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Image Transcription: Meme
['Let me in' - a two panel image of a man in a suit standing outside a closed metal gate, and shaking it vigorously in the second panel with his head tilted back and his mouth open screaming. The second panel also has small amount of motion blur. There is text at the bottom of both images.]
LEMMY IN.
LEMMY IIIIIIIN!
^I'm a human volunteer transcribing posts in a format compatible with screen readers, for blind and visually impaired users!^
I appreciate the work you're doing to aid in accessibility. I'm not sure using "unkempt hair" is quite right. I would have thought this is natural afro hair. I don't think the hair description adds to the transcription so is probably better to remove.
It's an unkempt afro
From a young age, black kids are told their natural hair is unkempt, and often by white teachers. The view of what is neat hair, and isn't neat hair is very subjective. This constant unconscious, and sometimes conscious bias is not helpful. It's often used as disguised form of discrimination.
I'm not saying this is the case with the original poster and think it was a genuine mistake, but it's something we probably need to move away from.
Eric Andre says he finds brushing his hair is too time consuming, when asked about it by Larry King. https://youtu.be/7XR4Ml8FijM (11:45)
This question by Larry to Eric about his hair is mentioned in Eric's interview with Talib Kweli. https://youtu.be/irzhJ4mLMF0 (28:36)
If you're an Eric Andre fan, these are both must-watch interviews.
Yeah, if you don't comb (not really brush as a brush wouldn't detangle) afro-textured hair of that length, it will clump up like that. And afro-textured hair isn't meant to be combed or brushed daily. The less it's manipulated the healthier it is as frequent manipulation can cause breakage. That's why you'll see some people with afro-textured hair keep their hair in braids or twists or locs if they want to look more what is considered "presentable" while also protecting their hair from breakage. These are called protective styles. Braiding and twisting takes time though that Eric Andre probably doesn't want to spend and locs are kinda permanent. If his hairstlye works best for his lifestyle, I think that's good. It's better for people to see the different ways afro-textured hair can exist in its natural state because I think such exposure without ridicule can lead to further acceptance.
Edit: Thank you for sharing those interview links!
Bruh. It's a skit. Eric intentionally made his hair messy as part of the "unhinged" character
No, no, they're right. I mistook a black actor with textured hair for a lighter skinned actor who's hair was made to stand up as an intentional part of the scene. It's easier to tell the racial aspect I overlooked in some of the other sources people gave.
Maybe he changed it a bit for the scene, maybe he didn't, but regardless, wasn't my best call to word it like that. This one's on me.
I have no idea. I don't know what it is. The point I made is still valid though. I don't think it adds anything, and it does have concerning implications.
Edit: Additional context:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/25/black-pupils-excluded-hair-discrimination-equality-act https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/63399563
Bro that's bed head I don't care what your hair texture is, he looks like the "Aliens" meme guy intentionally so that he comes across as crazier. Plus the transcription doesn't even mention race, so what's the blind user of this program going to attach to the concept of unkempt hair?
so that he comes across as crazier
Are you sure this is the reason? Did he state his reason that way? Or is that your assumption that he wants to look crazier? In a post above @BarackObama@lemmy.world said his reason was because brushing it takes too much time according to interviews. I haven't seen it myself since there's no timestamp, but I'll check it out later.
so what’s the blind user of this program going to attach to the concept of unkempt hair?
The problem isn't with blind users, but sighted users who could read that and associate afro-textured hair like that with being unkempt.
Edit: Found the timestamp in the Eric Andre interview with Larry King about his hair. Here he doesn't say he wants to look crazier. He says that's what his hair looks like when he doesn't brush it. And as I mentioned in another comment, afro-textured hair isn't meant to be either combed or brushed every day because that can cause breakage.
Edit 2: Corrected his Eric Adams to Eric Andre. Woops.
If the character was darker-skinned, I would've used textured hair, 100%. (Edit: I think I got confused by the lighting in this scend, I thought he had lighter brown hair and lighter skin. In the other interviews, it's clear it's naturally textured hair.) Given what I could tell from the character, I wasn't sure if it was non-textured or curly hair made intentionally messy for the sake of the skit, curly hair blowing in the wind with poor image quality, or the person's natural hair type. Especially given the fact that he was trying to get into somewhere that seemed closed, my guess from context clues was that he might not have had time to brush his hair.
