I am not my hair? Really?

When it comes to African American women and hair, be advised to pick your battles carefully

Calvin Reid, a senior news editor at Publishers Weekly is pulling out strands over the cover of the latest issue.  Unfortunately, his attempt at humor is as stiff as a newly pressed head of hair. (If you have to ask, obviously you’re not a member of the club.)

But bonafide members of the club have a bone to pick with Reid, who is African American. Seems his cover pick is racist

I’m following responses to “Publisher’s Weekly have you lost your mind?” posted on the 26th Story blog at the HarperStudio.com. The high-profile agency’s authors include Toni Morrison, Paul Auster, 50 Cent…

LondyJamel said the cover protrays “black” writing

as tribalistic and single-minded, i think it’s more than a couple decades too late to even be close to accurate.”

Well she’s got a point. Because of Chris Rock, the entire world knows sistas are dropping megabucks in the pursuit of straight, or straightened hair.
Stephanie Denise Brown said:

Well, now we understand. They were just being lazy, too lazy to make a cover for the magazine. As others have noted, it’s unfortunate that the pic is out of context from the cover of its book. Also, why choose this ONE cover to represent African American authors?! No single cover can represent all of our work. From the supernatural to sci-fi to historical to contemporary–our work is just as diverse as our peers. This cover choice is lazy and lame.

I have to admit, I laughed out loud when I saw the cover. It doesn’t offend me as much as, say
the image of the Studio’s Team…

Or Mediaite’s list of 28 important media leaders people who died during the decade

‘Course Mediaite’s editor apologized for her gaffe. Reid has apologized for his. ‘Tis the season, I guess. My bad! According to Richard Prince, editor of the Journal-isms site Reid did not apologize for this column. His boss did. Here’s what Reid told Prince:

“Ha!” Reid replied on Wednesday. “I certainly didn’t use the word ‘apology.’ My editor in chief did, however, in speaking for the magazine.

“. . . I’m happy to talk about it because I think there’s a lot to talk about. Like why are so many black people ashamed of the black pride symbols of the 1970s. What’s up with that!!”

You can read the entire column here.