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For my final Coggle I will be analyzing this Nivea ad and the historical…
For my final Coggle I will be analyzing this Nivea ad and the historical negative representations of African-American naturally curly hair. Through legislation and anglocentric beauty standards, Black people have been rendered inferior for not obtaining straight hair. African American hair has been criminalized and deemed unprofessional by dominant norms.
This 2011 ad promoting Nivea's line of men's skincare products features a neatly dressed black male model about to toss the decapitated head of another black man with an afro and beard. The title..."RE-CIVILIZE YOURSELF." I retrieved this ad from Business Insider in an article posted by Jen Ortiz in 2011. The title of the article is "Nivea pulls racist "re civilize yourself" ad after sparking outrage
Nivea pulled this ad and issued an apology on Facebook. Although they pledged to be committed to Diversity, they perpetuated a historical trope of correlating black hair with uncivilized and evil, and equating white hair to respect and professionalism. As you will analyze through this coggle timeline, historical inequality in terms of black hair has been persistent since the beginning of slavery and continues today
This ad was produced by Dr. Miracle in the 2000's when natural hair relaxers were extremely popular. It looks as though it would be popularized in magazines. It shows three examples of black women with angry/sad expressions because their hair is needed a scalp, styling, or hair MIRACLE. The photo on the right then depicts a black woman as the beauty ideal. it is stated that it leaves your hair "Silky and Smooth" with a money back guarantee Retrieved from Decoding advertisements
This next ad is from African Pride in the 1990's (specifically 1997) and exploits black liberation and empowerment movements with the intent to control black hair. It reads "confidence, power, pride, nothing can get you that feeling like African Pride Relaxers." The most telling part is when it states "...Power to control your hair, your style, your world." Profiting off of the gaining of civil rights and black liberation, this ad entices users to relax their hair to gain power and privilege, along with asserting the theme of black hair needing to be tamed. It also has a disclaimer saying the product can break hair and cause scalp irritation which is not powerful if you ask me. Retrieved from
The next image is another tells another significant story from the 1990's This ad is also from African Pride It says "I want her hair" and "proud to be the Original." It describes the conditioning relaxer as shinier, sexier which equates straight hair to desirable and curly hair to undesirable.
This ad called "Impulsive" By Long Aid hair products in 1988. It is produced by the Keystone Laboratories. They are marketing a bottle of extra light oil moisturizer that promotes curls, perms, or braids. Although supporting natural hair, the problem lies in the captions. The black woman is seen as pushing away a white man and saying "sometimes I like to make a scene just for fun. Although very true to the 80s, it reignites old tropes of black women being impulsive and unreliable.
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The 1980's saw the emergence of the jheri curl and revitalization of curly hair a positive images. This is because black pride was prevalent in the Civil Rights movement. I received this image from vintage black ads tumbler which I found through pinterest. Not only does it support black hair it positively shows black love. It is a "classy curl activator." classy being a key word of assimilation. This is from Johnson Products Co. in Chicago Illinois
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In 2016, the Perception institute conducted the "good hair" Study to examine implicit attitudes related to black hair. The institute created the Hair IAT test and included over 4,000 participants. KEY FINDINGS - white women show explicit bias towards black women's hair - Black women in the natural hair community have the most positive responses, and 1 in 5 black women feel the social pressure to straighten their hair for work - twice as many as white women
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In 2018 a New Jersey wrestler Andrew Johnson was told by a referee that his hair broke wrestling rules during a competition. He stood there while a referee gave him a dehumanizing haircut. The young man was wearing dreadlocks and ended up winning his match. Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey stated "Seeing Mr. Johnson forced by an official into a choice between giving up who he is or giving up his ability to compete is extremely disturbing"
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This bottom image is also significantly disturbing. It shows two black women but with eurocentric features and white hair with the slogan "keep your head up." Ironically called African pride, this brand and media representation is glorifying white standards of beauty.
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Although seen as increasing opportunities for black women, Madam C.J Walker is now criticized for profiting off of assimilation of black culture. She became a millionaire off of her creations. I found this photo from her biography at biography.com/madamcjwalker
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It is also important to note that during this time Black Americans were facing the stereotypes of Jim crow. While looking at the Jim Crow museum archives I found this photo of a young girl depicted as a jezebel with wild hair. Looking at how Americans were inundated with negative imagery, it makes sense that black Americans resulted to assimilation and respectability politics in order to be treated well in society. This photo is specifically from 1950's .link for more info
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This is an example of the comprehensive survey that was given retrieved from the Perception Institute results link
A local reporter captured the scene on video and shared it. This is yet another example of white people controlling and regulating what is called acceptable. The criminalization of black hair is still a problem today. The photo was first posted by make Frankel Dec. 20th 2018. and the article is retrieved from
Photo retrieved from BBC news.com by Rumeana Jahangir on the 31st of May in 2015
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