We Are Human

The Yellow Bus Children. Acrylic

Wearing A Crown As A Sisterhood. Watercolor.

Last week's academy awards went from a memorable night to a wild one that no one expected or wanted to see happen. Actor and once rapper Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock over a joke he made about his wife's actress Jada Pinkett's bald head. The actress announced on social media that she went bald due to having Alopecia where clumps of her hair fell out. Rock told a joke saying "Jada love I love you. G.I II can't wait to see it!". The audience including Smith laughed. Unfortunately, Jada was not laughing and did not appreciate the joke. When Smith turn to see his wife's unpleased expression, he went from laughing to walking on stage and hitting Rock. He shouted then that he needed to "Keep his wife's name out of his f**king mouth!" Rock stood stunned giving Quest Love the award for his documentary of Summer of Soul. The entire night into the next morning throughout the week that incident has been talked about. Questions rose about whether Smith should return the Oscar he won for his role in King Richard the story of Richard Williams the father guiding his daughter Venus and Serena Williams to stardom as tennis athletes. He was tearful apologizing and gave his acceptance speech but he was the talk the entire week about his need to slap Chris Rock over a joke about his wife. It is understood her feeling toward Rock's joke. When a woman or girl loses her hair, they feel a part of them disappears that makes up their beauty. The lyrics can be true in the India Arie song I am not my hair, where we can learn to love ourselves without the things that we think make us look beautiful as women but there are women who feel the opposite. They see their hair as part of their identity and can not live without it. It is a crown that we were born to have. She is struggling but coping and a joke can come across as uncaring. Smith feeling about needing to protect his wife is understandable. A woman like Jada appreciates that her husband stood up for her. However, the approach was not the best timing. It would have been better had he spoken to him in private and not on the stage where moments took place where an Afro Latino woman Ariana Debose won for her role in the remake of West Side Story and where Quest Love a black filmmaker and rapper won for his documentary Summer of Soul as mentioned, to a hearing-impaired actor Troy Kotsur won for his role in Coda leaving the audience to sign applause with their hands. Comedians expressed fear of doing standup due to becoming attacked over a joke. Chris Rock is a comedian he does what comedians doing stand-up have done for years and makes audiences laugh by roasting them. Aside from comedy, he 13 years ago did a documentary titled Good Hair leading to a large national conversation about hair's importance in the black community. He even on talk shows express his concerns over his own daughter's poor self-esteem over her hair which is the reason he did the film. Within the documentary, he featured women of color sharing stories about their hair and among them was a woman who like Jada suffered from Alopecia and how she choose to live her life bald. He touched on the hair care industry and how its control went into the hands of Asian markets. For someone like Rock to do a film conducting research on black hair and the industry catering to women maintaining it, was a remarkable step. The saddest part, he was not recognized for it much.

Above is two pieces of work. One is Yellow Bus Children in acrylic and the other is Wearing A Crown As A Sisterhood in watercolor. The Yellow Bus Children was done to depict parts of my childhood and my younger brother's where we enrolled as public school students and were considered Yellow Bus Children. We took the school bus referred to as the Yellow Bus or the Cheese on the streets of Philly. When considered a yellow bus child, they were perceived as having special needs in special education and had to take the bus due to not being capable of taking city public transit. My brother was diagnosed with Autism at only four years old two years after my diagnosis with a learning disability at only five years old. I was teased as was my brother for having a disability. Growing up, I was taught the saying "Sticks and Stones Will break my bones but names will never hurt me". The words and names did hurt and would try my hardest to keep it from doing so. At times, I would be embarrassed by my brother who had sensory issues covering his ears, humming, and repeating whatever he would hear on television on the radio. Often, I would hear people say unkind things to him in the street and criticize my mother over her parenting of him. I had to learn that not everyone is perfect and was meant to be different though it can be hard due to fears of the disability label and facing judgments from those not understanding. Indeed, the bullies acted as comedians saying things out of their mouths. Some were saying it is a joke which was to say lighten up and stop beating up on yourself. Comedians are going to be who they are and make jokes. This is what Chris Rock is and has done for years. Rock like myself revealed he was diagnosed with a learning disability. Perhaps comedy is what saves him. Many comedians will say as any one of us that they have the right to free speech as the amendment says and that they are aware of the consequences. The other painting in watercolor Wearing A Crown As A Sisterhood features women of different skin colors with hair and two of them are bald. It was meant to show a woman can wear her crown regardless of her appearance and support one another even during the roughest times. Pinkett embraced her baldness and it makes her respectful of it and receives support from many. We are human and meant to support each other regardless of who we are and where we come from. Smith and his wife Pinkett along with Rock had rough childhoods where Smith saw his mother abused by his father, Pinkett grew up with a mother addicted to drugs, and Rock as mentioned was later diagnosed with a Learning disability and bullied. It is best we be kind and show support to those hurting whether they have money or not. We are grateful to people like Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett for giving us something to look forward to through entertainment along with Chris Rock for making us laugh because we need a laugh for everything we have gone through. We are human. Both paintings point this out about us which is that every one of us is human with flaws and can learn from mistakes that we make.