{"id":1371,"date":"2003-06-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-06-04T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/2003\/06\/04\/the-return-of-the-afro\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T11:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T15:33:19","slug":"the-return-of-the-afro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2003\/06\/04\/the-return-of-the-afro\/","title":{"rendered":"The return of the Afro"},"content":{"rendered":"

In cities across North America, young blacks are turning on to a hairstyle last seen in the days of The Jackson Five, reported CanWest News Service from Montreal June 3. They're wearing Afros -- big, bold, often with giant plastic combs as ornamentation.\u00a0Katherine McKittrick, a PhD candidate in York\u2019s Women\u2019s Studies, Faculty of Arts,\u00a0provided historical perspective; her master\u2019s thesis was titled \"Becoming beautiful, becoming real: examining the complexities of black women and hair\/style politics.'' The Afro was initially a symbol of black pride, she noted. For years leading up to the 1960s, many blacks in the US frowned upon naturally curly black hair, and used hot irons and lye to straighten it. Many did it from economic necessity, said McKittrick, explaining that straight hair was considered \"less black'' and therefore more acceptable to white employers. But in the 1960s, the \"Black is Beautiful'' movement encouraged blacks to celebrate their natural looks, and radicals\u00a0such as\u00a0Angela Davis wore huge Afros. After a few years, though, many blacks saw the symbol of black pride become a symbol for an emerging fashion industry. \"It became attached to capitalism, a way to make money,'' said McKittrick. She\u00a0and others said that much of the early symbolism of Afros has disappeared now, though the ideas behind \"Black is Beautiful'' have not disappeared altogether.<\/p>\n

York prof shares $10,000 award for investment paper<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite their generous tax credits, hefty management fees on labour-sponsored venture capital funds makes them lousy investments, according to a\u00a0paper co-authored by Yisong Tian, finance professor\u00a0at York's\u00a0Schulich School of Business, and Scott Anderson, professor at Ryerson. For their research, Tian and Anderson are sharing a $10,000 award from Barclays Global Investments Canada Ltd., reported the Financial Post <\/em>June 3. The professors wrote a winning paper which buttresses the Barclays business model \u2013 based on low-cost, passively managed, exchange traded funds, noted the Post. The paper, \"Incentive Fees, Valuation and Performance of Labour Sponsored Investment Funds,\" skewers the notion that the inferior performance of LSIFs is compensated by tax credits of 30 per cent in many provinces. Not only have LSIFs underperformed other investment funds, but they\u2019ve also been beaten by the market indexes, states the article.<\/p>\n

On Air<\/strong><\/p>\n