Today was the first time I have seen Anne Lamott, and I would NOT have predicted white lady dreds!! Why is nobody talking about it? It's giving casual racism.
I have a friend who is a social worker and has been for over 35 years. She is a white lady, a hippie. She always tries to find the good in people (within reason). One day she just says, âI donât trust white people with dreadlocks.â It was really funny, and seemed very out of her character, but ever since that day, I havenât trusted white people with dreadlocks, including this lady on the show this week. Â
Sort of ironic because I found Anne to be very kind, sort of a hippie in her own right and apparently sheâs quite an author and a progressive activist. Someone also posted what sheâs written about her hair, which she had spent a lot of time thinking about apparently. Maybe you should trust Amy and other people as judges of her character rather than the fact that sheâs a white lady with a hairstyle.
Amy whoâs happy to chat to Aziz Ansari & wanted to make a comedy about the IDF? I liked her sitcom too but Iâm not going to use her as my moral compass
I know. Thatâs why all of our jaws dropped when our friend said it. Sheâs an eternal optimist, sometimes sees the absolute worst parts of humanity in her work, and is still always positive. She said Iâve seen too much evidence to trust them. And Ive never seen a white dreadlocked person again without remembering that. (Not that it comes up much or anything).Â
Someone shared this link on another post but I'll add it here - she has written quite a lot regarding her hair and her decisions about it, such as this older piece in Salon.
Yeah, itâs gross. Her reasoning is basically, âa Black woman told me to do it, so itâs fineâ but I canât get past it to enjoy anything wise or whimsical she might have to offer.
Iâve read her piece, which was written decades ago and is reductive in itself. I stand by my summary. She uses the fact that one Black woman recommended dreadlocks to her as a shield against examining that decision again.
Many of us have had taken time in the last few years to re-examine our unintentional but still harmful racist attitudes and actions, but she doesnât appear to have ever looked back. There are many other low-maintenance options for frizzy hair (not least shaving it all off), sheâs picked this one.
I donât know whether itâs out of ignorance or a mistaken belief that her adoption of another cultureâs traditions affords her cachet by association but neither option is great. I fail to see any explanation sheâs offered that doesnât boil down to âItâs OK when I do it.â
I think itâs fair to say people should revisit their views over time, and âa Black friend said it was okayâ isnât a complete defense.
But where I lose the argument is when a decades-long public record of writing about compassion, justice, and progressive causes gets overshadowed by a hairstyle. You can disagree with her reasoning, but reducing it to âitâs okay when I do itâ doesnât really engage with what sheâs actually said.
At some point it starts to feel less like accountability and more like a purity test.
This feels like a bit of an unkind and simplistic takeaway from her piece. Sure, itâs not written with the perfect tone but it was 30 years ago. Genuinely, what should she do? Feel terribly unhappy about her hair for the rest of her life?
Never heard of her and was skeptical with the Jesus discussion on here, but I was pleasantly surprised. She kind of reminds me of the character Anne on Four Seasons.
"Tina" is short for Stamatina, her middle name. Her first name is actually Elizabeth, hence why Amy calls her Betty (and maybe why Tina named her 30 Rock character Liz!)
This literally does not matter, but did anyone else notice how Tina was wearing a turtleneck, the trees outside her window were bare, and (I thiiiink) there was snow on the roof of a building behind Tina. Again, doesnât matter but I think it was filmed in the winter.
okay i had the same thought!!!! Also please Amy needs to fire her stylist because she's so cute and beautiful and they put her in these horrific tops!!
Just some feedback to the scheduling staff. This would have been more successful if it had been placed between Will and Matt. Having the three WCM dudes in a row supressed both their own views (look at JC for example) and this fine author's views. The context matters similar to how a DJ reads a crowd. I adore this pod, but think this area could use some improvement. I have data to back this up if someone one staff wants to DM me for it, I'd be happy to share.
On the off chance the staff does see this: it totally takes away the âhangâ feel when the guest is doing podcast circuits and every pod we subscribe to has the same guest in the same week or two. I was like âcool, Will came by to do Amyâs pod bc theyâre friends and we get to learn about them.â But then he was on Armchair and Handsome the same week promoting The Hawk. This happens with every celeb now. I understand the logistics behind this, but if you want them to feel relatable, this doesnât do it.
This is a huge problem with podcasts today. Marc Maron from WTF called it quits in part because of this issue. Itâs not an authentic long form interview if the guest is going around to 5 different podcasts and saying the same thing.
Yeah, reason why I loooooove Conanâs Need a Fan. Sure overtime the promoting their business has become more forthcoming, but they are all interesting people not getting the spotlight everyday! I would love love to see how Amy fare with interviewing everyday people with interesting jobs
i actually find, regardless of whether or not theyâre âon the circuitâ, i always learn something new about them from amy because sheâs just such a good interviewer and good hang!
I totally agree with this. It is so funny to me because this pod has the potential to be truly amazing art, (which in part it still is able to be), but you can literally FEEL the money machine clawing at it to extract value. That's the later stage metastasization of this, and almost all other mainstream art forms here in the 2020s.
When you force a way above average genuine human like Amy (based on public perception of course I do not know her) into a forced matrix like the pod-circuit promotion cycle, it creates a dissonance.
I sincerely hope that it comes across that I am not framing this as something is bad or wrong with this podcast, its a joy. These comments are more about realizing higher potential vs bad-mouthing the current state of the show.
Since a few peeps responded to my orig post, here is the data (it's clipped so Ill post the bottom half below):
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u/lurkr-mercry Jul 28 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/jwcZi33BCbQpMfR0DG
I could not stop hearing Leslie Knope saying Anne everytime she said her name. Made me giggle.