To her credit, Madam Walker discerned that black women wanted to conform to white Victorian models of beauty. She was aware of the double- sidedness of her products - helping black women appear more European in look, with straight hair - but she always maintained that she was simply selling products that promoted hair growth.
If you wear your hair straight or natural, it's all fine with me. It doesn't mean that you aren't politically conscious or that you don't have good thoughts about progress.
And learn to tie a bow - it's not difficult and there's no excuse for either a clip-on or the hideous Hollywood straight tie.
No British TV company could ever make a series like 'The West Wing' about British politics. It would beggar credibility. No one could write it with a straight face, or perform it without giggling.
Thinking back on it, I've been in this business since I was 3, and I grew up in musical theater, so I was raised and surrounded by gay men and gay women. I was hardly around anyone straight.
War is death. If we are to engage in war, then we should have to stare it straight in the face and call it by its rightful name.
When I sang, I couldn't help making those little curves. People would say, 'Why don't you sing straight?' But I have always had to put something in.
When you're wide, you're taught to try and get in at the far post so the ball doesn't go straight across, but from that central position, you can use your instinct where to go.
I'm not one of those people who goes home and has to put football on the TV straight away or has to watch Sky Sports News.
It's been a straight strip, I must tell you, I've enjoyed it all the way. If I'm saying things to make it sound like it's hard, hard work, it's not. It's beautiful work. It's fun work. It's everything you'd ever want to do.
