Response to Gerald Early's "Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant"

Gerald Early’s “Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant” is not what I expected it to be. Instead of being about feminism like Rich’s “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying,” it’s about feminism and race pride. Two birds with one stone! A black man himself, Early definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to race pride, but it’s interesting to see his outside view of the black women beauty culture, especially through his young daughters. I especially liked the conclusion of the essay, in which Early learns the rules to playing dolls with his daughters. When he questions his daughters for making two black dolls have a white child they respond with, “We’re not racial. That’s old-fashioned.” Early then realizes that he is “much too old, much too at peace with stiffness and inflexibility, for children’s games.” I like how Early uses this as the end of the essay because it also connects to a bigger idea: that younger generations tend to be more liberal and open-minded than previous generations.

Amandla Stenberg in her video
"Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows"

This essay also reminded me of the work that Amandla Stenberg, a 16-year-old actress, is trying to do because their purposes are the same. Amandla often writes and posts about Black Culture, hoping to reach out to her fans and educate the rest of the world. She even made a video titled “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows” to spread awareness. Early doesn’t achieve his purpose as well as Amandla does, but that is because he doesn’t have the same power to become viral like young Amandla does. However, his essay conveys his point very clearly, and Amandla would love it.