I'm not sure which side is correct, or if it's appropriate to use "afro-textured hair" on a person who's natural hair type may or may not be textured. So for the sake of simplicity, I just removed that part of the transcription.
Didn't mean any harm with it, sorry for the confusion! Personally I've always found textured hair a both fascinating and gorgeous with what it can do, so had I known, I wouldn't have put it. (I was also writing it while on hold with the doctor's office, evidenced by how I wrote "engaged" instead of "Engadget" in another transcription haha. So it was also rushed.)
Hey. I absolutely don't believe there was anything intended by this, and was likely an innocent mistake. I just spotted it and thought it was worth raising.
I reiterate again that what you're doing in terms of accessibility is epic, so keep up the great work!
Thank you for being open to feedback.
I just spotted it and thought it was worth raising.
Thank you for raising it. Little by little we can remove conscious & unconscious biases against Black natural hair textures.
100% agree. I appreciate it being addressed. Was never my intention to put down black and textured hair, and I'm glad someone called it out so I could correct it.
I really appreciate you raising the concern! I didn't realize he had naturally textured hair the first time, since my hair isn't textured (but likes to stand up on its own sometimes anyway haha) it's not something that crossed my mind. I'm glad someone said something so I could correct it.
That said, now that I know, I'll keep it in mind in future transcribing work, too!
To be safe, I removed the hair description altogether. Initially added it because I thought it might've been part of the character's appearance in the skit. Given the rest of the character's appearance, I wasn't sure if it was textured hair or just curly/frizzy hair blowing in the wind with poor image quality, and whether it was an intentional choice for the source material or just his natural hair type.
Thank you for doing this, I have good vision, but at the time I found this post the image was missing, so your transcription was the only way of getting the context of the conversion
You're great for transcribing! To avoid the word unkempt, as that can be offensive, I would transcribe the hair as 'clumpy afro-textured hair'.
I thought it was messy or blowing in the wind tbh, since he didn't look like a kind of person who would have textured hair. Looking further into it, I think I was fooled by the scene's lighting.
I see. It's an understandable assumption to make. That's his natural hair texture. You may see this video he talks about his hair. The thing about afro-textured hair is it can stand up and out on it's own. No wind needed, lol (and I say this as a person with this kind of hair texture).
Yep! I guess with the image quality, I kind of assumed it was a bit like my hair was this morning (which also stood up on its own, and speaking as a person with wavy non-textured hair, was undeniably unkempt haha)
Looking in the other videos, it's clear what I overlooked, and you're definitely right that it's a totally different situation. Mine looks like a total mess when it does that, because it isn't supposed to. Textured hair naturally does that, and as a result, looks good doing it.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I wouldn't have even noticed otherwise. My brain just saw fluffy hair and thought he must be in the wind. My brain is not very smart sometimes.
I see you edited the transcription, leaving out the hair description. That's just fine too the way you have it now. Thank you. 🙂
Yeah, honestly my mistaken assumption that he was white combined with poor image quality lead me to think the hair was just a bit messy (mine does that in the mornings when I wake up), and that it was part of the scene in some way. I didn't want to leave out something that might be contextually relevant.
Checking out one of the other sources on the actor, the moment I saw him, I realized my mistake. Definitely his natural hair, and in normal lighting it looks a lot more intentional. His hair type isn't relevant if it isn't intentionally part of the scene, and that very clearly wasn't. So it's best to take it out.
If I'm being honest, I was a little iffy on whether or not to include it in the first place, but I was tired and fed up with Lemmy not loading properly so I just slapped it in and went for it without double checking. Looking back, probably not my brightest move. I'll be more careful about that sort of thing moving forward.
Don't be too hard on yourself. It's hard to work when tired and I totally understand wanting to include the hair description if you thought it could be contextually relevant, and since you found out it's not, taking it out is the right choice. I'm not at all experienced in transcription for the blind so when I made my suggestion of clumpy afro-textured hair, at first I thought the point of the transcription was to be as detailed as possible while also being brief, so I thought the hair description had to stay in in some form. But now I see only contextually relevant info is needed. Good to know. We've both learned something in this, yeah? Thanks again for the work you do and being open to suggestions. You're awesome! 🙂