'Mixed-ish' episode 3: The spin-off's discussion on African-American hair sees the show find its footing gradually
In the third episode of 'Mixed-ish', titled 'Let Your Hair Down', the writers deal with an important aspect of African-American identity -- hair. Written by Karen Gist and Peter Saji, the episode revolves around the Johnson children learning that their hair makes them different too. For Bow, Johan, and Santamonica, with Picture Day looming nearby, the kids are told by society and their mother about how their hair should look like.
Bow starts narrating the episode about how the African-American population had to fight to get to the point today where they celebrate their natural hair and society celebrates with them. She says, "Hair in the 80s became all about assimilation", and this signifies Bow's childhood struggles with her identity. When her teacher tells her to keep her hair neat for her school picture, Bow's mother Alicia gets angry and speaks her mind with the teacher, with Paul along with her in the classroom. This also gave us a great moment in TV history when Paul turns to the teacher and says, "saved by the bell".
While her children figure out whether they want to straighten their hair or not, their mom, Alicia struggles with it. She wants her kids to be proud of the black heritage, especially their hair and when Bow and Santamonica get their hair straightened at the parlor when Aunt Denise takes them, Alicia gets livid. But as Paul rightly reminds her -- she grew to be confident in her natural hair, it was her own journey and he reminds her that her children will take the same journey to realize that. For Johan, he realizes his hair is not "black enough" to carry out the cool black hairstyles, except cornrows, which end up going badly.
Here, however, 'Mixed-ish' takes a misstep. When Johan shows up with cornrows, his African-American classmates make fun of him and this was a major point of contention for viewers before the show premiered. Many viewers argued that the comedy showing the black children as tormentors only perpetuated the idea that this bullying happened because they were "jealous" -- sticking to Eurocentric beauty standards.
Funnily enough, Eurocentrism is mentioned in the episode by Alicia as she talks to her children about their hair and their identity. Aunt Denise's perspective showed why black people were forced to straighten their hair in order to keep their jobs. When Santamonica asks if she is a "bad black person" for straightening their hair, Alicia realizes that she herself is telling them what to do and she gives the most important lesson - it is their choice that matters.
But don't think that the speech convinced Bow. In a subsequent, beautiful montage, we see that Bow kept straightening her hair, trying out different hairstyles, until Bow, like her mother, grew to love her natural hair and wear it like that and we see young Bow change into adult Bow.
For an episode revolving around African-American identity and hair, the writers rightfully kept Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Gary Cole to the sidelines, which was a great move. However, Gosselaar's Paul was present in every which way as a supportive husband and a father.
'Mixed-ish' airs on ABC on Tuesday nights.
