I hadn’t thought about School Daze until recently, when a producer from Don Imus’s radio show brought up this dance number from the 1988 film in reference to the NCAA Women’s Championship game between Tennessee and Rutgers. Apparently, Rutgers was fighting for the jiggaboo side, because, as Don Imus put it, “they are some nappy-headed hoes.” Now, both of their careers are over and a national discourse has begun about the appropriateness of his comments and his producer’s (and hip hop lyrics). Why is discourse necessary, exactly? The words were not only inappropriate, they were racist and sexist. End of story.
For me, this song and dance number is classic because of the dance skills of Whitley Gilbert and Gina Waters Payne, but also because the good or bad hair/dark or you’re fair issue is one that I grew up with and pretty much every black person I know has grown up with. A white man can’t even pretend to understand what these words truly mean, nor is it acceptable for him to use a black movie directed by Spike Lee to add heft or validity to his uninformed remarks. This story is quickly fading into obscurity, but I’m obviously still a little perturbed, particularly since the focus has been so brilliantly shifted to hip hop. So, my “wannabes” and “jiggaboos”, watch this clip and pour out a little liquor for Don Imus’s career — that’s something nappy-headed people do, right?
I appreciate this post, because it is so true. I had a class recently where I was talking about the struggle of beauty consciousness for black women to my class. Being mostly white they had no idea of what I was trying to say…
You talk about Whitley Gilbert a lot.