The panel was created in response to the outcry from readers that flooded the publication with emails and letters voicing their offense to comments made in August 2007 by a then Glamour staffer that had advised an afro was inappropriate as a professional hairstyle in her presentation to women personnel at a law firm (see Glamour Magazine: Don’t Do Afros or Dreadlocks).  Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive in her brief opening remarks stated Glamour “disagreed strongly and was appalled,” and again sincerely apologized stating that, “we are here today to listen.”

Moderator Farai Chideya, Host of NPR News & Notes, journalist and founder of popandpolitics.com, quickly jumpstarted the lively 2-hour dialogue by countering India.Arie’s lyric “I am not my hair,” asserting that, “sometimes, I am.”  She was greeted with “mm-hmm” affirmations from many sistas in the predominantly Black yet pleasantly mixed audience with peaked interest on what would follow.

Quite apropos for a discussion on beauty, the first question to define “aesthetics” was answered by Venus Opal Reese, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Aesthetic Studies, The University of Texas at Dallas:  “Aesthetics is how we see what we see and hear today looking at things from the past.” Also an award-winning solo performer, playwright, director, and choreographer,  she drew upon her one-woman show "Split Ends" on African-American women and their hair to put a smooth wrap on the root of the topic explaining, “America was founded on racism.  Historical opinions on what hair or whatever else represents as Black people still shape many of today’s ideals.  Many times when someone sees me, the opinions they form are not about me personally, but the historical context they associate with what they see.  It’s the idea I represent.”

Court TV Host Jami Floyd of “Jami Floyd: Best Defense” then took the baton expressing emphatically, “people need to understand choice [made by Black women about our hair] is deeply political.”  Jami then detailed her hair horrors from child to adulthood – as a biracial child with a White mother that “didn’t know what to do with [her hair]”, taunted by schoolchildren as “bozo, Brillo head”, to being physically grabbed by her afro pom-pom by a colleague.  Because her Black father had always impressed on her she was a Black woman, the natural hair and the afro style she wore was tied to her sense of self and identity, serving as the visual cue of “Blackness” that her light skin coloring beguiled.  It was a difficult decision to straighten her hair when the career opportunity to be on TV was presented.  “There are no women on TV with Afros,” Jami cited.  “Let’s be real, its an effort to look Anglo Saxon…TV is the last bastion of racism, so it is slow to change.  Media and entertainment industries are the most compromising,” still requiring conservatism and conformity to the mainstream standard, not necessarily affording the personal choice of style for on-air personalities and celebrities in the largest markets and with the furthest media reach.  “Beauty is all about the power paradigm.”

Renowned celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal is a newly minted makeup mogul as creator of her own successful line Mally Beauty.   An Asian woman, she jokingly described herself as “always having wanted to be Black”, a metaphor explaining her admiration for characteristics such as strength, confidence and speaking up she has adopted from her Black friends.  Mally brought a fun, sassy demeanor to the panel, a reminder that “Blackness” isn’t purely defined by skin color, but that the African Diaspora is also about consciousness.  She shared “real talk” about the diverse ethnicities and levels of self-acceptance within her clientele from celebrities super-glam Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, and make-me-look-like-me Jill Scott to everyday women, some not as confident, such as Asians wanting to make their eyes rounder and African-Americans wanting to make their nose, lips smaller.  Mally professed that she will always tell how to or make someone her prettier self:  “Embrace how you were born. [Beauty] is about feeling like you and who you were meant to be.  Love who you are no matter what.”

Glamour’s well-organized panel included Executive Editor of Essence magazine Vanessa Bush who eloquently responded to questions on the Essence position as both an enforcer of Black beauty and establisher of standards African-American women feel forced to follow.   Vanessa spoke truths:  “Bombarded with messages that we are not worthy as we are,  [at Essence] we embrace, we understand, and we celebrate who you are, just as you are.  There is a deliberate palette of different women in terms of hair type and size because we recognize it’s important to readers to see and help validate themselves.”  Cutting right to the controversy of hair and race, “sometimes hair is an accessory and just a form of expression; to be stereotyped because of it is appalling.”

Offering a view from another side, Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas State University Barbara Trepagnier, Ph.D., a White woman, described findings from the study in her book “Silent Racism” of White women identified as “well-meaning and least racist that had more racism than expected.  Actually, most of us are somewhat racist and in denial of it.  It’s about awareness.  The common assumption is that being White is the default.”

Founder of Carol’s Daughter natural beauty products Lisa Price added dimension with thoughts on how her brand is perceived as having “transcended” African-American beauty.  She carefully explained the business goal to appeal to people beyond the Black core consumers without alienation to them or others.  “Interestingly, from the beginning, it was never stated in packaging or anywhere that our products were specific to any group.”  To further this point, Lisa recounted the infamous Brad Pitt Esquire magazine shout-out that for his adopted Ethiopian daughter, Carol’s Daughter products are great for “black-person hair.”  She applied Venus’s “how you hear” theory on aesthetics to interpret Pitt’s comment this way:  “Some people just don’t know how to care for hair and Carol’s Daughter is a help for them.  It’s not the right choice of words depending on the person speaking to.  Not excusing it, but it could be the Glamour rep chose a poor choice of words and realized it too late.  Dialogue will help people not make blunders.  There are so many ways Black women wear our hair that people don’t understand.  Use the opportunity to educate so someone else doesn’t put a foot in mouth.”

Daisy Fernandez, a Latina woman who is managing editor of ColorLines magazine, the leading publication on issues within communities of color, rounded out the variety of experiences and expertise of the panelists.  In short, the incidence and the pain were not surprises given today’s images and messages.  “We are in a hostile climate right now in terms of race issues.”  She then brought all the talk to task, “be accountable – is Glamour’s editorial staff and advisory board multi-racial?”

Farai facilitated just as interactive an exchange of questions, thought-provoking comments and riveting experiences from the audience open mic.  There were a few standout statements:

Author Veronica Chambers’s personal story brought to light the complexity of differing opinions of the hair issue within the Black community:  “On a dinner date with an investment banker he told me it was going well and asked me for a photo with straight hair to know his options.”

Author Akiba Solomon challenged the panel to answer, “What is that ‘thing’ that makes it economically viable for African-American women to have straight hair vs. natural?”  Venus again touched on the historical context of slavery ‘valuing’ it as the ‘cost’ Black people have paid for her freedom of hair choice, guilt-free of any negative connotations.  “I know who I am and I know my worth.”  Jami agreed to the same historical facts yet taking different action.  “White folks are in charge in most industries.  You are a widget, which can be replaced by someone willing to play the game.  The decision is different depending on who you are.  Know who you are at your core before you have to make decisions.”

Author Robyn Moreno, a Latina, expressed there is also a range of hair textures among Hispanic women and the gravity of being defined by our hair.  “Women of color have an unfair responsibility with their hair choices to validate their ethnicity whereas White women, for example Glamour readers, get to be whimsical and change their hair on personality – [the luxury] ‘oh, I feel like being a Redhead’.”

Author and Glamour staffer Ayanna Byrd after detailing the change in treatment having recently straightened her dreadlocks impressed that hair choice is “defending your DNA when you walk into every situation.  I want to get to a point where a little Black girl chooses a style just because it’s pretty, not because it’s political.”

A British-born, former BBC journalist elevated the conversation citing that, “Not only is an education on image needed, but the truth is that economic impact drove Glamour’s recourse, therefore, the negotiation needs to take place within White society to focus on the notion of privilege.”