Fires In The Mirror

The interviewed is conducted on a spring morning with a black girl whose hair is straightened. The girl talks about looking in the mirror and at her parents and knowing she is black. She says that black and white are both beautiful, but that none of the people in her class are white; they are either black or Latino/a, andthe non-black studentsget mad if you call them Puerto Rican because they think Puerto Ricans are stuck up. She talks about the differences between the way Latina girls and black girls act, and how some of theblack girls copy the Latina girls’ clothes. She talks about how hairstyles are important to black girls. She concludes by saying that three girls from the Dominican Republic stick together and don’t copy anyone. 

The interview takes place on a fall afternoon in a suite of offices. Sharpton has straightened hair and is well-dressed. Sharpton talks about how James Brown raised him when his father left, taking him to the beauty parlor to straighten his hair. Sharpton talks about the issues Brown has overcome and how he feels like his hair is a tribute to “the father I never had” (21). Sharpton says his hairstyle is a personal thing between him and James Brown that has nothing to do with whiteness or