00:00I even remember when ESPN hired a hairstylist,
00:05because they didn't have hairstylists when I first got there,
00:07but eventually they got them.
00:09One of my first questions was, do they know how to do black hair?
00:13Do they know about edges?
00:14Do they know we need to lay that down sometimes?
00:18I'm Jamel Hill, and this is The Black Effect.
00:21So before I started doing TV, I was a woman who did not wear makeup ever.
00:32I didn't know anything about makeup.
00:34I still quite honestly don't know anything about makeup.
00:37But in my earliest days at ESPN when I started doing television,
00:42there was a woman in the makeup room, one of the makeup artists,
00:47who made me up.
00:49And while I couldn't tell you exactly what products she used,
00:55or I couldn't point out certain things about it,
00:58I just knew that I did not look right.
01:01And I'm looking at myself in the mirror,
01:04and she professes herself to being all done.
01:07And thankfully, another woman of color came in the makeup room at the same time.
01:11And she looked at me, and she gave me the, like, that ain't it, sis.
01:16And the woman had clearly not matched the foundation correctly.
01:20And let's just say I looked like a female Donald Trump.
01:23Like, I was totally orange.
01:25And it looked like I had been sunburned.
01:28And so, you know, this woman, like, suggested, like, hey, you know,
01:32why don't you put a little bit of this, and you might need a little bit of that to blend that in,
01:35because she knew all the terms.
01:37And that was my first lesson in understanding that there were a lot of makeup artists that were at ESPN
01:44that were not used to making up, you know, black women.
01:47Like, not knowing how to match our skin tones or anything like that.
01:51And after that, I did not go to the makeup artist again.
01:56And it helped me sort of understand that, you know, in television, this is kind of what comes with it.
02:02And I even remember when, you know, ESPN hired a hairstylist,
02:07because they didn't have hairstylists when I first got there, but eventually they got them.
02:11You know, one of my first questions was, do they know how to do black hair?
02:15Do they know about edges?
02:16Do they know we need a little, you know, we need to lay that down sometimes?
02:19And they did, and they understood, you know, why that was important.
02:23But it was just sort of one of those lessons and wake-up calls and, you know,
02:27wow, this is how unaccustomed they are to even, you know, having our presence.
02:33Is that they're not even, they could go through life not knowing even how to deal with black skin or black beauty
02:40and know nothing about it and be perfectly and gainfully employed.
02:44That's not reciprocated with us.
02:46Black people cannot go through whole professions not knowing how to deal with white people
02:49or not knowing, you know, some things that are central to sort of the white existence.
02:54But that is not the case with us.
02:56I can tell the difference between whether or not a show has had black women on or have black hosts.
03:03I mean, I'll give you an example.
03:05I was a fill-in co-host on The Real.
03:08And obviously we know with The Real, with those hosts, you know, look like they're all ethnic women.
03:13And this is the difference is when the makeup artist, I'm sorry, the hairstylist, when she did my hair,
03:19she laid down some edge gel, some edge control, had a toothbrush, combed that piece.
03:26Then she went the extra layer by putting the wrap around the edges so that they would lay down perfectly.
03:33And I was like, see, that's when you know black people have been in the building.
03:35This is why.
03:36She deals with black women every day.
03:39And, you know, that's the difference.
03:41You go other places.
03:42You know, I've been on shows where all they had is like, you know, axe gel and stuff that, you know, Paul Mitchell,
03:49stuff we don't put in our hair at all.
03:51And I was like, ooh, I can tell no black women ever been in here, like based off the hair products that you have.
03:56They don't even have the right combs.
03:57And so it's just like, wait, you know, what's going on?
04:00And especially as somebody who has, you know, braids, it can, you know, I've seen some looks sitting down in some chairs
04:08where there's a look of confusion as if like, ooh, I don't really know what to do with these.
04:13And so I have learned sometimes to go to, you know, certain sets or when I'm on certain shows
04:19to either inquire beforehand or know going in that this is going to be my responsibility.
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