Mixed-ish just aired its third episode Tuesday night, and "Let Your Hair Down" has proven to be just as politically correct and woke as the rest of the season has been. In this episode we learn that "neat" can be added to the list of innocuous words that have been deemed racist.
The episode begins with Rainbow's (Arica Himmel) teacher telling the students to make sure that they look acceptable for Picture Day. She says, "And because school pictures are so important, we will not wear T-shirts with bad words on them, Jeffrey. We will keep our tongues inside of our mouths, Daniel. Our clothes will be pressed, and our hair will be neat. I repeat, our hair will be neat." As she makes the comment about the hair she taps Rainbow's desk, supposedly to emphasize that her hair is unacceptable and not "white" enough, but there are several other black children in the classroom she does not gesture towards.
When Rainbow gets home she tells her parents about this and they are so outraged that they track down the teacher and confront her about it, informing her that she was wrong to speak to their daughter in the way she did and that she ought to be ashamed of herself for discriminating against their daughter's hair because it isn't up to white standards of beauty. The teacher says, "I really didn't know that looking neat was a bad thing." But Rainbow's mother lectures, "'Neat,' 'tame,' 'manageable?' That kind of language will give our daughter a complex about her natural hair!"
Later that day, when the family is sitting around the dinner table and they have their usual round of "What did you do to save the world today?" her parents, Paul (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Alicia (Tika Sumpter), announce that they have "fixed racism" by educating an ignorant white woman.
Paul: So, how did everyone change the world today? I'll start. Today, your mother and I fixed racism.
Alicia: Well, we didn't fix it all. But we did set a racist teacher straight.
Denise: Ooh! You yelled at a white person?
Alicia: Yes.
Denise: Tell me everything.
Alicia: So, picture day is coming up, and this woman had the nerve to tell Rainbow to make sure that her hair was neat.
Denise: I never thought I'd say this, but you owe that white lady an apology. Your baby's hair should be neat.
Rainbow: I'm confused. Is "neat" a racist word?
Alicia: Yes.
Denise: No! It's not racist, it's the truth. School pictures are forever, so all y'all need to tame your hair.
Alicia: Thank you, but I'm raising my kids to be proud of their hair.
Denise: They can't look good and be proud?
Johan: So, should I get a haircut?
Alicia: No!
Denise: Yes! Honestly, I need to take you all to a professional, because these home haircuts and afro puffs are not working.
Santamonica: Hold on! So there are people who do hair for a living?
Paul: Yeah, but –
Santamonica: And I trusted you!
Alicia: See? This is what I was trying to avoid. I don't want my kids getting caught up in mainstream standards of beauty.
Denise: I don't remember you fighting for "standards of beauty" in your wedding pictures.
In trying to get her kids to embrace their natural hair and making it a racist thing, Alicia just ends up confusing and disturbing them even more. It becomes so intense that poor little Santamonica asks her mother, "So I'm not a good black person if my hair is straight?" This is what happens when you're taught everything is racist.
But unlike how the left views the world, not everything must be seen through the lens of white supremacy, and sometimes "neat" just means "neat."
