WEBVTT

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You don't really look
at a toothbrush and say,

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"I'm great!"

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But when you look at an Afro pick,
which is a grooming tool,

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it can remind you in your
subconscious to, like,

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really be proud and, like, "All right."

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[Small thing.]

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[Big idea.]

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An Afro pick is a utilitarian tool

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used to maintain the Afro hairstyle.

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I think the Afro pick was designed

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for the ergonomics of creating something

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that felt like you were running
fingers through your hair.

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The shape, even the depth
that it goes in -- it's like a hand.

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You have plastic or nylon teeth,

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and then you have the stainless
steel or the nickel teeth.

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I always prefer the metal tooth

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just 'cause I like the sound

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and the ones I know have
the black power fist on the handle.

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When I think of black hair in America,

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I think of something that's been policed.

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Back in the days, it was
expected for black people

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to chemically treat their hair.

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Whether that's healthy for them
is a secondary thing to blending in.

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In the 50s, dancer Ruth Beckford
and a lot of jazz singers

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were tired of straightening their hair,

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so they said, all right,
we're going to just let it grow naturally

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and started rocking natural,
close-cropped hair.

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And in the 60s, that style evolved

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with the formation of the Afro,

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which was the cropped hair,
natural, picked out

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into a more spherical shape.

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You had civil rights leaders, activists,
that adopted the hairstyle

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as a means of rebellion and black pride.

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And then you had musicians
like James Brown,

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who was infamously known
for chemically straightening his hair,

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reject that and go natural.

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It went hand-in-hand with his music,

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so he had songs like
"Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud."

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The black is beautiful movement

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is just rejecting the notion
that to be black

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or to have darker skin,
to have a curlier grade of hair,

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was something to be ashamed of.

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I have one of my favorite
pictures of my mother

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and my grandmother,

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and my grandmother had a small 'fro,

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and that was in the 60s.

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African hair combs date back to 3500 BCE.

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The oldest African combs are found
in ancient Egypt and Sudan,

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so they were making pyramids and combs.

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The way the ancient African
combs were embellished

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represented status or tribal affiliation.

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It's no coincidence that the fist
on the modern Afro pick

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also sets the tone for affiliation

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and what set you claim.

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And then there's the black power movement.

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Most movements need their icons, right?

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You have the fist, you have the 'fro.

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These things coincide with
the Black Panther aesthetic,

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where you could kind of
spot your tribe from afar,

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because you're not just keeping
a pick in, like, your beauty kit.

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It's in your back pocket,

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purposely with the first
outside of it,

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and in your hair,
you'll rock it in your 'fro.

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If I think about iconic Afros,

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I definitely think about Angela Davis.

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Her 'fro personifies elegant style,

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freedom, rebellion.

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You feel all of these feelings at once

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when you see Angela Davis
fighting for her life in federal court.

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By the 80s, the Afro style
became less radical.

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The Afro picks are still
produced to this day

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with the clenched fist,

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so it's the remnants of the movement

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in the everyday object.

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When I was young, it was
just, like, another object.

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It was a comb.

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But as I became more enlightened

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to really understand
the roots and the origin

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and the intentionality of the design

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and why the fist
and all of these things ...

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I woke up.