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Uh, hmm.

Jill
Cover of Iman's book, "The Beauty of Color." Includes the image of three models of color, including Iman.

The New York Times offers an “of color” gift guide, for making the holidays special for that non-white person in your life. Now, I’m all for supporting the art and work of traditionally marginalized groups. And I’m all for including gift suggestions that aren’t centered on the experiences of white people. And if I were Latina, I would totally wear that last t-shirt!

But some of the descriptions are… hmm. For example:

We live in a multitextural world, especially when it comes to hair. Anthony Dickey is to women with “problem hair” what Batman is to Gotham City. With his out-of-the box approach, innovative products (including his new travel kits for kinky, wavy and curly hair), Mr. Dickey has been a hair hero to Michelle Obama, Kelis, Alicia Keys and others.

So, I’m white, but I also have wavy hair that tends to be dry and sort of difficult to manage, and I am quite partial to Mixed Chicks deep conditioner. So yay for a diversity of hair products for people whose hair is not straight! But… “problem hair”? Really? We’re still defining certain hair as problematic?

Also, the intro to the piece generally:

Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season. Here are some possibilities.

Again, totally good with promoting the work of people of color, and for not centering whiteness in everything. But… why not just put this all in the general holiday shopping guide? Sure, “The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members” isn’t going to appeal to every reader, but neither is the Bjorn Borg Men’s Underwear and Sock Set (which was in the “Chic and Cheerful” guide). Frédéric Fekkai Advanced Brilliant Glossing Products go in the “Cosmetic Enhancements” guide while “Hair Rules,” as I quoted above, is in the Of Color guide. All the other guides are divided up by interest — cosmetics, travel, food, etc. Except the Of Color guide.

Maybe I’m being silly, but would it have killed the Times to integrate the really beautiful designs by Mataano into their Chic and Stylish gift guide? Or put the Obama or Sotomayor children’s books on their Notable lists?

Of course, there is something to be said for highlighting the work of traditionally marginalized groups and for recognizing that they are traditionally excluded; I’m not trying to suggest that we all play the colorblind game. But I do think this could have been better executed.

24 thoughts on Uh, hmm.

  1. Yea… being singled out is being singled out, no matter if the intentions are positive or negative.

    I get the “positive” racism thing all the time, and in its own way, it sucks just as bad as the other kind.

  2. I agree. Also? The people who helped make those Bindya scarves probably got paid about 50 cents per scarf. Scarves like those sell for a few hundred rupees on the streets in India, so there’s something kind of icky about buying very similar scarves for a 1000% markup or whatever it is. Unless the people making them are earning 1000% more.

  3. And I think the Baby Jamz thing is almost the most disturbing pick: only people of color (namely blacks and latin@s) have rhytm. Right.

  4. Sorry, totally unrelated, but you mention “The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members” I took a look at the contents list and why in the WORLD is this marketed towards female service members when it only has ONE chapter about being a female service member and that’s focused on dual military relationships. WHY can’t I find any literature for female service members and the challenges they face? I know there are thousands of women in the same boat that I am in but it still seems like I’m trying to find my own way rather than walking a well worn path! Sorry again for the derail. Please feel free to delete.

  5. So true, Tia.

    And while we’re being culturally sensitive: if you’re close enough toyour non-Christan culture of origin, chances are you won’t be celebrating Christmas at all.
    I’m sure a “regular” little treat for the last day of Ramadan go over better with your muslim friend than an “ethnic” gift for Christmas.

    1. I’m sure a “regular” little treat for the last day of Ramadan go over better with your muslim friend than an “ethnic” gift for Christmas.

      Well now you’re just getting too PC. What’s next, Hannukah presents? /sarcasm

  6. Yeah, this is problematic. The idea of a special section for gifts “by and for people of color” is very othering – why not just mix this stuff in with all the other gift guides? Put the makeup geared towards non-white women in with the cosmetics section, for example. It also makes it seem like white people couldn’t possibly be interested in all this “ethnic” stuff, so let’s put it in it’s own little section. Ick.

  7. Reminds me of this girl I met once. She noticed that I am mixed and asked me about it. I told her that I’m Native American, and she asked me if I am more in touch with the Earth because of it. “Yes! Especially when I’m sleeping on the dirt floor of my teepee or wigwam.”

    ::handforehead::

  8. Yeah, that problem hair comment – ugh. My curly hair was only a problem because no one knew how to take care of it. Of course, the fact that so many of the Jewish women I know straighten their wavy or curly hair nothing to do with WASP beauty standards.
    I’m also partial to Mixed Chicks conditioner. A definite plus side to my curly hair is that I am happy to buy beauty products from WOC-owned companies.

