Movie Review: Good Hair

When I saw the trailer for Good Hair, I thought it was going to be a film making fun at the way black people take care of their hair, especially since comedian Chris Rock was hosting it. So, I was not excited to see it but I watched it in class and I was relieved to see that it was a realistic look at how black women keep treat their hair. The topic of hair in the black community can be surprising to those who are not in the black community. The idea of good vs. bad hair is a topic that seems to never go away. Some black women have many issues with the way they want their hair to look and many of us will go to great lengths to get it the way they want.

The movie went into many different aspects of black women’s hair culture. For instance, many black women pay lots of money to get extensions added to their in order for their hair to have a more European or Asian look. One of things I learned in the movie was that some of the extensions come from a religious ritual in India called Tonsure. Tonsure is a ceremony where Indian people shave their heads as a sacrifice. The hair form the Tonsure ceremony is weaved, packaged and shipped to America, among other places. The film also allowed black women that wear extensions and those that wear their hair in its’ natural style, to express their thoughts of why and how they keep their hair. Many of the women that wore extensions, like Raven Symone, said they wouldn’t think of not wearing one.

The film also displayed other interesting things such as the Bronner Brothers Hair Competition and Expo, where hair dressing in the black community artistically styled hair and competed for the Bronner Brothers title. The expo portion of the event was interesting because the black-owned hair care section was so small, because there are less than five big black owned companies. 

I would recommend this movie to other people, especially other black women because it can open up dialogue about why black women find their hair so important as to spend hundreds of dollars on extensions in order to look like other cultures or to have ‘good hair’.

I personally decided to cut my hair and 'go natural' because it was so damaged by the products I was putting into it and I love my natural hair.

Movie Review: Food Inc.

Food, Inc. is a documentary directed by Robert Kenner. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are filmmakers that have also done their own films about the American food indusrty. It is an eye – opening film about the ongoing issues in the American food industry. When I watched this film I was awe the entire time. It covers multiple topics about the food that we eat every day, unless you’re a vegetarian. The film shows the disturbing reality of how chickens, cows, and pigs are kept, fed, and how they are killed and prepared for consumption.

 
The film Food Inc. is an example of American’s food gathering strategies. Countries all over the world have different food gathering strategies and America’s has one of the more industrial agriculture systems. An industrial agriculture system is a way to produce mass quantities of food by using machinery. I learned a lot from this movie. For example, I knew that free range eggs were healthier to eat that those kept caged but, I had no idea the conditions of which the caged chickens were being kept in. The caged chickens were kept in large, dark, and cramped sheds. Some of the chickens died and those that stayed alive were snatched up in the night by food company employees.

I highly recommend this film to everyone because it is very educational and it sheds light on the secrets of how the food, that many of eat, is prepared for the public.

The International Food Fest 3

On Wednesday November 17^th I attended the 3^rd International Food Fest that took place in the Blazer Hall RLC. UAB students served various foods representing different countries such as India and Mexico. The fest started at 7 p.m. and by 7:15 p.m., the line for food was wrapped around the RLC. Luckily, they were serving dessert at the end of the line. I got a slice of the German Chocolate cake, which is not actually from Germany. It is called that because Sam German created the baking chocolate used for German Chocolate cake.

Left: Chick Pea Curry Right: Chick Pea Falafel

By the time I made to the front of the line most of the food was gone. I was able to get some of the chick pea curry and one of the chick pea falafel balls. I have never had either one, but I have heard that curry tends to be spicy. I was excited to try the foods because I have never had Indian food before. The Chick pea curry was really good. I tasted like a healthy spicy stew. Different countries have different definitions of curry. Chick pea curry is among the Indian vegetable curries. The falafel was really good too. One of the servers told me that it was basically made from frying a ball of chick peas. The falafel is considered to be an Indian food because of the common Indian ingredients used in it. However, it is said to have originated along the African and Middle Eastern coast. The tasting that I had at this event has made me want to try an authentic Indian restaurant.

"So, Jess how's that eel?"

Yes, you read correctly. I went to Surin West with my friends on Thursday, I have been there twice before, but I only ordered the shrimp fried rice or the shrimp Pad See-U (sweet flat noodles). I am not as adventurous as with my food as they are but I can I figured I would try something new. I told my friends to pick something on the menu that they have not even tried and I would eat it. The waiter came and my friend ordered Unagi, I did not look at the menu so I had no idea what it was. 

The waiter came back with a delicately wrapped plate of sushi. I could not tell what type of fish was on top of the rectangular shaped rice. I reached for a knife but my friends advised me to eat the sushi all at once, because that’s how sushi is traditionally eaten. I did, and at first the slippery texture was a bit weird but it was really sweet and turned out to be really good.  For the second piece, I dipped it in the soy sauce and even tried some wasabi, which was not hot. As I was midway eating my friend thought it would be a good idea to say, “So, Jess how’s that eel?” If it wasn’t so delicious I probably wouldn’t have eaten the rest of it. Unagi is Japanese for eel. At Surin it is freshwater eel. Unagi is a common Japanese dish and it. There are three distinct ways to cook it: grill it, or grill it, then steam it, and then grill it again.

The Unagi was excellent and I will definitely try it again. I also tried my friend’s Nom Tok Beef, which was really good and a Volcano roll. The Volcano roll consists of fresh tuna, avocado, and cucumber. It wasn’t as good as the Unagi, but it was spicy so I enjoyed it.

Cultural Prescription (Repost)

Open Eyes and Open Ears

Hi, my name is Jessica Davis. I’m 21, I’m African American and I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. When some people meet me or talk to me, they have a hard time believing all of those statements. Most people say I don’t look my age; the average age I get is 17 or 18. Since sixth grade, I’ve been called a ‘white girl’ because of the way I talk, the music that I listen to, and the way I carry myself. I never took that affront seriously, because I’ve always had strong sense of who I am.

I believe I have a very open-minded type of cultural prescription. I site this to two things: my mom allowing me to engage in different things from a young age and in 5^th grade I left a predominately African American school life to a mixed, but mostly white, school. Changing environments like that at a young age could have been culture shock to some kids but overall it was a positive experience for me. My 5^th grade teacher placed me with “the smart girls” in the class, one was White, one was Vietnamese, and the other one was Indian. This was definitely different from my old school life, but I gained a best friend, Thuy (Vietnamese), and a good friend in Shweta (Indian), both of them have taught me a lot about their cultures.

Unfortunately, I had to change schools in the 6^th grade and it was very negative for me. Being a nerd and being shy, I was always picked on, but that year I was surprised at the level it was taken. The school I attended was racially divided and I didn’t fit in with just one race so I became an outcast. Also, it didn’t help that all my teachers doted on how studious I was. The last thing that really surprised me was that I was being out casted by my African American peers. They often pointed out my lack of knowledge on the latest rap music and the fashions they were into. I didn’t fully understand why they called me “white girl” and why they picked on me. Subsequently, I changed schools for 7^th and 8^th grade; I was with my old friends and my 5^{th grade} friends. I would like to say that people have stopped judging me or putting me into a box based on one aspect of my being, but that’s not true. Overall, I am thankful that I experienced some of the things that I did. From this, I know how it feels to be looked at as an outsider, but I have also gained the ability to look at and experience other cultures with open eyes and open ears.