[Applause]
-Who in this audience has been judged by their hair?
-Let me hear from a few people.
-Working in luxury retail, I've noticed
when I have my hair in long braids
they won't speak to me,
or they shy away from me, or they assume
that I'm a certain way before even speaking to me.
-You're talking about white customers?
-Oh, yeah, correct. White customers.
-Um, and they're shocked that I can hold an
intelligent conversation with them because
they assumed I would be the hood rat girl
that happeded to be working in luxury retail.
Or just the assistant there.
And so I feel like, with me,
when it comes to my hair, I'm creative.
I like to switch it up.
But if my hair isn't done a certain way,
or if it's not how I want it to be,
I don't feel comfortable, I'm not confident.
-How many of you feel like natural
is the only way to go?
-I don't like wigs, I think they look fake,
and I don't think women know
how to look good in them.
And so I can't stand wigs
and I wish we as a people--
[Laughter] [Audience reaction]
-I'm sorry.
-Is this the part of the show
where we start standing up?
-If you know how to make your wig look good--
-Judgement!
-Then wear it. I'm talking about the wigs that
aren't properly plugged or that's what--
-You're saying you want them to be natural.
-I want them to look nice.
I want them to look good.
-Well they don't have good girlfriends
helping them, honey.
-And let me tell you how I feel about weave.
When I stop at a red light,
and I'm sitting there with the windows down,
and I look down and I see that somebody's
braid fell out. And it's on the ground.
-Where she live?
-Imma hug her.
-Weave is unkept.
It's not being taken care of.
I do applaud people who
take care of their hair, take care of their styles.
take care of their wigs, take care of their weaves,
that's awesome.
But we have some really bad stuff out here.
-We do. [Audience reaction] [Applause] [Reaction]
-And that's what I have a problem with.
-I agree with her one hundred percent.
I am sixty-four years old.
Three weeks ago I competed in a
muscle building contest.
I took fourth place. But I say this to say
everything has to be approved by the judges.
The bikini that you wear has to be approved,
I had a poser to show me how to pose,
and wanted to be like my wardrobe person,
how I was gonna wear my makeup
and how I was gonna wear my hair.
And if you go and look at any of the competitions
I'm with her.
They have the black women in these big old
Martha and Vandellas, Barbie doll looking--
[Laughter]
-Weave and wigs, and
making us try to look like the white girls.
-And I told them I said, I'm gonna give you
the bathing suit, but I'm gonna give you
one of two things,
I'm gonna give you braids,
and we're gonna break the mold,
or I'm gonna give you a bun,
with my natural hair up in a bun,
but I'm not gonna put on a weave,
I'm not gonna put on a wig,
and I still went out there and I placed fourth.
With my braids!
[Applause]
-I think the weave thing is way too out of control.
You know, we wanna say it's Black Girl Magic,
it's definitley magic if your hair down to here.
We don't grow our hair like that.
-Carlos! Carlos!
-Monica. [Laughter]
-Carlos!
-Alright, let me hear from you.
-Now see, okay, so,
so what just happened was
[Laughter]
What just happened was we got put
right back in the box we trying to get out of.
[Applause]
-Because every one of my father's
sister's hair grows down here.
These perceptions are exactly
what we are pushing out.
-See, we can't ask other people to treat us
in a way we can't treat ourselves. [Applause]
Number one, that's number one.
We've all got something different genetically
because that is how it was intended.
That is what makes us such a special race,
because there is no box to be put in.
You can be this color,
you can be that complection,
you can be so many different things.
And I think what makes it hard is that, okay,
granted, there are some bad weaves [Laughter]
granted, I'm gonna give that.
There some bad weaves, I get it. When I get one,
it's not because I want to look like Barbie,
it's because I like this!
This is what I do, I want a different look.
[Applause] -You want a different look.
-And it may be a different feeling.
-If I'm going to the VMAs,
versus coming to support Miss Abrams
I might look a different way.
So I get that there's a way
that we should do certain things,
but there should be no judgement when it's done.
[Applause]