  9. I must find this Mixed Chicks conditioner. The “problem” hair thing bothers me, too. You may as well just shout, “If your hair isn’t straight, blonde and attached to a WASP, it’s a problem!”

  10. You misread the marketing speak – Anthony Dickey’s new products address *three* types of “problem hair” – kinky, wavy and curly.

    Meaning his product do not address other hair problems like stringy, ratty and frizzy fly-away hair. They have to create a problem so they can sell you a solution.

    OR
    You toss 10s of millions of Euros at the fashion industry and have them declare your hair type “in”.

    Uncombed stringy hair has been in since the mid-late 90s…which is a huge improvement over the big hair/perm era of the 80s.

  11. So much of this comes down to good liberal back-patting “I’m-such-a-good,-good, liberal”. It makes me a little nauseated. There’s nothing wrong with living what we believe, but I’m always uncomfortable reducing any marginalized group to a commodity, regardless of semantics.

  12. So . . . the books about Sotomayor and Obama are in the guide of what to get people of color . . . thus perpetuating the idea that the experiences of people of color are only interesting stories FOR people of color, because they’re the only ones who could possibly identify with someone who’s not a white male.

    Delightful.

  13. (Or, well, white in general, I guess, on further thought. Women have our chick-flick characters . . . and while it’s problematic itself it’s still more centered/starring representation than people of color usually get.)

  14. I was cracking up reading this; it seems like a gift guide for white people mystified about how to shop for their of-color friends, which they have, one of each type! I can just imagine the sort of douchey patting-on-back that people who shopped according to this guide would be doing. “I was very DIVERSE this year in buying presents for my friends. For example, I decided to be CULTURALLY SENSITIVE by buying my LATINA friend a ‘wise Latina’ shirt. Also, I gave to my SOUTH ASIAN friend a henna kit to tatoo herself for the MANY WEDDINGS she will be attending this summer in INDIA.” (credit goes to my boyfriend, for doing this in his pretty impeccable standardized, non-regional radio ‘white voice’ and cracking me up for 5 minutes.)

    I mean guys, really BABY JAMZ?!

  15. I’m seriously kind of surprised that the editors at the Times actually didn’t stop and think, “Wait a minute, maybe this is really insulting and othering.”

    Repeat: kind of surprised.

  16. Or I could assume my non-white friends are people, just like my white friends are people, and buy the the types of gifts I buy for … people.

    Crazy socks and snack foods for everyone!

  17. Clearly we’ve all been punked. This is obviously set up by the people who did Black People Love Us (http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/). No way can it be real.

    But yeah, the normalization of othering is sickening to say the least. Why challenge the notion of “white” as “norma” and everything else as needing a separate category. Instead of making a special line of make-up why not just include darker shades to begin with. Why continue to market clothing that is based on stereotypical constructions of what P.O.C. should like. I’m guessing a lot of the people involved in this are the type who see Black People Love Us as a “how to” site.

  18. “Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season. Here are some possibilities.”

    And for some reason that sits with me the wrong way. Not to imply that this was their intention, but a lot of times stuff that is suppose to be for and by P.O.C. is actually marketed towards white people. The marketing creates an image of what is supposedly “authentic” or “cultural” then markets it in a way keeping in that stereotype while really targeting white audiences.

  19. So, where is the fair-isle sweater kit this black woman wanted for Christmas? Wait, is knitting not “ethnic” enough?

    If you are picking out presents for your friends solely based on their race, I’m not sure you are really friends with them.

  20. no, thetroubleis, I think it’s the Fair Isle part that isn’t ethnic enough… I’m sure it would be okay if you knit something “Africa-themed” instead of a Scottish pattern /sarcasm.

    Somebody better tell the Williams sisters their excellence in a WASP-associated sport isn’t ethnic enough of them, eh?

  21. Anthony Dickey is to women with “problem hair” what Batman is to Gotham City.

    uuughhhhhhh… Oh my god. I can’t believe that was actually written and approved by people! That’s unbelievable.

  23. I’ll look for guides to buying ethnic gifts when I’m buying for MYSELF – and I look like Snow White. I happen to love fabrics and different clothing from around the world. I also look for makeup marketed to “women of colour” because the colours are better for me, personally. I have a colour, it just happens to be chalk. And the usual line of cosmetics marketed to white women doesn’t look good on me. It just seems to me that the marketers are trying to make their target markets smaller and less inclusive. Surely that’s counter-productive?

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