and the varying processes that black women use on their hair to simulate Caucasian hair is exceedingly damaging to the follicles.
This is not unlike the facial hair of black men, who suffer agony attempting to be clean shaven like white men, using depilatories, et al, that raise bumps and cause ingrown hairs, which, frankly, damage the epidermis and hurt. I have worn a short cropped beard for years because I no longer chose to inflict the pain on myself.
Yet when we, black men and women, opt for healthier practices for our body hair, we are condemned and ridiculed, and sometimes even fired from jobs, since it does not conform to the European standards.
In any case, I just wanted to thank you for bringing up the Neal Boortz/Cynthia McKinney incident that occurred last year.
Sincerely yours,
Philip G. Smith
Stone Mountain, GA
